What is Hot Reload in Flutter?
Why Interviewers Ask This
Foundational questions like this help interviewers calibrate the rest of the interview. A confident, accurate answer signals that you have solid Flutter basics — a prerequisite for any developer role.
Answer
Hot Reload is one of Flutter's most powerful development features. It injects updated source code into the running Dart VM and rebuilds the widget tree while preserving the current app state, usually in under one second. This allows developers to immediately see the effect of UI changes without restarting the app or losing their current navigation position or form data. It is triggered by pressing r in the terminal or clicking the Hot Reload button in the IDE.
Common Mistake
A common mistake is memorizing definitions without understanding implications. When asked this question, go one level deeper — explain what happens when this concept is misused or ignored.