Question 1

What is the difference between a Design System, a Component Library, and a Style Guide?

Accepted Answer

A Style Guide defines the visual identity (colors and fonts), a Component Library provides reusable coded elements, and a Design System is the complete system combining guidance, components, rules, standards, and governance.

Question 2

What is Brad Frost's Atomic Design methodology, and what are its five stages?

Accepted Answer

It is a methodology for breaking down and building interfaces hierarchically from the smallest elements upward: Atoms, Molecules, Organisms, Templates, and Pages.

Question 3

What are Design Tokens, and what is the difference between global, semantic, and component-specific levels?

Accepted Answer

Design Tokens are abstract visual decisions stored as platform-independent variables (such as JSON), and have three layers: global tokens, semantic/alias tokens, and component-specific tokens.

Question 4

How do you build flexible, professional Figma components with Auto Layout and Component Properties?

Accepted Answer

Use Auto Layout to simulate programmatic Flexbox, and use component properties (Boolean, Text, Instance Swap, Variant) to reduce duplicate component versions and keep designs aligned with code.

Question 5

How do you govern a Design System and its contribution model to prevent chaos or stagnation?

Accepted Answer

Use a hybrid contribution model and appoint a Core Team to set standards and review components, while letting designers and developers submit new proposals and needs through an approved RFC process.

Question 6

How do you design a multi-brand Design System architecture that supports dark mode?

Accepted Answer

Separate the component's structure and logic from its visual appearance, and replace direct color values with semantic tokens whose values change according to context or the active theme.

Question 7

How do you measure a Design System's adoption rate and return on investment (ROI) for the company?

Accepted Answer

Measure the percentage of production code components derived from the system versus custom components, and calculate faster feature delivery and fewer design defects and rework.

Question 8

Why do most global Design Systems use an 8-point spacing grid?

Accepted Answer

Eight can be easily divided and multiplied across most screen sizes and pixel densities (1x, 2x, 3x) without producing fractional pixels that blur elements.

Question 9

What are best practices for documenting Design System components and writing Dos and Don'ts?

Accepted Answer

Documentation should not only describe a component's appearance; it should explain the context of use, suitable alternatives, accessibility guidance, and illustrated examples of correct and incorrect practices.

Question 10

How do you manage Design System releases and breaking changes with Semantic Versioning?

Accepted Answer

Use semantic versioning (Major.Minor.Patch): Major indicates breaking changes that may break product screens, Minor indicates backward-compatible features, and Patch indicates small visual fixes.