Curated interview practice questions with answers. These are practice scenarios, not a verified list of past interview questions.
About CRED hiring for React JS roles
CRED is an Indian fintech platform that rewards members for paying credit card bills and offers products such as CRED Pay, rent payments, CRED Mint and CRED Garage. Its engineering and analytics teams focus on payments, rewards, risk and app experience. It hires for software engineers, SDETs, data analysts and data scientists.
For React JS roles, this CRED practice set focuses most on Performance Optimization (7), State Management (6), Testing and Debugging (5), Props and State (4). It has 3 easy, 22 medium, 5 hard questions, so you can start easy and work up to the harder ones.
Company type
Fintech
Headquarters
Bengaluru, India
Main India offices
Bengaluru
CRED React JS interview process
Online assessment or assignment
Technical round (coding or SQL)
Problem solving or design round
Hiring manager round
Typical pattern based on public candidate experiences. Rounds vary by role, team and year.
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01
What is the difference between server state and client state?
Client state is owned by the browser, like whether a modal is open, form input or theme. Server state lives on a backend and is only cached on the client, like products or orders; it can become stale, be changed by other users and needs refetching. Tools like TanStack Query or RTK Query manage server state, while useState, Context or Zustand handle client state.
02
Your component fetches data in useEffect and the network tab shows thousands of requests in a loop. What could cause it?
Common causes are a missing dependency array, so the effect runs after every render and its setState triggers another render, or a dependency that is a new object or array each render, like options={{ page: 1 }}. Since Object.is compares by reference, the effect always sees a change. Fix by adding correct dependencies, depending on primitive values, or memoising the object with useMemo.
03
How do you give default values to props in a function component?
Use JavaScript default parameters while destructuring props. defaultProps for function components was removed in React 19, so this is the standard way.
function Button({ label = 'Submit', variant = 'primary', onClick }) {
return (
<button className={`btn btn-${variant}`} onClick={onClick}>
{label}
</button>
);
}
04
How do you create a protected route that redirects users who are not logged in?
Create a wrapper that checks auth and either renders the child routes or redirects.
import { Navigate, Outlet, useLocation } from 'react-router';
function RequireAuth() {
const { user } = useAuth();
const location = useLocation();
if (!user) return <Navigate to="/login" replace state={{ from: location }} />;
return <Outlet />;
}
<Route element={<RequireAuth />}>
<Route path="/account" element={<Account />} />
</Route>
The server must still enforce authorisation.
Render props means passing a function as a prop that the component calls to decide what to render, for example <MouseTracker render={pos => <Cursor pos={pos} />} />. It lets a component share its state or behaviour while the caller controls the UI. Like HOCs, it has mostly been replaced by custom hooks, but libraries for forms and virtualised lists still expose render-prop or children-as-function APIs.
06
How would you update deeply nested state cleanly? Show with Immer.
Manual spreading of nested objects is error prone. Immer lets you write mutating code on a draft and produces an immutable copy. Redux Toolkit uses it internally.
import { useImmer } from 'use-immer';
const [form, updateForm] = useImmer({ address: { city: '', pin: '' } });
updateForm(draft => {
draft.address.city = 'Noida';
});
Also consider flattening state to avoid deep nesting.
Virtualisation, or windowing, renders only the rows visible in the viewport plus a small buffer, instead of thousands of DOM nodes. As the user scrolls, rows are recycled with new data. Libraries such as TanStack Virtual and react-window implement it. It dramatically cuts render time and memory for long lists, chat histories and data grids, but needs care with variable row heights and browser find-in-page.
08
When would you add end-to-end tests with Playwright or Cypress?
Add E2E tests for critical business flows that cross many components and the backend, such as signup, login, search, add to cart and payment. They run in real browsers and catch integration issues unit tests miss. They are slower and more brittle, so keep them few and focused, use stable selectors like roles or data-testid, seed test data and run them in CI on every pull request.
09
Tell me about a mistake you made that reached production and what you learned.
Situation: I removed what looked like an unused prop in a shared Button component. Task: after release, the payment page's disabled state broke. Action: I owned it immediately, rolled back, then fixed it and added a test plus a TypeScript type so the prop could not be removed silently. Result: the issue was live for under an hour, and I now search all usages and rely on types before deleting code.
React 19 added functions in react-dom such as preload, preinit, prefetchDNS and preconnect. They tell the browser to load fonts, stylesheets, scripts or connect to API origins early, and React places the hints in the document head, including during server rendering. React 19 also supports rendering <title>, <meta> and <link> tags inside components, hoisting them to the head automatically.
