The most common questions about CSS in job interviews.
For a company to be successful, it needs experts from many different professional fields. This includes programmers, designers, writers, and marketers. In the meantime, CSS designers are being asked more and more frequently on the job market. As a result, more and more questions about CSS arise in the job interview. Therefore, we want to answer the most common CSS-related questions below.
We’re going to look at some CSS questions and their answers. You can then study these in preparation for your interview. We will look at all aspects from CSS to CSS3.
The first part will mainly consist of simpler and more general questions. These are usually questions that are asked at the beginning of the interview. Here you should show that you have learned the basics of CSS .
Let’s start with the simpler questions:
Question 1: What is CSS?
Cascading Style Sheets (commonly abbreviated as CSS) is a language used to describe how elements described by so-called markup languages (including HTML) are rendered.
This may sound complicated at first, but basically, as you will see in a moment, it is basically very simple.
CSS describes how the elements defined by HTML are presented. For example, you can assign different colors to text, define the font and set the size for images.
By the way: Many employers like to hear during the interview that you describe things in your own words and not rattle off something you have learned by heart. Therefore, you should always remember the simplest definitions!
Question 2: What is the difference between CSS and HTML?
Surprisingly, a surprising number of people do not know the difference between these languages.
HTML defines what content is available on the website. CSS determines what this defined content looks like.
Question 3: How can you apply CSS to an HTML page?
There are three different ways to apply CSS to an HTML page. The most frequently used method is to include an external CSS file via the link tag. This allows you to integrate the same CSS file into several HTML pages.
Alternatively, you can also use the style attribute. This is usually done when only individual elements need to be styled.
Another possibility is to define CSS using the style tag in the header of the HTML document. It is then applied to the entire website.
Question 4: How many different versions of CSS are there?
There are a total of five different versions of CSS: CSS 1, CSS 2, CSS 2.1, CSS 3 and CSS 4.
Most of the questions will be about CSS 3 because it is the most widely used version.
Question 5: What is a CSS framework?
CSS frameworks are libraries of ready-made CSS files. This allows websites to be created relatively quickly, which then fall back on these ready-made designs.
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Question 6: How can HTML elements be selected for the use of CSS?
In order to apply CSS to HTML elements, these elements must be selected. This can be done either via tags, classes or IDs. Depending on the type of selection, the number of elements to which a CSS style is applied can be varied. If you apply a style to a tag, this style is automatically applied to all elements of the page that were created with this tag. For example, all elements with the tag h1 could be provided with styles using this type. Classes and IDs allow a more fine-grained way to apply styles to elements.
Question 7: How would you define a color in CSS?
There are two ways to define colors in CSS. One possibility is the RGB code. RGB stands for red, green and blue. By combining these basic colors, depending on the proportion of the basic color, many different color tones can be produced.
A hexadecimal color code is a code that represents a specific color. These codes consist of six different hexadecimal characters. Each combination represents a different color.
Question 8: What are pseudo-elements?
Pseudo-elements are elements that do not actually exist in the HTML tree of the page, but can still be selected using selectors. Sounds complicated? This example makes it clear:
We know that paragraphs are elements in HTML that we can select using their selectors. The associated pseudo-element could, for example, be the first letter of the paragraph. You can also select this using a selector. You select these elements by putting a double colon in front of them.
Question 9: What are pseudo-classes?
Pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements work almost identically. The main difference is that they change the appearance of an element when it is in a certain state. For example, you can style an element if you move the mouse pointer over the element.
Question 10: How can you integrate CSS into a website?
As a final example of the CSS basics questions, let’s discuss how to incorporate CSS into a web page. There are three options for this: inline , embedded and imported .
The inline method is used to integrate a CSS stylesheet into an HTML document. The embedded method allows you to import multiple unique styles into a single document, while the imported method allows you to make changes in multiple documents at the same time.
Let’s get to the advanced part:
Don’t let the word “advanced” impress you too much. It simply means that when it comes to these questions, you are usually expected to be more detailed in your answer. The purpose of this is to show how well you know your way around CSS.
