Last year, I made a career move.

It wasn’t easy leaving my first and only job out of university after 6 years. The thought of leaving was scary, to say the least. The truth is, I had wanted to challenge myself with something new for quite some time. So I started looking, slowly.

How It Started

I had stumbled into a few interviews back in 2024, almost all of which I completely bombed. They were some of the best roles in really good companies too. I guess lesson #1: don't YOLO your interviews! I thought I was good at my job and that interviews should just be like a work simulation. Boy was I wrong. Soon enough, I realized there was a whole science to interview prep unbeknownst to me. So I began to take it more seriously in 2025.

Now, 2025 wasn't exactly the best year to switch jobs. But it could've been worse. The tech scene in Vancouver, especially big tech, was actually slowly picking up. There were quite a few good opportunities popping up here and there.

This is me at the beginning of 2025: I had 5 YOE (years of experience) in software engineering. I was primarily full-stack but frontend-focused. My tech stack was Scala for backend and Angular for frontend.

The ideal role for me was:

US company
Senior (L5) level
Frontend or full-stack
Based/remote in Vancouver

Life of a Frontend Engineer

I've known for a while that I enjoy frontend more. I love seeing software come to life through an elegant and polished user interface. It's a huge part of what excites me about coding - the ability to transform machine language into something humans can consume and operate on, with the tools they're born with.

Preparing for technical interviews as a frontend engineer has its own unique challenges. There's often not a lot of clarity on what frontend interviews look like. When people think of coding interviews, they think Leetcode, which is mostly accurate, but not the whole picture for frontend engineers. We will also be tested on a suite of skills that's not DSA (data structure and algorithm) problems.

In addition to Leetcode grinding, we need to study React*, JavaScript fundamentals, and frontend system design. However, in most cases, it also means that we aren't tested on backend system design or architecture as much. The DSAs we get tend to be a bit easier compared to those for backend engineers.

A note on React*

From my personal experience, most interviews are "framework-agnostic" but using React makes it easier for everyone. Some companies do strictly require React though.

Frontend positions can also be harder to come across. Depending on the nature of the product, a company may or may not have a pure frontend role. If their product is frontend-heavy, e.g. consumer apps, they will generally have dedicated frontend roles. Otherwise, they tend to have more full-stack roles instead of pure frontend roles. If you're comfortable with full-stack, you'll definitely have more options available.

With that being said, there are still really good frontend opportunities out there. In fact, most of my interview loops in the end were for pure frontend positions. Just gotta keep sharpening your knives and have a bit more patience.

My Timeline

Here's roughly how the year played out:

2025 Jan - June:
- Research
- Casual Leetcode
- Learning React
- Personal projects
- Polishing up resume
2025 July - Aug:
- Interview prep
- Bulk apply
2025 Sep - Nov:
- Interview prep
- Interview loops
2025 Dec:
- Offers

---
config:
  sankey:
    showValues: false
---
sankey-beta
Cold apply (43),Application (52),48
Referral (1),Application (52),1
Recruiter (8),Application (52),3

Application (52),Rejected (38),38
Application (52),Ghosted (9),9
Application (52),HR screen (5),5

HR screen (5),OA (1),1
OA (1),Tech screen (4),1
HR screen (5),Tech screen (4),3
HR screen (5),Cancelled (1),1

Tech screen (4),Tech screen II (1),1
Tech screen (4),Onsite (4),3
Tech screen II (1),Onsite (4),1
Onsite (4),No offer (2),2
Onsite (4),Offer (2),2

Resources That Helped Me

Frontend

GreatFrontEnd — Frontend interview prep all-in-one
FrontendLead - It's like Leetcode but for frontend
MDN - Grossly overlooked

Backend

LeetCode — No explanation needed
Hello Interview — System design

Tools

FAANG Tech Leads — Resume
Miro — Diagramming tool
Levels.fyi — Offer evaluation

Hope this was helpful!

Interviewing as a Frontend Engineer in 2025