Frontend Engineer
What the work looks like, the stacks behind the title, what each level means and the training that helps, then how interviews run and how to prepare for each step.
What a frontend engineer actually does
The part of a product users see and touch, and that decides whether it feels fast, clear and easy to use.
A frontend engineer builds the interfaces of a product: the pages, the components and the interactions users go through every day. The code matters, and so do the choices around it: how the interface is split into components, where the data lives, how pages are rendered and how the product stays fast on a slow phone.
Most frontend engineers work closely with designers and backend engineers. They turn designs into components the whole team can reuse, agree API contracts with the backend and look after accessibility, performance and tests.
More and more teams also work with AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor or GitHub Copilot, and expect engineers to use them with judgment.
- Building a new feature or component, and reviewing the code of other engineers
- A design review with the product designer on a new screen or flow
- Agreeing an API contract with the backend team
- Fixing a bug reported by users, or a drop in page performance
- Time on the design system, tests and accessibility
Many companies, from large tech groups to startups, hire their frontend engineers under the title Software Engineer, sometimes followed by Frontend in brackets.
Behind the broader title, the stack and the product described in the job ad show where the work really sits: mostly frontend, full‑stack or closer to the backend. On your CV and in interviews, describing the interfaces and components you owned tells a company more than the title alone.
The same title, very different stacks
Most frontend searches are defined first by the framework of the team, then by the ground every frontend engineer shares.
What each level means in practice
Titles vary from one company to the next. What changes from one level to the next is the scope you own and the decisions you take.
- Builds well-defined components with code review
- Learns the design system, the tests and the tools
- Fixes interface bugs with support from the team
- Owns features from design to production
- Builds reusable components and pages
- Looks after the performance and accessibility of their work
- Designs the architecture of the interface for the team
- Leads technical decisions and their trade‑offs
- Mentors other engineers and reviews design system changes
- Sets frontend direction across several teams
- Owns the design system, build and performance standards
- Writes the design documents others build on
The paths into the role, and what really counts
Companies look first at what you have built and shipped to real users. Education and certifications help most early in a career, or to change field.
- Engineering school or master's in computer scienceThe most common path in France, and often expected by large companies.
- University degree in computer scienceThe most common path in the US, at bachelor's or master's level.
- Bootcamp or self-taught, with real projectsCommon in frontend, where live projects and a public repository are easy to show.
- Moving from a nearby roleWeb integrators, designers who code or QA engineers often move into frontend work.
Our view: in frontend, a live project you can walk through often says more than any certificate.
A conversation with a senior tech recruiter
Your first interview is with one of our senior tech recruiters, who knows the role, the stacks and the levels in this guide. The conversation covers your own work through real examples, and the technical exercises come later, with the company. Before the call, we send you the six themes we will cover so you can prepare your examples.
- What you owned yourselfThe features, components or parts of the interface you were responsible for, and your own part in the team's work.
- Your environment and its constraintsNumber of users, devices and browsers, legacy code, a design system or accessibility rules: what shaped your technical choices.
- The decisions you madeA framework, state management or rendering choice, the options you compared and the reasons for the one you kept.
- The impact of your workWhat changed thanks to your work, with numbers when you have them: load time, conversion, accessibility or bugs reported.
- How you work with other teamsYour work with designers, product managers and backend engineers, and how you settle a disagreement.
- What you want nextThe kind of product, team and scope you are looking for in your next role.
- Interface architecture
- Performance and accessibility work
- Work with designers
- Testing habits
The same ground for every candidate. For a given role, every candidate answers the same final questions, built with the hiring manager around what the role really needs.
Ready for the next steps. After our call, we tell you how the company runs its interviews, who you will meet at each step and what each step is meant to assess.
What the company will assess, step by step
Each company runs its own process, and we walk you through its steps before you start. Frontend processes often combine the steps below, and the depth expected at each step grows with your level.
- A coding exerciseLive coding or a take-home on a realistic problem, such as a component to build, a form with validation or a bug to fix in an existing interface.
- Frontend system designDesigning the interface side of a product from a short brief: the components, the state, the data loading, the rendering and the performance.
- A deep dive on your past workOne interface you built, discussed in depth: its architecture, your choices, its performance and what you would change today.
- Meeting the manager and the teamHow you work, how you take decisions with others and what the team expects in your first months.
- ConfirmedYou build clean, working components, explain each choice you make and follow the interviewer on the harder parts of the design.
- SeniorYou lead the discussion, go deep on two or three parts such as state, rendering or performance, and point out the limits of your own solution before you are asked.
- Staff and PrincipalYou run most of the interview as a peer, weigh the long-term consequences of each choice and connect the design to the design system and the other teams.
How to prepare as a frontend engineer
Practical advice for each step of a frontend process, from the way you introduce yourself to the questions you ask at the end of each interview.
Start with the products and interfaces you worked on, their users and your part in them. Mention your stack in one sentence, then close with what you want next.
For each one, prepare the context, the constraints, your decision, the options you set aside, the result and what you would change today. Say "we" for the team and "I" for your own part.
Interviewers often ask about load time, Core Web Vitals, bundle size, number of users or release frequency. Orders of magnitude are enough, and they make your examples concrete.
In frontend system design, ask about the users, the devices and what matters most before you draw anything. Then explain each choice with its trade‑off, and say where your design would reach its limits.
Keep to the time suggested and add a short README with your choices, their trade‑offs and what you would add with more time. Accessibility, tests and a clean structure count as much as the look.
Rules on AI coding assistants differ from one company to the next, and sometimes from one step to the next. Ask before each step, and when they are allowed, explain what you ask the tool and how you check its output.
- Walk us through a component or page you designed: its structure and the trade‑offs you made.
- How would you load and display this data, and how would the page behave on a slow phone?
- How do you make an interface accessible, and how do you check it?
- How do you test your components and deploy your code?
- Is there a design system, and who looks after it?
- How do designers and engineers work together on a new feature?
- How often do you deploy to production, and how?
- How are performance and accessibility measured?
- How much time goes to technical debt?
- How does the team use AI coding tools day to day?
Where frontend engineers come from, and where they go
The roles people most often hold before this one, and the ones they most often move to.
Many frontend engineers also start as web integrators.