CSR vs. SSR vs. SSG vs. ISR
Four answers to one question: where and when is a web page built? CSR builds it in the user's browser. SSR builds it on the server for every visit. SSG builds every page once, ahead of time. ISR (a Next.js feature) is SSG that quietly rebuilds individual pages when their data changes. A frontend developer who can only name one of these has usually only worked with one; a senior one can say which to use where, and why.
How to tell them apart on a resume
CSR (Client-Side Rendering)
Classic single-page apps: Create React App, Vite + React, Angular, Redux — logged-in dashboards and internal tools where search ranking doesn't matter.
SSR (Server-Side Rendering)
Next.js, Nuxt, Remix, hydration, Core Web Vitals, SEO — public-facing pages where first-load speed and search ranking matter.
SSG (Static Site Generation)
Astro, Gatsby, Hugo, JAMstack, a CDN — blogs, docs and marketing sites whose content rarely changes.
ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration)
Next.js with revalidation, large e-commerce catalogues or media sites — lots of pages that change occasionally, too many to rebuild every time.
The question that settles it
“For the pages you built, where was the HTML actually produced — in the browser, on the server for each request, or ahead of time — and why was that the right choice?”
Read the full definitions
Open the full tool for the other look-alike pairs, role profiles, and the JD decoder.