11
A developer says the app is too slow, based on testing it with the development server. What do you tell them?
The development build includes extra warnings, StrictMode double rendering, checks and unminified code, so it is much slower and can mislead you. Production builds created with npm run build are minified, tree-shaken and optimised. Test performance on the production build, ideally on a mid-range Android phone with throttled network, because many Indian users browse on such devices and slower connections.
12
How do you analyse and reduce JavaScript bundle size?
Generate a visual report with rollup-plugin-visualizer in Vite or @next/bundle-analyzer in Next.js. Look for large dependencies, duplicate packages and code that loads on every page. Fixes include importing only what you need, replacing heavy libraries such as moment with date-fns or dayjs, lazy loading routes and rarely used components, and checking that libraries support tree shaking. Track size in CI to prevent regressions.
13
Your React app works locally, but after deployment refreshing /dashboard gives a 404 from the server. Why, and how do you fix it?
The server looks for a real file at /dashboard, which does not exist because routing happens in the browser. Configure the server to return index.html for all unknown paths: a rewrite rule in Nginx (try_files $uri /index.html), a _redirects or rewrites setting on static hosts, or a fallback in Express. Alternatively, use a framework with server routing. HashRouter also avoids it but gives ugly URLs.
14
How do Suspense and streaming server rendering improve performance?
With streaming SSR, the server sends HTML in chunks: the page shell is sent immediately and slower sections wrapped in Suspense are streamed later as their data resolves, replacing the fallback. Users see content sooner and hydration of parts can happen selectively, prioritising what the user interacts with. Frameworks like Next.js App Router use this with server components and loading.js boundaries.
15
A developer sends an analytics event inside a useEffect that watches a 'submitted' state flag. Is this a good pattern?
No. Logic caused by a specific user action belongs in the event handler, not in an effect. Setting a flag and reacting in an effect adds an extra render, is harder to follow and can fire again on remount in StrictMode. Call sendAnalytics directly in handleSubmit. Effects are for synchronising with external systems because the component is displayed, not for responding to events.
16
Your team has hundreds of snapshot tests that developers update blindly whenever they fail. What are the drawbacks of snapshot tests and what would you suggest?
A snapshot test saves the rendered output to a file and fails when future output differs. It is quick to write and catches unexpected changes. Drawbacks: large snapshots are hard to review, developers often blindly update them, and they fail on harmless markup changes while saying nothing about behaviour. Use small, focused inline snapshots for stable output, and prefer behaviour assertions for most component tests.
17
A developer stores fullName in state and updates it in a useEffect whenever firstName or lastName changes. What would you suggest?
This is redundant derived state. It causes an extra render and risks the values going out of sync. Compute it during render instead: const fullName = firstName + ' ' + lastName. If the calculation is expensive, wrap it in useMemo. As a rule, if a value can be calculated from existing props or state, do not store it in state and do not sync it with an effect.
Zustand is a small state library with a hook-based API and no Provider.
import { create } from 'zustand';
const useCart = create(set => ({
items: [],
add: item => set(s => ({ items: [...s.items, item] })),
clear: () => set({ items: [] })
}));
const count = useCart(s => s.items.length);
Components subscribe with selectors, so they re-render only when the selected slice changes.
19
How do you lazy load route components to reduce the initial bundle?
Use React.lazy with dynamic import and wrap routes in Suspense, so each page becomes a separate chunk downloaded only when visited. In React Router data mode you can also use the route's lazy property to load the component and loader together. This greatly reduces the first load size for big apps like admin panels. Show a lightweight fallback, such as a skeleton, while chunks load.
A portal renders children into a DOM node outside the parent component's DOM hierarchy while keeping them in the same React tree, so context and event bubbling still work.
import { createPortal } from 'react-dom';
function Modal({ children }) {
return createPortal(
<div className="modal">{children}</div>,
document.getElementById('modal-root')
);
}
They are used for modals, tooltips and dropdowns that must escape overflow hidden or z-index issues.
21
How do you persist part of your state, like the cart, across page reloads?
Save it to localStorage and read it on startup. With Zustand, the persist middleware does this.
import { persist } from 'zustand/middleware';
const useCart = create(persist(
set => ({ items: [], add: i => set(s => ({ items: [...s.items, i] })) }),
{ name: 'cart-storage' }
));
With Redux, use redux-persist or a store.subscribe that writes a throttled snapshot. Never store secrets like tokens in localStorage.
