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Questions to Ask Your Interviewer

Good questions for engineers, managers, executives and recruiters.

Almost every interview ends with "What questions do you have for me?" It's part of the evaluation. Interviewers notice curiosity and preparation, and good questions leave a strong final impression. It's also your best chance to find out whether you actually want this job.

Principles

  • Always ask something. "No, I think you covered everything" signals low interest.
  • Ask about things they personally know. An engineer can tell you about the codebase, and a manager can tell you about the team's priorities.
  • Ask open questions that invite stories: "Tell me about…", "What was it like when…".
  • Prepare 5–6 questions per company. Some will get answered during the interview.
  • Don't ask what's easy to look up, like what the product does.

Good questions by interviewer

Engineers

  • What does a typical week look like for you? How much of it is building versus meetings and support?
  • Tell me about a recent technical decision the team argued about. How was it settled?
  • How does code get from a pull request to production? How long does that take?
  • What's the on-call experience like? What paged you most recently?
  • What do you wish you'd known before you joined?

Hiring manager

  • What would success look like for this role at 6 and 12 months?
  • What's the biggest challenge the team is facing right now?
  • How do you decide what the team works on? How much input do engineers have?
  • How do you support growth? What's an example of someone on the team who grew a lot?
  • What's the gap on the team that this person would fill?

Senior leaders and executives

  • What are the biggest bets the organization is making this year?
  • What would make you say this team had a great year?
  • How has the engineering culture changed as the company has grown?

Recruiter

  • What do the remaining rounds look like, and how should I prepare?
  • What's the timeline for a decision?
  • How is the level decided, and is there flexibility?

[!TIP] Follow up on something they said The best question is one that builds on the conversation: "You mentioned the migration to event-driven services. What's been harder than expected?" It shows you were listening, and it often leads to the most useful answer you'll get.

Questions to avoid, or to save for later

  • Salary, vacation and benefits in early technical rounds. Ask the recruiter instead.
  • "How did I do?" It puts the interviewer in an awkward position, and they usually can't answer.
  • Questions that sound like you're already planning to leave: "How soon can I transfer teams?"
  • Anything that shows you didn't listen to what they just said.

Using the answers

Write the answers down after each round. They're useful for comparing offers, for writing a specific thank-you note, and for your "why this company" answer in later rounds.

[!TIP] Practice What questions do you have for me?