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Interviews / Frontend Engineering / How do you deploy a Next.js application?

Questions

What is the difference between server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG) in Next.js?
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What is the `_app.js` file and what is it used for in Next.js?
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What is the `_document.js` file and what is it used for in Next.js?
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How do you do data fetching in Next.js?
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How do you do routing in Next.js?
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What are API routes and how do you use them in Next.js?
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How do you do styling in Next.js?
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Your Next.js application is slow. How do you optimize its performance?
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How do you handle authentication and authorization in Next.js?
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How do you handle environment variables in Next.js?
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How do you deploy a Next.js application?
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What is middleware and how do you use it in Next.js?
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How do you deploy a Next.js application?

practical Deployment Interactive Quiz Code Examples

The Scenario

You are a frontend engineer at a social media company. You have just finished building a new Next.js application, and you need to deploy it to production.

You are not sure which of the different ways to deploy a Next.js application you should use.

The Challenge

Explain the different ways to deploy a Next.js application. What are the pros and cons of each approach, and which one would you choose for this use case?

Wrong Approach

A junior engineer might just try to deploy the application to a traditional web server. This would work, but it would not be a very scalable or maintainable solution.

Right Approach

A senior engineer would know that there are several different ways to deploy a Next.js application. They would be able to explain the pros and cons of each approach and would have a clear recommendation for which one to use in a given situation.

Step 1: Understand the Different Deployment Options

OptionDescription
VercelThe company that created Next.js. Vercel is a platform for deploying and hosting Next.js applications.
Node.js ServerYou can deploy a Next.js application to a traditional Node.js server.
Static HTML ExportYou can export a Next.js application as a set of static HTML files.
DockerYou can deploy a Next.js application as a Docker container.

Step 2: Choose the Right Tool for the Job

Use CaseRecommended Option
A simple application with a few pagesVercel
A large application with many componentsVercel or a Node.js server
A blog or a documentation websiteStatic HTML Export
A microservices architectureDocker

For our use case, we should use Vercel. This is because it is the easiest and most scalable way to deploy a Next.js application.

Step 3: Deploy to Vercel

Here’s how we can deploy our application to Vercel:

1. Create a Vercel account:

Create a new account on the Vercel website.

2. Install the Vercel CLI:

npm i -g vercel

3. Deploy the application:

vercel

This command will automatically build and deploy the application to Vercel.

Practice Question

You are building a blog and you want it to be as fast and SEO-friendly as possible. Which of the following would be the most appropriate?