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49 Best Questions to Ask an Interviewer Software Engineer (With Tips)

October 21, 2025

You can know every sorting algorithm by heart and still freeze when the interviewer flips the script and says, “So… do you have any questions for me?” Been there. When prepping for my first Amazon interview, asking good questions was optional. Turns out, it’s half the interview. The right questions show you care more than just getting the offer; you’re figuring out if you want to work there.

In this guide, I’ll share how I learned to ask questions that open up honest conversations about the codebase, the culture, and what growth looks like once you’re in. And yeah, Interview Coder’s AI Interview Assistant helps a ton with that. It gives you innovative question suggestions, lets you practice your delivery, and lets you phrase things naturally. Hence, you sound like a confident engineer, not a nervous candidate reading from a script.

Why Should You Even Ask Questions in a Software Engineering Interview?

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Ask Like Someone Who Cares: Because You Should

When you ask sharp, specific questions, it shows one thing: you give a damn. About the job, the team, the product. You’re not just speedrunning LeetCode and hoping for a lucky break. You’ve read the job post, maybe poked through their GitHub, and noticed they launched something new last month. Asking “What trade-offs did you deal with during that launch?” shows you did more than memorize a script.

Curiosity Isn’t Just a Buzzword: It’s How You Think in Public

The best candidates I’ve seen? They listen. Then they ask one good follow-up that makes the interviewer pause and go, “Oh yeah, that was tricky.” That’s the moment you win. Try asking things like “Can you walk me through a recent design debate, maybe between speed vs reliability how it played out?” Now you’ve got a real story, not a vague answer. Bonus, it shows you’re the type who follows threads, not just headlines.

Culture Isn’t Ping-Pong Tables: It’s How People Talk to Each Other

Forget the perks. Ask how they handle disagreements.

  • Ask, “How do you run design reviews?”
  • Ask, “What does mentorship actually look like for juniors?”

You're not looking for the perfect answer. You’re listening for tone. If someone flinches when you mention feedback or gives some half-baked answer about “open-door policies,” trust your gut.

Don’t Walk Into a Burning Codebase Blind

Please don’t be the person who joins a team and only then asks how bad the tech debt is. Ask up front:

These aren’t nitpicks, they’re your day-to-day. It’s your future weekends on-call. Ask like someone who’s going to inherit that pager.

Ask Smarter Questions: What I Actually Asked Before I Joined Amazon

Look, most interview questions people ask are... boring. "What's the culture like?" Cool. You’ll learn more about the culture in your first Slack thread than from a recruiter’s canned response.

If you're serious about evaluating a job, ask like someone who gives a damn about doing the job. Here's how I’ve approached it every time I got past the phone screen, and yes, these kinds of questions helped me land at Amazon, Meta, and TikTok. Interview Coder made it easy to prep, but these questions? This is what helped me figure out whether I even wanted the offer.

Let’s break it down.

What Success Looks Like (Before You Even Write a Line of Code)

One of the best things you can ask:

“If I crush it in my first 90 days, what does that actually look like?”

Forget vague motivational nonsense. You want numbers. You want outcomes. Ask:

  • What are the immediate priorities for this role?
  • What does ownership really look like here? Like, who decides when something ships?

You’re not just trying to impress them; you’re testing if they know how to manage engineers properly.

Is Growth Just a Buzzword or Do They Actually Promote People?

This is where things get real.

Ask:

  • “What are the promotion criteria?”
  • “How often do people get feedback that actually leads to career progression?”
  • “Does the company cover learning budgets or conference trips?”

If they squirm or give you a vague “we support growth,” run. That usually means: “you’ll be stuck on the same level for 3 years while your manager forgets you exist.”

What’s the Actual Work Like (Not the Shiny Job Post Version)

People love to sugarcoat this part. Don’t let them.

Ask:

  • “How much of the week is spent building vs fixing things that break?”
  • “How often do I get pulled into on-call rotations?”
  • “Are sprint retros real or just calendar noise?”

Your time is expensive. You deserve to know if you’re entering a death spiral of tech debt and pager alerts.

When to Ask About Salary (Spoiler: Not Yet)

Don’t lead with “how much does it pay?” That’s like asking someone to marry you before the first date.

Early interviews are about fit. If the vibe is good and you’re deep in the loop, you bring up pay, equity, and benefits.

But it’s totally fine to ask about:

  • Remote work flexibility
  • Time off policies
  • Parental leave and other actual life stuff

Keep the comp convo until you’ve got leverage.

Interview by Interview: What to Ask at Each Stage

You don’t need to shotgun 20 questions. Just ask the right ones based on who you’re talking to:

Recruiter Screen

  • “What does the full interview loop look like?”
  • “Who makes the final hiring call?”

Technical Round

  • “What assumptions should I make about constraints?”
  • “What matters more: speed or readability?”

Manager Round

  • “What’s your biggest headache right now?”
  • “What’s the highest-stakes project for this team this quarter?”

