Web Designer Interview Questions

A web design interview tests both your technical and communication skills. While the job interview format and questions will vary depending on the role and the company, it’s likely you will be asked a mix of technical, behavioral, and personal questions.

Employers are keen on hiring candidates who are experts in web design, have creative ideas, and would fit well into their team. To prepare for the interview, brush up on your web design knowledge and go over a few of your web design projects and successes. Review and update your portfolio and be ready to talk about your projects during the interview.

To stand out, go into the job interview with a thorough understanding of the company’s work and the challenges they are facing. If you can offer solutions to their problems and point to similar web design work you have done in the past, you’ll be sure to impress your interviewer. An interview is the best chance for an employer to find a candidate who is not only a great fit but possesses the expertise and experience necessary to help their company achieve all of its goals online.

Another great way to prepare for your job interview is by practicing common web design interview questions. We have compiled a list of Web Designer interview questions that assess your knowledge and hard and soft skills. Practicing these interview questions and answers should help you feel more ready for your web design interview.

Knowledge-based questions will test your understanding of web design tools, standards, and best practices.

Review some books, tutorials, or courses for tips before your interview and practice answering job interview questions such as:

Question: Walk me through some of your recent projects.

Answer: When a hiring manager asks to walk me through some of your recent projects, what they’re really asking for is a guided tour of your design portfolio. A Web Designer’s portfolio should showcase a wide variety of different projects, clients, visual styles, and design techniques.

Versatility is key here, and so is polish; anything included in your portfolio should be virtually perfect. You should also be able to talk about the results and outcome of your work. Did your site redesign lead to a major boost in traffic or a reduction in bounce rate? Did your UX suggestions help a client score a much higher conversion rate? Even the best designs don’t really speak for themselves – you need to help your interviewer understand why your work was so strong. You’ll score even better if you discuss your collaboration process with the client on each project.

Question: What professional experience do you have with user experience (UX) design?

Answer: The boundaries between web design, web development, user interface (UI) design, and UX design are increasingly blurred. Depending on the size of the company, you might work alongside a UX Designer, a UX team, or you might be tasked with applying UX principles to the design of a website yourself. If you’ve ever collaborated with a UX Designer, talk about how they see sites and problems differently than others do, and how you’ve learned to adopt that perspective when evaluating your own ideas. It’s also worth talking about why UX principles are so important, and what methods you use to consider the needs of the user.

• What are the top programming languages for web design?
• Tell us how you can set images as backgrounds on web pages.
• Please provide some examples of bad web design.
• Define information architecture.
• What is a Dreamweaver Template?
• List out some of the JQuery functions used for web page design.
• What is responsive web design?
• What is a grid system?
• What are some design components of an optimized website?
• What is HTML?
• What is a CSS file? Why is it used?
• What is W3? Why is it important to web design?
• Why do Web Designers use CSS float?
• Please describe the difference between HTML elements and tags?
• Please describe the difference between HTML and XHTML.
• Please describe the difference between HTML5 and HTML.
• In what situations would you use JPEG and when would you use PNG?

Employers want a better idea of your technical background, so mention what you have done in the past and what you are capable of doing in the future in your answers.

Here are two examples of technical skills interview questions for a Web Designer and how to answer them:

Question: What is your comfort level with HTML and CSS?

Answer: Knowledge of web development principles – or even knowing how to code – is something that separates great Web Designers from good ones. Depending on the size of the company, agency, or team that you’re interviewing for, your job responsibilities could go beyond the design of the site into areas more commonly associated with front-end web development. But many candidates will claim a familiarity level with HTML and CSS that they might not actually possess, so back up your experience in these areas by citing which functions you use each language for and talk about some of the past projects you’ve used the code for.

Question: In an optimized site, what elements would you use?

Answer: A crucial part of a Web Designer’s job is making sure that a site is ideally positioned for search engine optimization (SEO) and responsiveness purposes. Through this interview question, a company will look to ensure that designers are familiar with SEO and responsiveness best practices. To show you know how to best design websites for optimization purposes. In your answer, discuss elements like URL structure, page titles, keywords, meta descriptions, alt text, and H1 tags to show your understanding of website optimization.

• Walk us through how you can integrate CSS files into your web page.
• What should you take into consideration while writing an error message?
• You’ve just been hired to create a design for a new website. What’s your first step?
• Take a look at our website. What could be improved?
• How much do you involve clients or stakeholders in your design process? What steps do you take?
• Please give us an example of a time when you incorporated design trends into a recent project.
• How do you combine fonts? How many types should a Designer use on one website?
• What factors determine a good color scheme? Can you tell me about some common examples?
• How many H1 tags would you have on a single webpage and why?
• Do you have any experience using HTTP and HTTP-2 in your past design products?
• Do you design with website performance in mind? How?
• Do you have any recommendations to reduce a page’s loading time?

Not only do you need technical skills and creativity to thrive as a Web Designer, but you also need the right personality and enthusiasm to work with your team and/or clients. Be prepared to discuss your work habits and interests in your answer.

