
Questions to ask in interviews - obi1kenobi
https://cternus.net/blog/2017/10/10/questions-i-m-asking-in-interviews-2017/
======
loteck
Hopefully someday I'll be such a sought-after resource that I could grill a
company in the way this post suggests.

As it is, I choose my interview battles carefully. One of my favorite
questions I ask is whether my position is new (rare for my situation) or if I
am replacing someone who left.

This very naturally opens up a conversation about expectations from both
sides. If someone separated, why do the interviewers think it didn't work out?
If this is a new position, how do they imagine the first year?

Suddenly you're talking about culture, performance and policies without having
asked directly about any of those topics.

~~~
arielm
I (founder) actually love hearing these types of questions because they convey
actual interest.

However, by no means am I saying ask for the sake of asking because I’ll read
through that and will probably try to turn it into a conversation you’d be
expected to participate in ;)

~~~
AdamJacobMuller
Same here.

Very often it's the questions the interviewee asks in the interview that make
my mind up on a hire/pass decision.

~~~
malyk
This one is a killer. When I talk to candidates in an interview we do a 30ish
minute problem and then you get 30 minutes time to ask anything you can think
of with your potential boss. So many people have no questions. You really
don't care if we don't use source control, do waterfall development, make
people work 14 hour days, or code in pascal? (None of that is true, but if you
never ask...)

------
kafkaesq
A mixed bag. Questions like:

 _Tell me about your hiring process — how many rounds, how many interviewers?
Is there anything special about your interview process I should know? Are
coding interviews on a whiteboard or laptop? What resources do candidates have
access to while coding? Assuming the process goes well, how long does your
hiring process typically take? How long do candidates who are given offers
have to decide on an offer?_

are perfectly fine, because they're simple and objective, _and_ can be
immediately answered by the company (if they have their shit together on any
meaningful level). But questions like:

 _What are you trying to figure out about a candidate in an interview? Why do
you think your current process does that effectively? What biases have you
decided to accept in your hiring process? Which are you trying to change?_

would be a red flag, because really now, it's not like employers have huge
swaths of time available to holistically explain the raison d'être of their
hiring process and how it got that way. If anything it's the exact opposite --
if they company is successful, then their people have _almost no time at all_
to wax philosophic which each and every candidate about such topics.

So to ask questions of the latter sort strikes me as a bit obtuse.

~~~
kevinr
Companies above garage size literally employ people to answer candidate
questions. If the company hasn't invested the time to answer "What are you
trying to figure out about a candidate in an interview?" and its recruiters
don't have a simple, objective answer, they should stop interviewing and go
answer that before they start again.

A simple answer is something like, "We want to figure out whether a candidate
can do the work we need them to do. We do that by giving candidates sample
work problems which are streamlined versions of problems we've actually solved
at the company in the past. People we hire are more likely to still be
employed with us than they are at our competitors after a year. We know we
don't hire enough women and URMs into technical roles, and we're instituting a
rule that at least one woman or URM candidate needs to be interviewed for each
open role."

~~~
kafkaesq
"We want to figure out whether a candidate can do the work we need them to
do."

Well, yeah, that's the thing - the answer is (or should be) so self-evident
that one wonders if one wonders whether the question is really worth the
bandwidth.

~~~
kevinr
So few companies are clear about it in their hiring processes, and therefore
wind up hiring for all sorts of skills which have at best weak bearing on
actual job performance in most roles (eg. brain teaser memorization) that the
answer is, empirically, yes.

~~~
kafkaesq
Hmm. I have they sense they know do what they want ("a candidate who can do
the work") but have but are basically at a loss as to how to
_deterministically assess_ that via the standard interview format. Hence the
brain teaser stuff.

------
quickben
Hunt for red flags, you can thank me later:

-The person I'm replacing, why did they leave?

-How much overtime is done and is it paid? Are weekends required? Are people asked to _volunteer_ for a weekend shift? Do you have "deployment days" where people have to stay until/past midnight not accounted anywhere?

-Who is going to be my manager/technical lead? Can I talk to them?

-Is this a full time position, or full time supplemental (ex: IBM) Oh, it's full time suplemental, is overtime paid? Do I have vacation days and health insurance?

-Can you show me the exact spot where I'll be sitting?

-Can I take two weeks to decide on the offer considering I have currently three more interviews in progress?