The React Compiler, released as stable version 1.0 in late 2025, is a build-time tool (Babel plugin, also integrated in Vite and Next.js setups) that automatically memoises components and values. It analyses your code and inserts caching similar to useMemo, useCallback and React.memo, so developers write plain code. It requires following the rules of React, such as pure rendering, and can be adopted gradually per directory.
23
A junior notices that every child component re-renders when the parent's state changes, even when their props did not change. How do you explain this?
By default, when a component renders, React re-renders all of its children, because it cannot know whether they depend on something else. Re-rendering is usually cheap since only real changes reach the DOM. If a child is expensive, wrap it in React.memo and keep its props stable with useCallback or useMemo, or let the React Compiler memoise automatically. Moving state down also helps.
24
A new mid-sized dashboard project is starting. How would you decide between Context, Redux Toolkit and Zustand?
First separate server state, which I would handle with TanStack Query or RTK Query. For remaining client state, local useState covers most needs. Context suits rarely changing values like theme or auth. If there is complex shared state with many actions, strict patterns, large teams and need for DevTools time travel, Redux Toolkit fits. For simpler shared state with less boilerplate, Zustand is a good choice.
25
Five components on one page each fetch the same user profile, causing duplicate API calls. How would you fix this?
Lift the data fetching into a shared cache instead of each component fetching on its own. With TanStack Query or RTK Query, all components using the same query key share one request and one cached result, and get updates together. Alternatively, fetch once in a parent or route loader and pass data down. This also removes inconsistent loading spinners across the page.
26
You are building a 4-step onboarding wizard. How do you keep data when users move back and forth between steps?
Store the wizard data in a parent component, a reducer, or a small store, not inside each step, because step components unmount when hidden. Each step receives its slice and an update callback. Validate each step before moving forward, and optionally save drafts to sessionStorage or the server so a refresh does not lose progress. The current step can also live in the URL for back-button support.
27
Your tests pass but print 'An update to Component inside a test was not wrapped in act(...)'. What does it mean and how do you fix it?
It means state changed after the test finished checking, usually because an async operation like a fetch or timer resolved later. The test may not be checking the final UI. Fix it by awaiting the result: use findBy queries or waitFor for the expected content, await user-event calls, and use fake timers with act when testing timeouts. Do not just wrap random code in act to hide the warning.
28
How do you include accessibility checks in your React tests?
Use jest-axe or vitest-axe to run axe-core on rendered components.
import { axe } from 'vitest-axe';
test('form has no a11y violations', async () => {
const { container } = render(<SignupForm />);
expect(await axe(container)).toHaveNoViolations();
});
Also query by role and label in tests, run Lighthouse or axe DevTools in the browser, and test keyboard navigation manually, since automated tools catch only part of the issues.
29
How do you handle async API calls with createAsyncThunk?
The pyramid says write many unit tests, fewer integration tests and very few end-to-end tests, because lower tests are fast and cheap. The testing trophy, popular for frontend, adds static analysis at the base and puts the most effort in integration tests, since they give the best confidence per cost. For React, I rely on TypeScript and ESLint, many component tests, some unit tests for logic and a few E2E tests.
Tips to crack the CRED React JS interview
Learn how credit card bill payments, UPI and rewards economics work, as CRED's products are built around them.
Pay attention to product design and user experience, which CRED is known for emphasising in its app.
For analyst roles, practise cases on member engagement, reward cost and credit risk segmentation.
Keep a one-minute story ready for every project on your CV: problem, your part, tools, result.
Practise the hard questions on this page aloud; CRED interviewers usually ask follow-ups on your first answer.
Frequently asked questions
How many rounds are there in the CRED React JS interview?
Candidates usually go through 4 stages: Online assessment or assignment; Technical round (coding or SQL); Problem solving or design round; Hiring manager round. The exact rounds change with the role, team, location and your experience, so confirm the process with the recruiter.
Which topics should I prepare for the CRED React JS interview?
This practice set leans on Performance Optimization (7), State Management (6), Testing and Debugging (5), Props and State (4). Revise those first, then practise explaining one or two of your own projects end to end, because most CRED interviewers ask you to walk through real work.
Are these the exact questions asked at CRED?
No. These are curated practice questions that match the skills and difficulty usually tested in fintech interviews like CRED's. They are not a leaked or verified list of past questions.
Where does CRED hire React JS professionals in India?
CRED has large teams in Bengaluru. Openings and locations change often, so check the CRED careers page and filter by city and experience.