Intermediate interview questions in CSS & Design Systems, page 4
Distributing design tokens across web, iOS, and Android
Keep one source-of-truth JSON, transform with a tool like Style Dictionary, emit per-platform formats (CSS vars, Swift, XML) in CI.
Fixing brand color contrast at the system level
Build a tonal palette with known contrast steps, define semantic text-on-surface token pairs that pass AA, and enforce with automated contrast checks.
Brand color as a token and CSS custom property
Define a typed color token in JSON, generate a custom property like --color-brand-primary, then reference it with var().
CSS Grid versus Flexbox fundamentals
Flexbox is one-dimensional (a single row or column), Grid is two-dimensional (rows and columns together); use Grid for page layout, Flexbox for a toolbar of items.
CSS transition versus animation
Transitions interpolate between two states triggered by a change; animations use keyframes for multi-step, looping, autonomous motion.
Core tokens versus alias semantic tokens
Core tokens are raw values like blue-500; alias tokens reference cores with intent like color-action; semantic aliasing decouples meaning from raw value.
Component variants with BEM modifier classes
A base block class holds shared styles, modifier classes (block--primary, block--destructive) layer only the differences, and you combine base plus one modifier.
Monorepo tradeoffs for a design system
Monorepos give atomic cross-package changes, shared tooling, and easy local linking; drawbacks include build complexity, CI scaling, and tighter coupling.
Multi-theme infrastructure for a component library
Style components against semantic tokens exposed as CSS custom properties, define per-theme token values, and switch at runtime via a data-theme attribute or class.
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