In one of my rounds at Oleria, I was asked to design an autocomplete (typeahead) experience—from a frontend engineering perspective.
Here’s what we discussed:
- UX trade-offs: inline vs dropdown suggestions, keyboard navigation, loading indicators
- Debounce and throttle techniques to avoid spamming the API
- Optimistic UI and caching recent queries
- Managing async race conditions in fast-typing scenarios
- Accessibility (ARIA roles, keyboard support)
- Animations and perceived performance
- State management for results, loading states, and input focus
It was refreshing to focus on performance, responsiveness, and UX depth—something frontend engineers handle every day but don’t always get to discuss in interviews.