Top 50+ Node.

js Interview Questions and Answers for

2023
[Link]/tutorials/nodejs-tutorial/nodejs-interview-questions

Taha Sufiyan

[Link] is a super popular server-side platform that more and more organizations are
using. If you are preparing for a career change and have an upcoming job interview, it’s
always a good idea to prepare and brush up on your interview skills beforehand. Although
there are a few commonly asked [Link] interview questions that pop up during all types
of interviews, we also recommend that you prepare by focusing on exclusive questions to
your specific industry.

We have compiled a comprehensive list of common [Link] interview questions that

come up often in interviews and the best ways to answer these questions. This will also
help you understand the fundamental concepts of [Link].

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[Link] Interview Questions and Answers For Freshers

This section will provide you with the Basic [Link] interview questions which will
primarily help freshers.

1. What is [Link]? Where can you use it?

[Link] is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment and library to
run web applications outside the client’s browser. It is used to create server-side web
applications.

[Link] is perfect for data-intensive applications as it uses an asynchronous, event-driven

model. You can use I/O intensive web applications like video streaming sites. You can
also use it for developing: Real-time web applications, Network applications, General-
purpose applications, and Distributed systems.

2. Why use [Link]?

[Link] makes building scalable network programs easy. Some of its advantages include:

It is generally fast
It rarely blocks
It offers a unified programming language and data type
Everything is asynchronous
It yields great concurrency

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3. How does [Link] work?

A web server using [Link] typically has a workflow that is quite similar to the diagram
illustrated below. Let’s explore this flow of operations in detail.

Clients send requests to the webserver to interact with the web application.
Requests can be non-blocking or blocking:
Querying for data
Deleting data
Updating the data
[Link] retrieves the incoming requests and adds those to the Event Queue
The requests are then passed one-by-one through the Event Loop. It checks if the
requests are simple enough not to require any external resources
The Event Loop processes simple requests (non-blocking operations), such as I/O
Polling, and returns the responses to the corresponding clients

A single thread from the Thread Pool is assigned to a single complex request. This thread
is responsible for completing a particular blocking request by accessing external
resources, such as computation, database, file system, etc.

Once the task is carried out completely, the response is sent to the Event Loop that sends
that response back to the client.

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4. Why is [Link] Single-threaded?

[Link] is single-threaded for async processing. By doing async processing on a single-

thread under typical web loads, more performance and scalability can be achieved
instead of the typical thread-based implementation.

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5. If [Link] is single-threaded, then how does it handle concurrency?

The Multi-Threaded Request/Response Stateless Model is not followed by the Node JS

Platform, and it adheres to the Single-Threaded Event Loop Model. The Node JS
Processing paradigm is heavily influenced by the JavaScript Event-based model and the
JavaScript callback system. As a result, [Link] can easily manage more concurrent
client requests. The event loop is the processing model's beating heart in [Link].

6. Explain callback in [Link].

A callback function is called after a given task. It allows other code to be run in the
meantime and prevents any blocking. Being an asynchronous platform, [Link] heavily
relies on callback. All APIs of Node are written to support callbacks.

7. What are the advantages of using promises instead of callbacks?

The control flow of asynchronous logic is more specified and structured.

The coupling is low.
We've built-in error handling.
Improved readability.

8. How would you define the term I/O?

The term I/O is used to describe any program, operation, or device that transfers
data to or from a medium and to or from another medium
Every transfer is an output from one medium and an input into another. The medium
can be a physical device, network, or files within a system

9. How is [Link] most frequently used?

[Link] is widely used in the following applications:

1. Real-time chats
2. Internet of Things
3. Complex SPAs (Single-Page Applications)
4. Real-time collaboration tools
5. Streaming applications
6. Microservices architecture

10. Explain the difference between frontend and backend development?

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 Front-end Back-end

Frontend refers to the client-side of an Backend refers to the server-side of an

application application

It is the part of a web application that users It constitutes everything that happens
can see and interact with behind the scenes

It typically includes everything that attributes It generally includes a web server that
to the visual aspects of a web application communicates with a database to
serve requests

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AngularJS, and Java, PHP, Python, and [Link] are
ReactJS are some of the essentials of some of the backend development
frontend development technologies

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If you are curious to explore interview questions related to frontend development, you can
check out our article on ReactJS Interview Questions and Answers.

11. What is NPM?

NPM stands for Node Package Manager, responsible for managing all the packages and
modules for [Link].

Node Package Manager provides two main functionalities:

Provides online repositories for [Link] packages/modules, which are searchable

on [Link]
Provides command-line utility to install [Link] packages and also manages
[Link] versions and dependencies

12. What are the modules in [Link]?

Modules are like JavaScript libraries that can be used in a [Link] application to include a
set of functions. To include a module in a [Link] application, use the require() function
with the parentheses containing the module's name.

