JavaScript Error Handling — Interview Questions & Answers

Ques: What is error handling in JavaScript?

Ans: Error handling means writing code to detect, handle, and recover from unexpected situations (errors) during execution — such as invalid input, missing files, or network failures.

Ques: What are the main types of errors in JavaScript?

Ques: What is the difference between syntax and runtime errors?

Ques: What is the purpose of try...catch?

Ans: Used to handle errors without stopping program execution.

try {
  let result = x / 2; // x not defined
} catch (error) {
  console.error("Error caught:", error.message);
}

Ques: How does finally work in error handling?

Ans: finally runs always, whether an error occurs or not — typically used for cleanup tasks.

try {
  console.log("Trying...");
  throw new Error("Oops!");
} catch (e) {
  console.log("Caught error:", e.message);
} finally {
  console.log("Always runs (cleanup)");
}

Ques: Can we have try without catch?

Ans: Yes, a try block can be followed by finally only if you don’t need to handle the error but still need cleanup.

try {
  openFile();
} finally {
  closeFile();
}

Ques: What is the throw statement used for?

Ans: Used to manually generate an error when a condition fails.

function divide(a, b) {
  if (b === 0) throw new Error("Division by zero!");
  return a / b;
}

try {
  console.log(divide(5, 0));
} catch (e) {
  console.log(e.message);
}

Ques: What values can be thrown in JavaScript?

Ans: You can throw any type (though best practice is to throw Error objects).

throw "string error";
throw 404;
throw { message: "Custom error" };
throw new Error("Something went wrong!");

Ques: What is the best practice when throwing errors?

• Always throw instances of the Error object for consistency.
• Include a meaningful message.
• Use specific custom error classes when necessary.

Ques: What are custom errors in JavaScript?

Ans: Custom errors are user-defined error types created by extending the Error class.

class ValidationError extends Error {
  constructor(message) {
    super(message);
    this.name = "ValidationError";
  }
}

try {
  throw new ValidationError("Invalid email format!");
} catch (e) {
  console.log(e.name + ": " + e.message);
}

Ques: Why use custom errors?

• To provide clearer error categorization
• To handle different error types differently
• For better debugging and logging

Ques: What properties does the Error object have?

Example:

try {
  throw new TypeError("Wrong type!");
} catch (e) {
  console.log(e.name);    // TypeError
  console.log(e.message); // Wrong type!
  console.log(e.stack);   // Stack trace
}

Ques: What is the stack property used for?

Ans: It provides a trace of function calls that led to the error — helpful for debugging.

Ques: How do you handle errors in asynchronous code (callbacks)?

Ans: Always pass error as the first argument in callbacks.

fs.readFile("file.txt", (err, data) => {
  if (err) return console.error(err);
  console.log(data);
});

Ques: How to handle errors in Promises?

fetch("invalid-url")
  .then(res => res.json())
  .catch(err => console.log("Error:", err));

Ques: How to handle errors using async/await?

async function getData() {
  try {
    const res = await fetch("invalid-url");
    const data = await res.json();
  } catch (error) {
    console.log("Caught async error:", error.message);
  }
}

Ques: What happens if you don’t catch a rejected Promise?

Ans: It results in an “UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning”, and in modern JS, it can crash your app.

Ques: Can catch handle syntax errors?

Ans: No, Syntax errors are detected before execution, so try...catch cannot handle them.

Ques: Can you nest try...catch blocks?

Ans: Yes, inner errors can be caught separately.

try {
  try {
    throw new Error("Inner error");
  } catch (e) {
    console.log("Inner caught");
    throw e; // rethrow
  }
} catch (e) {
  console.log("Outer caught");
}

Ques: What does “rethrowing” mean in JS?

Ans: You can rethrow an error from a catch block to pass it up the chain.

Ques: Is try...catch blocking or asynchronous?

Ans: try...catch is synchronous — it only catches errors that happen inside the same call stack, not inside async callbacks.

Ques: How to catch errors globally in the browser?

window.onerror = function(message, source, lineno, colno, error) {
  console.log("Global Error:", message);
};

Ques: How to catch unhandled promise rejections globally?

window.addEventListener("unhandledrejection", e => {
  console.error("Unhandled Promise Rejection:", e.reason);
});

Ques: What’s the difference between Error, EvalError, and RangeError?