Explain key React concepts and error handling
Company: Apple
Role: Software Engineer
Category: Software Engineering Fundamentals
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Technical Screen
## Frontend/React Fundamentals Questions
Answer the following React and frontend engineering questions:
1. **What is a Virtual DOM?**
2. **How does the Virtual DOM help React?** (What problems does it solve, and what are its limits?)
3. **Which React Hooks have you used?** Explain how/when you use them and common pitfalls.
4. **What are React 18 concurrent features/hooks?** Explain what “concurrent rendering” means and why it matters.
5. **Server Components vs Client Components:** What are they, how do they differ, and when would you choose each?
6. **How do you handle errors in React?** Cover rendering errors, async/data-fetch errors, and global error reporting.
Quick Answer: This question evaluates competency in React fundamentals, including understanding of the Virtual DOM, Hooks usage, React 18 concurrent features, server versus client components, and error-handling strategies across rendering and async flows.