Top React Interview Questions
What are refs used for in React?
Refs are used to get reference to a DOM node or an instance of a component in React. Good examples of when to use refs are for managing focus/text selection, triggering imperative animations, or integrating with third-party DOM libraries. You should avoid using string refs and inline ref callbacks. Callback refs are advised by React.
What is a higher order component?
A higher-order component is a function that takes a component and returns a new component. HOC’s allow you to reuse code, logic and bootstrap abstraction. The most common is probably Redux’s connect function. Beyond simply sharing utility libraries and simple composition, HOCs are the best way to share behavior between React Components. If you find yourself writing a lot of code in different places that does the same thing, you may be able to refactor that code into a reusable HOC.
What is a pure function?
A pure function is a function that doesn’t depend on and doesn’t modify the states of variables out of its scope. Essentially, this means that a pure function will always return the same result given same parameters.
What advantages are there in using arrow functions?
In Javascript, every new function defined its own this value (a new object in the case of a constructor, undefined in strict mode function calls, the base object if the function is called as an “object method”, etc.). An arrow function does not create its own this, the this value of the enclosing execution context is used.
How does React work?
React creates a virtual DOM. When state changes in a component it firstly runs a “diffing” algorithm, which identifies what has changed in the virtual DOM. The second step is reconciliation, where it updates the DOM with the results of diff.
