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UI/UX Designer interview questions

Design interviews revolve around your portfolio. Interviewers want to hear your process (research, problem framing, iterations and trade-offs), not just see polished screens. Expect a design challenge and questions about working with developers and product managers.

10 questions with answer notes · 4 rounds · By the JOBSPOT 360 team

How the selection process usually works

  1. 1

    Portfolio screening

    A shortlist based on your case studies. Make sure the link opens without a login.

  2. 2

    Portfolio walkthrough

    Present one or two case studies in depth, covering the problem, process and outcome.

  3. 3

    Design challenge

    A take-home or live whiteboard task, such as redesigning a booking flow.

  4. 4

    Cross-functional and HR

    A chat with a PM or developer about collaboration, then HR.

Rounds vary between companies. Smaller teams often merge the technical and managerial rounds, while larger companies may add an extra technical round.

Skills to brush up on

  • Figma (auto layout, components, variants)
  • User research and usability testing
  • Information architecture and user flows
  • Wireframing and prototyping
  • Visual design: typography, colour, spacing
  • Design systems
  • Accessibility (WCAG)
  • Basic HTML and CSS awareness

Technical questions

  1. 01 Walk me through your design process on a recent project.

    How to answer: Cover understanding the problem, research, ideation, wireframes, testing, iteration and handoff. Be honest about constraints and what you would change.

  2. 02 What is the difference between UI and UX?

    How to answer: UX is the whole experience and how well it solves the user's problem; UI is the visual and interactive layer. Give an example where good UI could not save bad UX.

  3. 03 How do you make a design accessible?

    How to answer: Sufficient colour contrast, readable text sizes, large enough touch targets, not relying on colour alone, clear focus states and meaningful labels.

  4. 04 How do you build and maintain a design system?

    How to answer: Tokens for colour, type and spacing, reusable components with variants, documentation, and a process for contributions and versioning with developers.

  5. 05 Name a few usability heuristics and an app that breaks one.

    How to answer: Visibility of system status, consistency, error prevention, recognition over recall. Use a concrete, constructive example.

  6. 06 How do you validate a design before it is built?

    How to answer: Prototype tests with five or so users, first-click or tree tests, and stakeholder reviews against the success metrics.

  7. 07 What do you include in a developer handoff?

    How to answer: Specs and tokens, all states (empty, loading, error), responsive behaviour, interactions, assets and edge cases.

Scenario questions

  1. 01 Redesign the checkout flow of a food delivery app to reduce drop-offs.

    How to answer: Ask who the users are and where they drop off, propose hypotheses, sketch flows, prioritise quick wins, and define how you would measure success.

  2. 02 A developer says your design is too complex to build in this sprint. What do you do?

    How to answer: Understand the constraint, find a simpler version that keeps the core user value, and plan the full version as a follow-up.

  3. 03 User feedback contradicts what the stakeholder wants. How do you handle it?

    How to answer: Bring evidence (recordings, metrics, quotes), frame the trade-off in business terms, and propose a test to decide.
Then comes the HR round Almost every interview ends with HR questions about you, your plans and your salary expectations. See the common ones and how to answer them.

Resume tips for this role

  • Your portfolio link should be the first thing on the resume. Two or three deep case studies beat ten shots.
  • Show outcomes in case studies, such as conversion lifted or support tickets reduced.
  • Keep the resume itself clean and well typeset. It is judged as a design sample.
  • Mention the tools and the teams you collaborated with (PMs, developers, researchers).

This guide is written by the JOBSPOT 360 team from common interview patterns for this kind of role. It is not provided by any employer, and real interviews will differ. Read our editorial policy.