50 React Interview

Questions You Must For

Prepare In 2021
Saul Gallegos
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Sep 28 · 14 min read

React interview questions that will provide you with in-

depth knowledge and help you prepare for your interviews.

General React Interview Questions

1. Differentiate between Real DOM and Virtual
DOM.
Real DOM

 It updates slow

 Can directly update HTML

 Creates a new DOM if element updates

 DOM manipulation is very expensive

 Too much memory wastage

Virtual DOM

 It updates faster

 Can’t directly update HTML

 Updates the JSX if element updates

 DOM manipulation is very easy

 No memory wastage

2. What is React?
 React is a front-end JavaScript library developed by
Facebook in 2011.
  It follows the component-based approach which
helps in building reusable UI components.

 It is used for developing complex and interactive

web and mobile UI.

 Even though it was open-sourced only in 2015, it has

one of the largest communities supporting it.

3. What are the features of React?

Major features of React are listed below:

1. It uses the virtual DOM instead of the real DOM.

2. It uses server-side rendering.

3. It follows uni-directional data flow or data

binding.

4. List some of the major advantages of React.

Some of the major advantages of React are:

1. It increases the application’s performance

2. It can be conveniently used on the client as well as

server-side

3. Because of JSX, code’s readability increases

 4. React is easy to integrate with other frameworks like
Meteor, Angular, etc

5. Using React, writing UI test cases become extremely

easy

5. What are the limitations of React?

Limitations of React are listed below:

1. React is just a library, not a full-blown framework

2. Its library is very large and takes time to understand

3. It can be a little difficult for novice programmers to

understand

4. Coding gets complex as it uses inline templating and

JSX

6. What is JSX?
JSX is a shorthand for JavaScript XML. This is a type of file
used by React which utilizes the expressiveness of JavaScript
along with HTML-like template syntax. This makes the HTML
file really easy to understand. This file makes applications
robust and boosts their performance.
7. What do you understand by Virtual DOM?
Explain its working.
A virtual DOM is a lightweight JavaScript object which
originally is just a copy of the real DOM. It is a node tree that
lists the elements, their attributes and content as Objects and
their properties. React’s render function creates a node tree
out of the React components. It then updates this tree in
response to the mutations in the data model which is caused
by various actions done by the user or by the system.

This Virtual DOM works in three simple steps.

1. Whenever any underlying data changes, the entire

UI is re-rendered in Virtual DOM representation.

2. Then the difference between the previous DOM

representation and the new one is calculated.

3. Once the calculations are done, the real DOM will be

updated with only the things that have actually
changed.

8. Why can’t browsers read JSX?

Browsers can only read JavaScript objects but JSX is not a
regular JavaScript object. Thus to enable a browser to read
JSX, first, we need to transform the JSX file into a JavaScript
object using JSX transformers like Babel and then pass it to
the browser.

9. How different is React’s ES6 syntax when

compared to ES5?
Syntax has changed from ES5 to ES6 in the following aspects:

 require vs import:
// ES5var React = require('react');// ES6import React from
'react';

 export vs exports:
// ES5module.exports = Component;// ES6export default
Component;

 component and function:

// ES5var MyComponent = React.createClass({render: function()
{return<h3>Hello Edureka!</h3>;} });// ES6class MyComponent
extends React.Component {render() {return<h3>Hello
Edureka!</h3>;} }

10. How is React different from Angular?

 Architecture: Only the view of MVP

 Rendering: Server-side-rendering

 DOM: Uses virtual DOM

 Data Binding: One-way data binding

 Debugging: Compile time debugging

  Author: Facebook

React Component Interview Questions

11. “In React, everything is a component.”

Explain.
Components are the building blocks of a React application’s
UI. These components split up the entire UI into small
independent and reusable pieces. Then it renders each of these
components independent of each other without affecting the
rest of the UI.

12. What is the purpose of render() in React.

Each React component must have a render() mandatorily. It
returns a single React element which is the representation of
the native DOM component. If more than one HTML element
needs to be rendered, then they must be grouped together
inside one enclosing tag such as <form>,
<group>,<div>, etc. This function must be kept pure i.e., it
must return the same result each time it is invoked.

14. What is Props?

Props is the shorthand for Properties in React. They are read-
only components which must be kept pure i.e. immutable.
They are always passed down from the parent to the child
components throughout the application. A child component
can never send a prop back to the parent component. This help
in maintaining the unidirectional data flow and are generally
used to render the dynamically generated data.

15. What is a state in React and how is it used?

States are the heart of React components. States are the source
of data and must be kept as simple as possible. Basically, states
are the objects which determine components rendering and
behavior. They are mutable unlike the props and create
dynamic and interactive components. They are accessed
via this.state().