~~~
CommanderData
A trap I see promoted by recruiters and companies with poor culture (typically
big corporate settings) is to not ask any probing questions.

Interviewers should have no problems answering questions about their work
culture unless it is unhealthy or broken.

I was once told I was egotistical after the interview (because of my probing
questions) but was offered and accepted the job anyway - it was a admirable
brand. Quickly found myself regretting. My questions were based around work
culture (Is this a new position? Have many people have left recently? etc.)

Discovered the department was toxic, aggressive members with terrible traits.
Structurally very secure from legal and HR so unlikely to change anything.

Thankfully was early in my career and left. Lesson? Take the time to
thoroughly question the interviewer and reject any company that seems
avoiding. Take the advice from this article.

Never had a bad role since.

------
ben174
One thing I wish I'd asked before starting the job I currently have is how
much IT likes to dictate what you can and cannot do on your work machine.

They block iCloud, Messages.app, have some _horrible_ resource-heavy anti-
virus, and a ton of other restrictions on my machine that impair my ability to
get my job done.

~~~
santaclaus
> iCloud, Messages.app

At least you get to use macOS at work, mad jealous!

~~~
pmalynin
Come work at Intuit, we get to use a Mac and the apps aren't blocked.

~~~
cdancette
the company that lobbied against a free and simple tax filling software ?

------
stephengillie
Of all my interview questions[0], the favorite is "what is the biggest
technical thorn in the company's side." It gets a different response from
every person, which gives an interesting perspective of a company.

[0]
[http://gilgamech.com/docs/resume/interview.txt](http://gilgamech.com/docs/resume/interview.txt)

~~~
uiri
Another question that yields different responses from everyone that I like to
ask: "what is your more favorite and what is your least favorite thing about
working here?"

~~~
faster
I aks for three of each, because the first one in each category is predictable
and therefore not useful.

------
john_moscow
_Is your team diverse? Is diversity a priority, and if so, what do you do to
promote it?_

Am I the only person to call BS on this one? How this is likely going to be
interpreted by an interviewer is "can I excuse my poorer skills/performance by
capitalizing on my gender/race?", so you will get a politically correct answer
like "diversity is among our core values and we promote it by giving
preference to <...> among the candidates with equal skills and backgrounds"
and will never hear from them again.

I mean, diversity is a legitimate value, but asking this during an interview
when you are trying to advertise yourself as a valuable addition to the team,
is a bit strange IMO.

~~~
venantius
I care about diversity. I've had experience with enough teams to know that
teams that are homogenous (in whatever way -- this isn't exclusive to white
guys, though that's the obvious example) tend to have problems.

~~~
john_moscow
I think I know what you're talking about. I've seen teams where everyone tries
to look exactly the same way and is expected to have exactly the same
interests and hobbies. That usually ends up being quite toxic and
demotivating.

The trouble is - once the company starts setting quotas and special rules for
enforcing diversity, it attracts the type of people that focus on gaming those
rules instead of bringing in added value and this quickly creates another form
of toxicity.

In my opinion the ideal work environment is somewhere between those 2
extremes.

~~~
oddlyaromatic
> it attracts the type of people that focus on gaming those rules

Can you tell me how you know this or what makes you think it is true? It
sounds like a readily available stereotype.

~~~
john_moscow
Human nature really. The moment you transition from applying common sense to a
formal set of rules, there are always some people ready to abuse it. One of
the well-known historical anecdote would be the cobra effect [1], I guess.

A more recent example is how whiteboard programming questions during
interviews turned out to be ineffective because it indicated how well a
candidate rehearsed this type of questions, rather than their programming
abilities.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect)

~~~
oddlyaromatic
The whiteboard thing is different. Candidates of all backgrounds can practice
that and thus make it less effective as a tool to filter out bad applicants.
But diversity quotas, for example, are harder to game because most people
can't change much about themselves to meet diversity criteria. So instead you
are presumably talking about people who use their background to get an
advantage in the hiring process and end up in roles a role for which they are
not competent. But this is also fuzzy, because if the company is seeking
diversity, why shouldn't people apply and let the company decide if their
skills are sufficient? How are they "gaming" something by showing up and being
hired? That's a failing of the company, not the candidate.

