What to assess in a web developer
Web developer roles vary from marketing sites to product work. Common to all of them is a solid grasp of the platform the browser gives you.
- HTML: semantic structure, forms and the elements that give accessibility for free.
- CSS: layout with flexbox and grid, responsive design, and keeping styles maintainable.
- JavaScript: the DOM, events, fetching data and progressive enhancement.
- Performance: images, fonts, caching and what slows a first load.
- SEO and sharing basics: titles, descriptions, headings and links that crawlers can follow.
- Working with AI: checking generated markup and CSS in the browser, not just in the editor.
Screening questions for web developers
The screener follows your plan, probes vague answers, and can open a whiteboard for layout questions.
- Sketch how a three-column layout should collapse on a phone. Which CSS would you use?
- A page scores poorly on load speed. What are the first three things you check?
- Why does it matter whether a clickable element is a button or a div?
- An assistant writes a contact form. What would you check before putting it live?
- How do you make a page that still works if its JavaScript fails to load?
The web coding round
Pick a React (Vite) or Next.js project with starter files, tests and a live preview. The candidate works in a Cursor-like IDE with Monaco, a terminal, completions, file-aware chat and an agent, in guarded or unguarded mode.
Authorship tinting shows what they typed and what they accepted. The server reruns the tests when the round ends.
AI-fluency signals for a web developer
| Signal | What it tells you about a web developer |
|---|---|
| Time to first prompt | Whether they looked at the page in the preview before asking for changes. |
| Prompt quality | Whether prompts describe layout, breakpoints and behaviour precisely. |
| AI-generated share | How much of the final markup, CSS and script came from accepted AI output. |
| Verification | Whether they checked the preview or ran tests after accepting a change. |
| Over-reliance flags | Large blocks of generated markup or CSS accepted and never reviewed. |
| Recovery | What they did when a generated change broke the layout or a test. |
From scores to a decision
Fundamentals and AI fluency are scored separately and never averaged. The recommendation is advice. A named person signs off every round.
Questions
Can the coding round test plain HTML and CSS?
Coding rounds run React (Vite) or Next.js projects, which render HTML and CSS with a live preview. You can write the task to focus on markup and styling.
Can candidates answer the screen by voice?
Yes. Candidates can type or speak and switch at any point.
How many web developer applicants can I screen?
Every one you choose to invite. An AI screen is 1 credit, or 2 with voice, and reading 40 applications against the role costs 1 credit.
Does SynergicHire reject applicants automatically?
No. Nothing is rejected automatically. A named person signs off every round and records every outcome.