How would you inspect a Figma text element for CSS properties?

WHAT THIS TESTS: This question checks whether you have a repeatable workflow for extracting design tokens from Figma and translating them into CSS. At a senior level, interviewers care about precision, awareness of Dev Mode versus Design Mode, and knowledge of shortcuts that speed up implementation. They want to see that you do not approximate values or rely on visual guessing, because small typography mismatches compound into broken layouts and inconsistent branding across the product. The goal is to confirm you treat the design file as the source of truth and know how to navigate its inspection surface.

A GOOD ANSWER COVERS: First, select the specific text layer on the canvas rather than a group or frame, because the Properties tab shows values for the selected object. Second, open the Properties tab in the right sidebar if you are in Design Mode, or toggle to Dev Mode with Shift D if you have access. Third, read the typography section which lists font family, weight, size, line height, and letter spacing. Fourth, use the Copy as code feature by right-clicking the object and choosing Copy or Paste as then Copy as code to grab a CSS snippet directly. Fifth, mention that you can hold Option on Mac or Alt on Windows and hover over adjacent elements to measure distances for padding or margin context. Sixth, verify that the values are applied to the correct CSS properties and that fallback fonts are declared.

COMMON WRONG ANSWERS: A major red flag is saying you would take a screenshot and eyeball the values in the browser inspector. Another is selecting a parent frame instead of the text layer itself, which hides the exact typography properties. Some candidates only mention Dev Mode and freeze when asked what to do without a paid seat, so failing to mention the Design Mode Properties tab is a noticeable gap. Finally, ignoring letter spacing or line height and only copying font size and family signals shallow attention to detail and leads to subtle but visible UI drift.

LIKELY FOLLOW-UPS: The interviewer might ask how you handle missing fonts in your local environment, or how you would set up a design token pipeline so developers do not need to manually read Figma values for every button. They could also ask how you verify that the implemented text matches the design across breakpoints, or what you do when Figma uses a font weight name like SemiBold that does not map cleanly to a CSS numeric weight.

ONE CONCRETE EXAMPLE: Suppose the designer set the button label to Inter SemiBold at 16 pixels with a line height of 24 pixels and letter spacing of negative 0.3 percent. You would click the text node, open the Properties tab, confirm the family is Inter and the weight is SemiBold, note the 16 pixel size and 24 pixel line height, and capture the negative 0.3 percent letter spacing. You would then either copy the auto-generated CSS from the Copy as code menu or write the rule yourself, ensuring the font stack falls back to a system sans-serif if Inter fails to load.