------
wellpast
When I evaluate a job, I usually optimize for a few things (position,
location, salary, tech) but very TOP of the list (i.e., non-negotiable) is
what my sense of happiness as a contributor/developer will be.

A very good metric to this (for me) is lines of code. Take where they say
their product is (in terms of features etc) and then weigh that agains their
LOC (if they're willing to give it to you)... If you get a sense that the LOC
is far too much wrt the capability of the product (experience/intuition will
give you a feel for this over time, as you start paying attention to the
metric)... this will give you a good sense of how many late nights you'll be
spending trying to fix some nasty bugs or contend with spaghettini instead of
delivering real value.

~~~
sidlls
Experience and intuition give you approximately no useful, valid "feel" for
how much LOC is appropriate for a given thing, with the possible exception of
outliers or incredibly trivial programs.

We don't value LOC as a measure of productivity because it is a terrible
metric to use. That doesn't change just because a person is on the developer
rather than the manager side of things.

~~~
wellpast
LOC can be a huge indicator of quality of code imho—would you want to work on
a 100k loc app that is more or less crud operations for a specific domain?
Etc.

~~~
yxhuvud
I couldnt care less as long as the codebase has a decent structure. And decent
structure often increase lines of code.

~~~
wellpast
I’ve found the opposite to be true. Good structure yields succinctness.

~~~
sidlls
It may, but LOC isn't a good measure of succinctness. It might be a good
measure for terseness, but that's different.

~~~
wellpast
I think it can safely be said by any programmer, at least, that succinctness
and terseness are correlated.

------
exabrial
Side note: I'm to point now if I get pointless algorithm pop quiz questions in
an interview I'll politely ask to move on.

~~~
peterlk
What response do you receive when you ask to move on?

~~~
ben_jones
Probable response: `${GENERIC_APOLOGY}, i'll show you out.`

Probable thought process of interviewer:

* What a prick

* LOL we have 200 resumes on file for this position

* Dammit I'm going to have to interview more people

* When can I go back to being an actual engineer, the job I was hired for

~~~
packetslave
+1 for the thought process. You left out "Damn, I suck at interviewing. I
can't believe they want ME to help decide who we hire. I'm still trying to
figure out how _I_ snuck in the door."

------
Kluny
If you ask too many of these questions you're going to set off red flags that
you're an entitled person who's looking to receive more value than you
contribute. I'd focus more on asking about the company's future plans and
strategies.

~~~
rajathagasthya
Why? I think you're perfectly entitled to ask questions that affect your day-
to-day. It isn't a one-way street.

~~~
user5994461
The wording of the questions could be improved.

------
kabdib
One dev I worked with asked the following question at the companies he
interviewed at (he got offers from all of them, btw): "What percentage of your
co-workers would you like to see fired?"

Most interviewers responded in the ten percent range. One notable exception
was a place where they responded with "fifty percent" \-- I can't imagine what
it was like there.

~~~
ramzyo
Amazed he got offers from all of them. If someone asked this during an
interview I would most definitely not give them an offer. It seems indicative
of a vengeful and toxic mentality.

------
dominotw
>What are you trying to figure out about a candidate in an interview? Why do
you think your current process does that effectively?

I asked this to my netflix interviewer, he just mumbled some incoherent answer
about "netflix values" and didn't answer my question. He seemed to get angry
when I reworded my question and asked him again.

