While this technical question doesn't specifically ask you to define the term prototypal inheritance, you should start your answer by doing this. This ensures that you are responding to the right question and providing the information the interviewer is requesting. Once you define the term, you can then move on to describing how it works. Sometimes, during an interview, you may want to clarify or confirm a question before providing an answer. This is especially helpful during very technical interviews in which the terminology could have several different meanings.