My GoDaddy Senior Frontend Engineer Interview Experience — React Pair Coding (HackerRank)

TL;DR

• Interview month: May 2025 (posting later)
• Role: Senior Engineer — Frontend
• Flow: Referral → 30-min recruiter screener → technical pair-coding
• Task: Fix a broken calculator UI in React (buttons + screen not wired) and implement at least + − × ÷ in 1 hour
• Result: Didn’t move forward (others performed better)

How I got the interview

I had a referral, and that helped me get invited quickly.

The first round was a 30 minute screener with a Senior Recruiter. It went smoothly — mostly around my background, what I’m looking for, and basic fit.

After that, I was moved to the technical round.

Technical round setup

This round was a pair coding session on HackerRank.

• Interviewer: onsite Senior Developer, 10+ years experience, strong React background
• Format: live coding + discussion
• Duration: 1 hour

The problem: React calculator (UI given, logic broken)

HackerRank had a ready-made calculator UI:

• Nice layout
• Screen at the top
• Buttons for digits + operations

…but the calculator didn’t actually work:

• Button clicks weren’t wired
• The screen wasn’t updating

So the job was basically:

1. Connect UI events (onClick handlers)
2. Implement calculator logic
3. Make sure the screen shows the correct value

Minimum requirements

I was expected to complete at least these operations:

• Addition (+)
• Subtraction (-)
• Multiplication (×)
• Division (÷)

What I managed to do

I was able to get the basic operations working for simple inputs, like:

• 2 + 3 = 5
• 10 - 4 = 6
• 6 × 7 = 42
• 8 ÷ 2 = 4

What didn’t work (and why I think I fell short)

Where I struggled was chained / more complex expressions, for example:

• 2 + 3 + 4
• 12 ÷ 3 × 2
• cases where you press operators multiple times, or change your mind mid-way

I got it partially working, but it wasn’t reliable end-to-end.

In hindsight, I think the gap was that I didn’t lock a clear approach early:

• Option A: track prevValue, currentValue, operator, and compute step-by-step
• Option B: build an expression string and evaluate safely (with constraints)

I kind of ended up in-between, and that’s where things get messy fast.

Result

That was it for the interview.

I didn’t make it to the next round — feedback was essentially that others performed better.

What I learned (practical takeaways)

If I had to do the same interview again, here’s what I’d change:

1. Pick one model and stick to it (state machine-ish approach helps)
2. Handle the “boring” edge cases early:
   • pressing operator twice
   • starting with an operator
   • divide by zero
   • multiple zeros / decimals (if required)
3. Keep React simple:
   • useState for display value
   • small helper functions for transitions
4. Don’t chase perfect UI — get correctness first

If you’re preparing for similar rounds

Practice a few UI + logic exercises in React — not just DSA.

Examples:

• Calculator
• Todo app with filters
• Debounced search + API state
• Simple form builder

These come up a lot in frontend interviews because they test:

• state management
• event handling
• correctness under time pressure

If you’ve had a similar React pair-coding interview, I’d love to hear what the prompt was and what approach you used.