Seems like they have no idea why they are following that process, just blindly
copying "industry best practices" .

~~~
leakydropout
Netflix is very (in)famous for their culture deck. I could understand they got
a little piqued. Assuming you did not read it before the interview, they are
looking for: good judgment, communicative, impactful, curious, innovative,
courageous, passionate, honest, not selfish, performant, smart, professional
team players. Hah.

[https://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664](https://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664)
(17 million + views)

I am on the fence about the second part of your question. On the one hand: If
they are free to grill you about hypotheticals and process, why can't you do
the same? On the other hand, should you really? It is a very cheeky
("courageous") question that would catch me off guard. "Who are you to
question the very job interview we are currently having? How is this relevant
to your prospective job? Current interview not up to par for you?".

~~~
dominotw
Recruiter made me read through the slide deck. He called me the second-time
and 'pop quiz'ed me on the contents of deck.

What a strange company.

------
nunez
Note that the questions re: business plan are more appropriate for a startup
unless you’re applying for an executive role, in which case you aren’t
interviewing in this way anyway. (Interviews for exec level positions are MUCH
more thorough/prolonged and take a lot of time given the $$$ and
responsibility involved).

Also, the questions re: benefits etc. are more well-suited towards the
recruiter you’re working with or HR; it is highly unlikely that the hiring
manager knows enough about those things to answer your question effectively.

Everything else is pretty good, though I wouldn’t ask it at once (overwhelming
and a negative social signal)

------
avip
Weird list.

I usually ask, in no particular order: What do you do, how do you do it, how
can I help you, can I remote.

~~~
expertentipp
Interviewed by some startups (Berlin) I have been asked if I know or to
explain them what they are doing... and the funniest thing is they were
serious.

~~~
Kluny
Most companies should have that explained on their website - If you haven't
done enough diligence to repeat what's on the website, you may not be a good
candidate.

~~~
s73ver_
I've probably read it, but I doubt I'll have memorized it enough to
regurgitate it back.

And usually it's just BS marketing fluff.

~~~
matwood
C’mon. You should at least know the industry and major product.

------
_Codemonkeyism
I thought I was good at hiring - doing it for 20y - but have no idea.

Three things I want to learn from a candidate:

\- Does she/he feel responsible?

\- Does she/he self reflect and learn or blame others?

\- Can he/she solve problems on her/his own?

Any ideas on how to find out?

~~~
kthejoker2
Situation Behavior Outcome questions do a good job of forcing candidates to
reveal their motivations and thought processes.

Some examples [https://www.themuse.com/advice/30-behavioral-interview-
quest...](https://www.themuse.com/advice/30-behavioral-interview-questions-
you-should-be-ready-to-answer)

~~~
_Codemonkeyism
Thanks!

------
peteretep
Minimum viable interview research: [https://codeformore.com/minimum-viable-
interview-research/](https://codeformore.com/minimum-viable-interview-
research/)

Knowledge is power: Why are they hiring? [https://codeformore.com/knowledge-
power-hiring-new-developer...](https://codeformore.com/knowledge-power-hiring-
new-developer/)

------
b0rsuk
One thing I would like to figure out is how often I can ask for help. Any
ideas how to phrase that ?

I worked in a small company where I was the only programmer and had to figure
everything on my own, plus search engines, IRC, StackOverFlow. Then an
interviewer at Intel was mildly unsatisfied that I didn't ask about a test
question that wasn't entirely clear. Also, one company where I worked very
briefly considered question asked a sign of weakness.

------
yangshun
Another list of questions can be found in this Tech Interview Handbook:

[https://github.com/yangshun/tech-interview-
handbook/blob/mas...](https://github.com/yangshun/tech-interview-
handbook/blob/master/non-technical/questions-to-ask.md)

------
emilecantin
I think the "Team" and "Tech" section are interesting, it's the kind of
question that you genuinely need to know, but the interviewer might find them
a bit "personal".

------
tjalfi
One question that I like is “Who do you admire on your team?”

------
eradicatethots
Asking questions for the sake of asking questions, while currently necessary,
is stupid. I wish it would go away.

~~~
arielm
As a founder who sits in on all interviews I agree, but also believe that
every question/answer is an opportunity to show more personality — on either
side — and as such welcome it.