Here is an example of a personal web design interview:

Question: Where do you go for design inspiration?

Answer: This will tell your interviewer a lot about who you are as a designer and where your creativity comes from. Depending on your own personal habits, you might answer this question with practical design idea sources or something more quirky. In other words, perhaps you read web design blogs, listen to industry podcasts, or follow famous design influencers to stay on top of trends and spark new ideas.

Other designers might have more whimsical ideas for finding inspiration, like heading out to the beach, wandering through an art gallery, or doing some high-intensity exercise. Whatever your answer, it should show that you’re open-minded, curious, and constantly looking to explore new design ideas.

• Tell us about your design sensibility.
• What elements specifically appeal to you about web design?
• Why did you originally want to become a Web Designer?
• Is there a single project that you’re most proud of? Why?
• Tell us about your preferred working style.
• What do you do when a client simply does not like your designs? How do you avoid taking that kind of criticism from a client or stakeholder personally?
• Do you read any design blogs or websites regularly?
• In your opinion, what is the most exciting trend/next big thing in web design and/or user experience (UX) design?
• How would the Web Developers or Project Managers you’ve worked with describe you? What would they say are your strengths and weaknesses?
• Have you ever attended a coding bootcamp?

As a Web Designer, you will be working closely with colleagues and stakeholders to design functional websites. You will often need to make important design decisions throughout your work.

Here is an example of a situational web design interview question:

Question: How do you communicate your designs with Web Developers? What about clients or stakeholders?

Answer: When it comes to providing your communication skills, this question is great because it gets at your ability to communicate with people both in technical and non-technical roles. Emphasize the differences between your approach when talking to a development team, which will be more interested in the technical details of your design proposals, as opposed to clients or other stakeholders.

• Tell me what your process is when working remotely. What do you feel is essential to ensure a project is completed efficiently?
• How do you make sure that Web Developers understand your designs and implement them correctly? What process do you typically employ for handing files off to a web development team?
• What is your approach for persuading someone to see things your way at work?
• How would you go about explaining a complicated issue to a client who was already frustrated?
• Think back to your most successful presentation. Why was it a success? How did you use the experience to build on your presentation skills?
• How do you handle disagreements between team members?
• Please think of a situation in which you demonstrated leadership skills.
• What is your approach to motivate a team?
• Describe a situation in which you solved a problem for your colleague/employer.

How you reacted in past work situations can tell employers a lot about your skills, personality, and how you might behave in the future. Employers want to ensure that a candidate is the right fit for their company culture.

For behavioral interview questions, be specific in your answer. Outline the situation, describe the task at hand, explain the action you took, and share the outcome you achieved.

Here is an example of a behavioral job interview question and how to answer it:

Question: Can you think of an example of a time when you received harsh criticism/feedback from a client? How did you respond?

Answer: It’s important here to show your interviewer that you’re not overly sensitive, that you’re capable of honestly reflecting on your own work, and that you can use criticism to make positive changes to your designs. It’s also important that your answer include an explanation of why you and the client might have had different expectations or ideas about the project. A hiring manager will be wary of candidates who aren’t good at listening carefully to stakeholder demands, or who don’t fulfill their promises.

• Tell us about a project that didn’t go as planned. What could you have done better? What was the outcome?
• Have you ever seen the scope of a project you were working on change dramatically midway through? How did you handle it?
• Please tell us about the most challenging web design project you’ve ever worked on. Why was it challenging? How did you deal with it?
• What’s an example of a project where you disagreed with another Designer/ Web Developer/client? How did you handle it?
• Have you ever taken the blame at work for an issue that you weren’t responsible for?
• You are nearing completion on a challenging project. Just as you’re about to finish, your manager asks you to produce something completely different. How do you respond?
• Have you ever presented your work to senior managers or company leadership? What did you learn from the experience?
• What do you do when you don’t agree with a revision request? Would you describe yourself as being open to revisions?
• When you are juggling more than one website design at once, how do you manage your time and priorities?

To give you a sense of what top tech companies look for in Web Designer job candidates, here are some common interview questions from Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.

Practicing these interview questions and answers should help you feel more ready for your web design interview.

• Please describe a time when you had to get a project or initiative completed with limited resources.
• Can you recall a situation in which you exceeded expectations or even your own goals?
• Tell us about your design process.
• Please tell us about a time you disagreed with a client, Designer, or Project Manager about a design. How did you resolve the conflict?
• Please recall a difficult situation you faced at work. How did you handle it?
• What is your least favorite part of a Web Designer job?
• What would your ideal work day look like?
• Can you work from home productively?
• What major changes and trends in digital marketing do you anticipate over the next five years?
• Please tell us about a technical issue you once encountered. How did you resolve it?
• How do you ensure your skills stay current?
• What is a unique characteristic that you bring to the table?
• Tell us about your most challenging project. What steps did you take to ensure it was a success?