In JavaScript, what does the `new` operator actually do when you evaluate `new Person('Ada')`?

## What `new` is `new` is an operator, not a function call with extra decoration. Written `new Fn(arg1, arg2)`, it asks the function `Fn` to construct something: the language runs `Fn`'s internal construct behaviour rather than its plain call behaviour. Everything below describes that construct behaviour for an ordinary function declared with `function`. ## The four steps Evaluating `new Person('Ada')`: 1. **Create** a new ordinary object — empty, with no own properties. 2. **Link** it: set that object's internal prototype slot (`[[Prototype]]`) to the value of `Person.prototype` at this moment. 3. **Call** `Person` with `this` bound to the new object and the argument list `('Ada')`. 4. **Result**: the expression evaluates to the new object, unless the call returned an object of its own, in which case that object wins. ```js function Person(name) { this.name = name; // step 3: `this` is the new object } Person.prototype.greet = function () { return `Hi, ${this.name}`; }; const p = new Person('Ada'); p.name; // 'Ada' — own property, put there in step 3 Object.getPrototypeOf(p) === Person.prototype; // true — step 2 p.greet(); // 'Hi, Ada' — found by delegation, not copied ``` ## Step 1 and 2: creation and the prototype link The object is created *before* the body runs, which is why `this` already exists on the constructor's first line. The link established in step 2 is what makes the instance behave like a `Person`: `p` has no `greet` of its own, but a property read that misses on the object continues along the prototype link and finds `greet` on `Person.prototype`. The link is a **reference to an object**, not a snapshot of its contents. Add a method to `Person.prototype` after `p` exists and `p` can call it immediately, because `p` points at the same object you just mutated: ```js Person.prototype.shout = function () { return this.name.toUpperCase(); }; p.shout(); // 'ADA' — works on an instance created earlier ``` The opposite is also true and surprises people: *replacing* `Person.prototype` with a whole new object does not retroactively re-link existing instances. `p` still points at the old object; only instances created after the reassignment get the new one. ## The `Person.prototype` fallback Step 2 reads `Person.prototype` and requires an object. If it is a primitive or `null` — someone wrote `Person.prototype = 42` or `null` — the engine does not throw; it links the new object to the built-in `Object.prototype` instead: ```js function F() {} F.prototype = 42; Object.getPrototypeOf(new F()) === Object.prototype; // true ``` This is a small piece of trivia that reveals whether someone has actually read what the operator does or is reciting a blog summary. ## Step 3: `this` inside the body During the construct call, `this` is the freshly created object — not the function, not the global object, not `Person.prototype`. Anything the body assigns to `this` becomes an **own** property of the instance, which is exactly why per-instance state goes on `this` and shared behaviour goes on `Person.prototype`: methods placed on the prototype exist once, whereas a function assigned to `this` inside the body is re-created for every instance. ## Step 4: the result With no `return` statement — the normal case — the expression is the new object. A constructor body that ends without returning anything still produces the instance, so `return this;` at the end of a constructor is redundant, not required. (A constructor that deliberately returns *another* object overrides the result; that is a rule in its own right.) ## Syntax details that come up `new Person` with no argument list is legal and identical to `new Person()`. Precedence matters when a member access is involved: `new Foo.bar()` reads `Foo.bar` first and constructs *that*, while `new Foo().bar` constructs `Foo` and then reads `bar` off the instance. When in doubt, add the parentheses. ## Why interviewers ask this The four steps are the smallest complete model of object creation in JavaScript, and almost every downstream question depends on them: why methods live on `prototype`, why a forgotten `new` corrupts state, why one function can serve as a factory for thousands of objects that share one method object. Being able to recite the steps *in order* — create, link, call with `this`, return — and to name what each one buys you is the whole answer.