Question 11: Explain the concept of “specificity”
This question is one of the more difficult questions about CSS because your interview partner may not only want to have specificity explained, but also the priority of individual elements.
The concept simply describes that CSS elements can overwrite each other. Depending on the priority, a certain CSS rule is given preference over another. If there are many rules with high priority, a high level of complexity can arise.
There are three levels of specificity – by type, by class, and by ID. The type selector has the lowest specificity and the ID selector the highest.
Question 12: Explain “web-safe” and “fallback” fonts.
When choosing a font for your website, keep in mind that not every browser can display every font. This is why there are a number of fonts specially established for the Internet, the so-called “web-safe fonts”. These include Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri. If for any reason a browser does not recognize these fonts, there are the “fallback fonts”. These fonts are automatically selected by the browser and used if a certain font is not available.
Question 13: What is file splitting?
This question is more or less self explanatory. For a better overview, performance and organization of CSS rules, it can be advantageous to split them up into several files. To be able to do this, a CSS preprocessor is required.
The files can be divided as required, but it is advisable to form logical units that make sense. This improves the management of the website and ensures faster loading speeds.
Question 14: What is opacity?
Of all the CSS questions in the job interview, this could be the easiest. Opacity is the degree of transparency associated with an image. You may be wondering why this question appears in the advanced questions. This is because people like to ask how you can do this. You can find an example of this below.
div {
background: rgb (136, 66, 213);
padding: 10px;
}
Question 15: Define what a rule set is.
In the context of CSS, a rule set is a declaration of blocks that come after specific selectors. These rules explain to the server how a certain document is to be presented.
Question 16: Define what a universal selector is and give an example of it.
Universal selectors make it possible to assign certain attributes to all elements at the same time.
An example of a universal selector:
* {
color: red; / * changes the color of all elements to red * /
background: blue; / * changes the background of all elements to blue * /
}
Question 17: What do ‘class’ and ‘id’ slectors work on?
A class selector affects all elements to which this class is assigned. The ID selector enables a specific element to be selected.
This is one of the most important questions about CSS in any job interview.
Question 18: What does ‘float’ mean in CSS?
The float attribute allows images to be moved through blocks of text without interrupting the flow of text. Just like with Google Docs, the text can be placed around the image.
Question 19: What is a ‘Z-Index’?
A z-index in CSS denotes the level in which an element is displayed. Since overlapping elements can occur with CSS, it is useful to be able to specify the z-index manually. This allows you to determine which element is displayed in the foreground.
Question 20: Why should import be specified at the top of the file?
The reason why import should be given first is that then no existing CSS rules will be overwritten. If import is given first, this problem can usually be avoided.
Tips for the interview
We discussed some of the more common CSS questions in the job interview. Nevertheless, we were only able to discuss a small excerpt from the questionnaire. Now that you have this information, you may be wondering how to proceed now.
While you are preparing for the job interview you should write down all CSS interview questions and their answers and take notes. Writing the questions fixes itself in the memory.
You shouldn’t spend too much time working on your CSS knowledge. It might sound counterproductive, but the most important thing in an interview is usually not to be excited and to show the courage to leave a gap. Hardly any interviewer expects you to be able to answer all questions perfectly. Instead, it’s often more important to present yourself as a person and to be clear about your thoughts on questions.
After the interview, you should be patient. It often takes a long time to get feedback. Nevertheless, you should refrain from asking by phone every day, because that usually leaves a bad impression.
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Useful Links, Free Tools & Resources for CSS
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Conclusion on CSS in the interview
Along with HTML, CSS is one of the most important tools for web development. More and more CSS experts are needed. It can therefore be worthwhile to specialize in CSS.
With popularity so soaring, it’s no wonder there are more and more CSS-related questions – and one of them is how to get a job in the field. We have tried to answer this question in this text.
Because CSS is so important in creating websites, employers often look for people who already have experience in the field. Nevertheless, beginners always get a chance, as many companies also have their own trainee programs. So it is often more important to show the will to acquire new knowledge. Your own personality and charisma can also be an important factor in ultimately getting the dream job.
We discussed one of the most important questions about CSS. You should review these questions and prepare well for your job interview.