16. Differentiate between states and props.

17. How can you update the state of a
component?
State of a component can be updated using this.setState().
18. What is the arrow function in React? How is
it used?
Arrow functions are more of a brief syntax for writing the
function expression. They are also called ‘fat arrow‘ (=>) the
functions. These functions allow to bind the context of the
components properly since in ES6 auto binding is not available
by default. Arrow functions are mostly useful while working
with the higher-order functions.
19. Differentiate between stateful and stateless
components.
20. What are the different phases of React
component’s lifecycle?
There are three different phases of React component’s
lifecycle:

1. Initial Rendering Phase: This is the phase when the

component is about to start its life journey and make
its way to the DOM.

2. Updating Phase: Once the component gets added to

the DOM, it can potentially update and re-render
only when a prop or state change occurs. That
happens only in this phase.
 3. Unmounting Phase: This is the final phase of a
component’s life cycle in which the component is
destroyed and removed from the DOM.

React Interview Questions

21. Explain the lifecycle methods of React

components in detail.
Some of the most important lifecycle methods are:

1. componentWillMount() — Executed just before

rendering takes place both on the client as well as
server-side.

2. componentDidMount() — Executed on the

client-side only after the first render.

3. componentWillReceiveProps() — Invoked as
soon as the props are received from the parent class
and before another render is called.

4. shouldComponentUpdate() — Returns true or

false value based on certain conditions. If you want
your component to update, return true else
return false. By default, it returns false.

5. componentWillUpdate() — Called just before

rendering takes place in the DOM.
 6. componentDidUpdate() — Called immediately
after rendering takes place.

7. componentWillUnmount() — Called after the

component is unmounted from the DOM. It is used
to clear up the memory spaces.

22. What is an event in React?

In React, events are the triggered reactions to specific actions
like mouse hover, mouse click, key press, etc. Handling these
events is similar to handling events in DOM elements. But
there are some syntactical differences like:

1. Events are named using camel case instead of just

using the lowercase.

2. Events are passed as functions instead of strings.

The event argument contains a set of properties, which are

specific to an event. Each event type contains its own
properties and behavior which can be accessed via its event
handler only.

23. How do you create an event in React?

class Display extends React.Component({show(evt) {//
code},render() {// Render the div with an onClick prop (value
is a function)return (<div onClick={this.show}>Click
Me!</div>); } });
24. What are synthetic events in React?
Synthetic events are the objects which act as a cross-browser
wrapper around the browser’s native event. They combine the
behavior of different browsers into one API. This is done to
make sure that the events show consistent properties across
different browsers.

25. What do you understand by refs in React?

Refs is the shorthand for References in React. It is an attribute
which helps to store a reference to a particular React element
or component, which will be returned by the components
render configuration function. It is used to return references to
a particular element or component returned by render(). They
come in handy when we need DOM measurements or to add
methods to the components.
26. List some of the cases when you should use
Refs.
Following are the cases when refs should be used:

 When you need to manage focus, select text or media

playback

 To trigger imperative animations

 Integrate with third-party DOM libraries

27. How do you modularize code in React?

We can modularize code by using the export and import
properties. They help in writing the components separately in
different files.
28. How are forms created in React?
React forms are similar to HTML forms. But in React, the state
is contained in the state property of the component and is only
updated via setState(). Thus the elements can’t directly update
their state and their submission is handled by a JavaScript
function. This function has full access to the data that is
entered by the user into a form.

29. What do you know about controlled and

uncontrolled components?
30. What are Higher-Order Components (HOC)?
Higher-Order Component is an advanced way of reusing the
component logic. Basically, it’s a pattern that is derived from
React’s compositional nature. HOC are custom components
which wrap another component within it. They can accept any
dynamically provided child component but they won’t modify
or copy any behavior from their input components. You can
say that HOC are ‘pure’ components.

31. What can you do with HOC?

HOC can be used for many tasks like:

 Code reuse, logic and bootstrap abstraction

 Render High jacking

 State abstraction and manipulation

 Props manipulation

32. What are Pure Components?

Pure components are the simplest and fastest components
which can be written. They can replace any component which
only has a render(). These components enhance the
simplicity of the code and the performance of the application.
33. What is the significance of keys in React?
Keys are used for identifying unique Virtual DOM Elements
with their corresponding data driving the UI. They help React
to optimize the rendering by recycling all the existing elements
in the DOM. These keys must be a unique number or string,
using which React just reorders the elements instead of re-
rendering them. This leads to an increase in the application’s
performance.

React Redux Interview Questions

34. What were the major problems with the

MVC framework?
Following are some of the major problems with the MVC
framework:

 DOM manipulation was very expensive

 Applications were slow and inefficient

 There was huge memory wastage

 Because of circular dependencies, a complicated

model was created around models and views

35. Explain Flux.

Flux is an architectural pattern which enforces uni-directional
data flow. It controls derived data and enables communication
between multiple components using a central Store which has
authority for all data. Any update in data throughout the
application must occur here only. Flux provides stability to the
application and reduces run-time errors.