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[Link] has many modules to provide the basic functionality needed for a web
application. Some of them include:

Core Description
Modules

HTTP Includes classes, methods, and events to create a [Link] HTTP

server

util Includes utility functions useful for developers

fs Includes events, classes, and methods to deal with file I/O operations

url Includes methods for URL parsing

query string Includes methods to work with query string

stream Includes methods to handle streaming data

zlib Includes methods to compress or decompress files

13. What is the purpose of the module .Exports?

In [Link], a module encapsulates all related codes into a single unit of code that can be
parsed by moving all relevant functions into a single file. You may export a module with
the module and export the function, which lets it be imported into another file with a
needed keyword.

14. Why is [Link] preferred over other backend technologies like Java
and PHP?

Some of the reasons why [Link] is preferred include:

[Link] is very fast

Node Package Manager has over 50,000 bundles available at the developer’s
disposal

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 Perfect for data-intensive, real-time web applications, as [Link] never waits for an
API to return data
Better synchronization of code between server and client due to same code base
Easy for web developers to start using [Link] in their projects as it is a JavaScript
library

15. What is the difference between Angular and [Link]?

Angular [Link]

It is a frontend development It is a server-side environment

framework

It is written in TypeScript It is written in C, C++ languages

Used for building single-page, client- Used for building fast and scalable server-side
side web applications networking applications

Splits a web application into MVC Generates database queries

components

Also Read: What is Angular?

16. Which database is more popularly used with [Link]?

MongoDB is the most common database used with [Link]. It is a NoSQL, cross-
platform, document-oriented database that provides high performance, high availability,
and easy scalability.

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17. What are some of the most commonly used libraries in [Link]?

There are two commonly used libraries in [Link]:

ExpressJS - Express is a flexible [Link] web application framework that provides

a wide set of features to develop web and mobile applications.
Mongoose - Mongoose is also a [Link] web application framework that makes it
easy to connect an application to a database.

18. What are the pros and cons of [Link]?

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 [Link] Pros [Link] Cons

Fast processing and an event-based model Not suitable for heavy computational
tasks

Uses JavaScript, which is well-known amongst Using callback is complex since you
developers end up with several nested callbacks

Node Package Manager has over 50,000 Dealing with relational databases is
packages that provide the functionality to an not a good option for [Link]
application

Best suited for streaming huge amounts of data Since [Link] is single-threaded,
and I/O intensive operations CPU intensive tasks are not its
strong suit

19. What is the command used to import external libraries?

The “require” command is used for importing external libraries. For example - “var
http=require (“HTTP”).” This will load the HTTP library and the single exported object
through the HTTP variable.

Now that we have covered some of the important beginner-level [Link] interview
questions let us look at some of the intermediate-level [Link] interview questions.

[Link] Interview Questions and Answers For Intermediate Level

20. What does event-driven programming mean?

An event-driven programming approach uses events to trigger various functions. An

event can be anything, such as typing a key or clicking a mouse button. A call-back
function is already registered with the element executes whenever an event is triggered.

21. What is an Event Loop in [Link]?

Event loops handle asynchronous callbacks in [Link]. It is the foundation of the non-
blocking input/output in [Link], making it one of the most important environmental
features.

22. Differentiate between [Link]() and setImmediate()?

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The distinction between method and product. This is accomplished through the use of
nextTick() and setImmediate(). next Tick() postpones the execution of action until the next
pass around the event loop, or it simply calls the callback function once the event loop's
current execution is complete, whereas setImmediate() executes a callback on the next
cycle of the event loop and returns control to the event loop for any I/O operations.

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23. What is an EventEmitter in [Link]?

EventEmitter is a class that holds all the objects that can emit events
Whenever an object from the EventEmitter class throws an event, all attached
functions are called upon synchronously

24. What are the two types of API functions in [Link]?

The two types of API functions in [Link] are:

Asynchronous, non-blocking functions

Synchronous, blocking functions

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the [Link] Training. Click to enroll now!

25. What is the [Link] file?

The [Link] file is the heart of a [Link] system. This file holds the metadata for a
particular project. The [Link] file is found in the root directory of any Node
application or module

This is what a [Link] file looks like immediately after creating a [Link] project
using the command: npm init

You can edit the parameters when you create a [Link] project.

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26. How would you use a URL module in [Link]?

The URL module in [Link] provides various utilities for URL resolution and parsing. It is
a built-in module that helps split up the web address into a readable format.

27. What is the [Link] package?

Express is a flexible [Link] web application framework that provides a wide set of
features to develop both web and mobile applications

28. How do you create a simple [Link] application?

The request object represents the HTTP request and has properties for the request
query string, parameters, body, HTTP headers, and so on
The response object represents the HTTP response that an Express app sends
when it receives an HTTP request

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29. What are streams in [Link]?
Streams are objects that enable you to read data or write data continuously.

