Me, a man with short dark hair, glasses, and a trimmed beard, standing outdoors near a street with parked motorcycles and cars, wearing a navy jacket and smiling slightly at the camera. Trees and a sidewalk are visible in the background.

Hey, I'm Ed 👋

I'm a Senior Fullstack Developer who builds cool things with code.
Currently crafting epic things at KakeKake!

With over 8 years of experience, I help make the magic happen creating scalable and efficient solutions using React, Node, Go and a lot more.

Obsessed with creating epic experiences with delightful products.

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Beyond tech - 5 things that instantly improve your React interview performance

I've been on the other side of the interview table a lot lately, interviewing candidates for front-end and React roles at Kake. And something clicked for me: there are a LOT of good engineers out there, but technical skills are just one piece of the puzzle.
There are patterns. I kept seeing the same mistakes over and over, really smart developers who clearly know React, but who struggle to communicate how they think or how they approach problems. And that hurts them way more than it should.
If you're preparing for front-end or React interviews, here are 5 things that can instantly improve your chances, that actually don't relate to technical skills at all!

1. Ask Clarifying Questions First - Always

When someone throws you a problem or even a live coding task, your first instinct shouldn't be to jump straight to a solution. It should be to understand the problem better.
I had one candidate who immediately suggested using Next.js for a example project problem on a live (non-coding) interview. Cool choice, except... when asked, they never even checked whether the project needed SSR or any Next-specific features. It didn't. The project was a basic internal dashboard. Next wasn't adding anything useful here.
This happens a lot. People jump straight into framework or architecture decisions before confirming basic requirements.
Asking questions upfront makes you look thoughtful, collaborative, and realistic. Things like:
  • "Are we assuming this is a public app or internal?"
  • "Do SEO or performance optimizations like SSR matter here?"
  • "Is responsiveness in scope? Are we targeting mobile?"
Clarify first. Solve second. Understanding the problem is half the battle.

2. We Actually Want You to Succeed - So Try

This one surprises people: the interviewers are rooting for you. We're not there to trick you (and the ones who do are not good interviewers, IMO). If something feels hard, say it's hard - but try anyway.
Sometimes candidates hit a wall and just... give up. Silence. Or they shut down with, "Yeah, I don't know." End of answer.
That's never the right move. A better response is something like:
  • "I'm not 100% sure, but here's how I'd approach this..."
  • "I'm not sure if I'm on the right track, but here's what I'm thinking..."
  • "I don't know about X, but here's what I'd do to learn more about it..."
Even if the answer isn't perfect, show your thinking. That's half the interview. Interviewers care less about you being perfect and more about seeing how you'd approach figuring things out in real life.

3. Don't Overengineer to Flex

This is super common. People try to overengineer solutions to prove how much they know. And I get it - you want to show depth. But it usually backfires.
Example: someone spends 10 minutes explaining how they'd design the app to support millions of users with horizontal scaling, only for me to clarify: "It's an internal admin dashboard for like 5 people."
Instead of overbuilding to impress, ask clarifying questions early. Then solve the problem that actually exists.
You can mention edge cases or improvements ("If this needed to scale to thousands of users, I'd probably..." ), but keep it brief and optional, not the core of your answer.

4. Going Beyond the Basics Isn't Required - But It Makes You Stand Out

You don't need to know how React works under the hood to pass the interview. But when someone does show that knowledge, it's a major green flag and it impresses.
  • "Here's why React needs keys in lists."
  • "Here's how hooks work under the hood."
  • "This is why context works this way."
That stuff sticks. It signals depth, curiosity, and someone who isn't just memorizing tutorials and LLM answers.
It's not mandatory. But if you can explain the "why" behind React patterns, not just the "how", it puts you in a different league.

5. Ground Your Answers in Real Examples

This one is underrated. Every time you make a decision in a scenario question, try to back it up with a real-world example.
  • "At my last job, we hit this exact problem with global state, and we solved it by..."
  • "This reminds me of a project where we chose X over Y because..."
It instantly makes your answer sound more credible and thoughtful. Plus, it shows experience beyond toy problems.
Even if you don't have production experience, you can still use your own projects or side projects as examples. And that shows how important it is to be curious and learn new things.

Final Thoughts

Interviews aren't just about knowing React. They're about showing how you solve problems, how you communicate, and how you collaborate.
You don't need to be perfect. You don't need to know everything. But you do need to show that you're thoughtful, curious, and capable of navigating ambiguity.
If you work on these five things, I promise - it moves the needle way more than just spitting code.

Content Creation Transparency

Generative AI was used to improve text readability and flow.
Arguments and examples are from my own experience.