36. What is Redux?

Redux is one of the most trending libraries for front-end
development in today’s marketplace. It is a predictable state
container for JavaScript applications and is used for the entire
applications state management. Applications developed with
Redux are easy to test and can run in different environments
showing consistent behavior.

37. What are the three principles that Redux

follows?
1. Single source of truth: The state of the entire
application is stored in an object/ state tree within a
single store. The single state tree makes it easier to
keep track of changes over time and debug or inspect
the application.

2. State is read-only: The only way to change the

state is to trigger an action. An action is a plain JS
object describing the change. Just like state is the
minimal representation of data, the action is the
minimal representation of the change to that data.

3. Changes are made with pure functions: In

order to specify how the state tree is transformed by
actions, you need pure functions. Pure functions are
those whose return value depends solely on the
values of their arguments.

38. What do you understand by “Single source

of truth”?
Redux uses ‘Store’ for storing the application’s entire state at
one place. So all the component’s state are stored in the Store
and they receive updates from the Store itself. The single state
tree makes it easier to keep track of changes over time and
debug or inspect the application.

39. List down the components of Redux.

Redux is composed of the following components:

1. Action — It’s an object that describes what

happened.

2. Reducer — It is a place to determine how the state

will change.

3. Store — State/ Object tree of the entire application

is saved in the Store.

4. View — Simply displays the data provided by the

Store.

40. Show how the data flows through Redux?

41. How are Actions defined in Redux?
Actions in React must have a type property that indicates the
type of ACTION being performed. They must be defined as a
String constant and you can add more properties to it as well.
In Redux, actions are created using the functions called Action
Creators. Below is an example of Action and Action Creator:
function addTodo(text) {return { type: ADD_TODO, text}}
42. Explain the role of Reducer.
Reducers are pure functions which specify how the
application’s state changes in response to an ACTION.
Reducers work by taking in the previous state and action, and
then it returns a new state. It determines what sort of update
needs to be done based on the type of the action, and then
returns new values. It returns the previous state as it is if no
work needs to be done.

43. What is the significance of Store in Redux?

A store is a JavaScript object which can hold the application’s
state and provide a few helper methods to access the state,
dispatch actions and register listeners. The entire state/ object
tree of an application is saved in a single store. As a result of
this, Redux is very simple and predictable. We can pass
middleware to the store to handle the processing of data as
well as to keep a log of various actions that change the state of
stores. All the actions return a new state via reducers.

44. How is Redux different from Flux?

45. What are the advantages of Redux?
Advantages of Redux are listed below:

 Predictability of outcome — Since there is

always one source of truth, i.e. the store, there is no
confusion about how to sync the current state with
actions and other parts of the application.

 Maintainability — The code becomes easier to

maintain with a predictable outcome and strict
structure.
  Server-side rendering — You just need to pass
the store created on the server, to the client-side.
This is very useful for initial render and provides a
better user experience as it optimizes the application
performance.

 Developer tools — From actions to state changes,

developers can track everything going on in the
application in real-time.

 Community and ecosystem — Redux has a huge

community behind it which makes it even more
captivating to use. A large community of talented
individuals contribute to the betterment of the
library and develop various applications with it.

 Ease of testing — Redux’s code is mostly functions

which are small, pure and isolated. This makes the
code testable and independent.

 Organization — Redux is precise about how code

should be organized, this makes the code more
consistent and easier when a team works with it.

React Router Interview Questions

46. What is React Router?

React Router is a powerful routing library built on top of
React, which helps in adding new screens and flows to the
application. This keeps the URL in sync with data that’s being
displayed on the web page. It maintains a standardized
structure and behavior and is used for developing single-page
web applications. React Router has a simple API.

47. Why is the switch keyword used in React

Router v4?
Although a <div> is used to encapsulate multiple routes
inside the Router. The ‘switch’ keyword is used when you want
to display only a single route to be rendered amongst the
several defined routes. The <switch> tag when in use
matches the typed URL with the defined routes in sequential
order. When the first match is found, it renders the specified
route. Thereby bypassing the remaining routes.

48. Why do we need a Router in React?

A Router is used to define multiple routes and when a user
types a specific URL, if this URL matches the path of any
‘route’ defined inside the router, then the user is redirected to
that particular route. So basically, we need to add a Router
library to our app that allows creating multiple routes with
each leading to us a unique view.
49. List down the advantages of React Router.
Few advantages are:

1. Just like how React is based on components, in

React Router v4, the API is ‘All About Components’.
A Router can be visualized as a single root
component (<BrowserRouter>) in which we
enclose the specific child routes (<route>).

2. No need to manually set History value: In React

Router v4, all we need to do is wrap our routes
within the <BrowserRouter> component.

3. The packages are split: Three packages one each for

Web, Native and Core. This supports the compact
size of our application. It is easy to switch over based
on a similar coding style.

50. How is React Router different from

conventional routing?