There are four types of streams:

Readable – Used for reading operations

Writable − Used for write operations

Duplex − Can be used for both reading and write operations

Transform − A type of duplex stream where the output is computed based on input

30. How do you install, update, and delete a dependency?

31. How do you create a simple server in [Link] that returns Hello
World?

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 Import the HTTP module
Use createServer function with a callback function using request and response as
parameters.
Type “hello world."
Set the server to listen to port 8080 and assign an IP address

32. Explain asynchronous and non-blocking APIs in [Link].

All [Link] library APIs are asynchronous, which means they are also non-blocking
A [Link]-based server never waits for an API to return data. Instead, it moves to
the next API after calling it, and a notification mechanism from a [Link] event
responds to the server for the previous API call

33. How do we implement async in [Link]?

As shown below, the async code asks the JavaScript engine running the code to wait for
the [Link]() function to complete before moving on to the next line for execution.

34. What is a callback function in [Link]?

A callback is a function called after a given task. This prevents any blocking and enables
other code to run in the meantime.

In the last section, we will now cover some of the advanced-level [Link] interview
questions.

[Link] Interview Questions and Answers For Experienced

Professionals
This section will provide you with the Advanced [Link] interview questions which will
primarily help experienced professionals.

35. What is REPL in [Link]?

REPL stands for Read Eval Print Loop, and it represents a computer environment. It’s
similar to a Windows console or Unix/Linux shell in which a command is entered. Then,
the system responds with an output

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36. What is the control flow function?

The control flow function is a piece of code that runs in between several asynchronous
function calls.

37. How does control flow manage the function calls?

38. What is the difference between fork() and spawn() methods in

[Link]?

fork() spawn()

fork() is a particular case of Spawn() launches a new process with the

spawn() that generates a new available set of commands.
instance of a V8 engine.

Multiple workers run on a single This method doesn’t generate a new V8 instance,
node code base for multiple tasks. and only a single copy of the node module is
active on the processor.

39. What is the buffer class in [Link]?

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Buffer class stores raw data similar to an array of integers but corresponds to a raw
memory allocation outside the V8 heap. Buffer class is used because pure JavaScript is
not compatible with binary data

40. What is piping in [Link]?

Piping is a mechanism used to connect the output of one stream to another stream. It is
normally used to retrieve data from one stream and pass output to another stream

41. What are some of the flags used in the read/write operations in files?

42. How do you open a file in [Link]?

43. What is callback hell?

Callback hell, also known as the pyramid of doom, is the result of intensively
nested, unreadable, and unmanageable callbacks, which in turn makes the code
harder to read and debug
improper implementation of the asynchronous logic causes callback hell

44. What is a reactor pattern in [Link]?

A reactor pattern is a concept of non-blocking I/O operations. This pattern provides a
handler that is associated with each I/O operation. As soon as an I/O request is
generated, it is then submitted to a demultiplexer

45. What is a test pyramid in [Link]?

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46. For [Link], why does Google use the V8 engine?

The V8 engine, developed by Google, is open-source and written in C++. Google Chrome
makes use of this engine. V8, unlike the other engines, is also utilized for the popular
[Link] runtime. V8 was initially intended to improve the speed of JavaScript execution
within web browsers. Instead of employing an interpreter, V8 converts JavaScript code
into more efficient machine code to increase performance. It turns JavaScript code into
machine code during execution by utilizing a JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler, as do many
current JavaScript engines such as SpiderMonkey or Rhino (Mozilla).

47. Describe [Link] exit codes.

48. Explain the concept of middleware in [Link].

Middleware is a function that receives the request and response objects. Most tasks that
the middleware functions perform are:

Execute any code

Update or modify the request and the response objects
Finish the request-response cycle
Invoke the next middleware in the stack

49. What are the different types of HTTP requests?

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HTTP defines a set of request methods used to perform desired actions. The request
methods include:

GET: Used to retrieve the data

POST: Generally used to make a change in state or reactions on the server

HEAD: Similar to the GET method, but asks for the response without the response body

DELETE: Used to delete the predetermined resource

50. How would you connect a MongoDB database to [Link]?

To create a database in MongoDB:

Start by creating a MongoClient object

Specify a connection URL with the correct IP address and the name of the database
you want to create

51. What is the purpose of NODE_ENV?

52. List the various [Link] timing features.

As you prepare for your upcoming job interview, we hope that this comprehensive guide
has provided more insight into what types of questions you’ll be asked.

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53. What is WASI, and why is it being introduced?

The WASI class implements the WASI system called API and extra convenience methods
for interacting with WASI-based applications. Every WASI instance represents a unique
sandbox environment. Each WASI instance must specify its command-line parameters,
environment variables, and sandbox directory structure for security reasons.

Conclusion
Best of luck with your upcoming job interview!

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