Peer Round

  • “What tools do you actually use?”
  • “How long does it take to get a PR reviewed?”

You’re not there to be polite but to collect signals.

My Favorite Questions (AKA Stuff That Actually Helped Me Decide)

Here’s a grab bag I keep coming back to:

  • What’s the tech stack, and who decided that?
  • How do you manage tradeoffs between roadmap and tech debt?
  • What happens when prod goes down? Who owns that mess?
  • How do PMs, engineers, and designers make calls together?
  • What’s onboarding like? Sink or swim, or is there structure?
  • How do you measure output without turning into Jira police?
  • How fast is your release cycle, and is it actually automated?
  • Tell me about the last thing that shipped and flopped.

If they hesitate, that tells you more than the answer.

Pick Your Battles: You Only Need a Few Great Questions

Here’s The Move

  • Pick two categories that matter to you now (growth, compensation, day-to-day, etc.)
  • Prep two questions per interviewer. That’s it.

Clean. Focused. You get the signal you need without sounding like you’re reading off a Reddit checklist.

Related Reading

Top 49 Questions To Ask an Interviewer Software Engineer

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1. Ask This Before They Ask You Anything

“Why Is This Job Open?”

Don’t wait until the end when they ask, " Do you have any questions for us?” That’s amateur hour. Ask this first.

You’ll learn everything you need to know in the first 30 seconds:

  • Are they growing? Backfilling? Losing people?
  • Is this a mess they need cleaned up?
  • Are you walking into chaos, or into a team that’s finally adding firepower?

Whatever they say, that’s your blueprint. If they’re behind on shipping, you talk about how you’ve hit tight deadlines. If they lost a backend dev, you position yourself as the backend fixer. They tell you what they need, and you show them you are that.

You flip the dynamic from “I hope they like me” to “Let me show you I solve the problem you just told me about.”

2. Don’t Just Ask What You’ll Build: Ask What You’ll Build With

“What Programming Languages, Frameworks, And Libraries Are You Using?”

Too many folks skip this or treat it like small talk. Don’t. You’re about to spend months (maybe years) in that codebase. You'd better like the tools.

Ask why they picked those tools. Especially if they’re weird or unexpected, it shows you’re not just a code monkey, you think about tech stacks and tradeoffs.

Also, listen for legacy red flags. If they say, “We still use ColdFusion but we’re migrating to something modern soon,” run.

3. Ask where the bodies are buried

“What Kind Of Databases Do You Use, And Where’s The Data Stored?”

Look, nobody puts “bad data architecture” on the job posting. But you should know that upfront if they’re still running production on an EC2 instance with a Postgres DB they SSH into.

Figure out:

  • SQL, NoSQL, or a Frankenstein combo?
  • On-prem or cloud? (And which one: AWS, Azure, GCP, or mystery box?)
  • Are they secure? Or duct-taping stuff together and praying?

If you’ve got experience with their stack, bring it up. If not, at least show you’re thinking about it.

4. Check their Git Game

“What Source Control Do You Use?”

If they say anything other than Git, smile, nod, and quietly move on with your life.

More importantly, do they have a real branching model? Do PRs get reviewed? Is there CI? Or is it YOLO pushing straight to the main?

This question helps determine whether you're walking into a team with engineering discipline or just vibes.

5. Find Out How Much Tech Debt You’re Inheriting

“Where’s Your Tech Debt? And Are You Actually Fixing It?”

Every company has tech debt, and that’s fine. But are they fixing it or just ignoring it and hoping it goes away?

Listen for things like:

  • “We don’t have tests for that part of the system.”
  • “We’re planning to rewrite that module someday.”
  • “The person who built that left, and we don’t really touch it anymore.”

Red flags everywhere.

Suppose you’re the kind of dev who can clean up messes, cool. But don’t walk in blind.

6. Ask Who You’ll Actually Be In The Trenches With

“How Big Is The Team And Who’s On It?”

This one tells you what your day-to-day looks like. Small team? You’re doing everything infra, frontend, deployments, maybe even support tickets.

Big team? You may be cranking out API endpoints all day.

Neither is wrong. Just make sure it fits you.

Also, do they have testers, designers, DevOps folks? Or are you expected to wear 14 hats and still ship on Fridays?

7. Check How Often You’ll Get Interrupted

“How Many Meetings Do Engineers Typically Attend Each Week?”

You can be the most innovative developer on earth, but if you’re stuck in meetings five hours a day, you'll have trouble getting anything done.

Some teams run lean with 2–3 standups weekly, while others turn your calendar into a crime scene.

Ask early. Guard your deep work hours like your mental health depends on it. (Because it does.)

9. Estimation: Who Pulls the Strings?

I hate guessing how long things take without context. Worse than guessing, some PMs rewrite your estimate just to meet a deadline.

Ask how estimation works. Who’s involved? What method? What happens when the estimate doesn’t match reality?

If you’re not in the room when timelines are decided, prepare to be blamed when they slip.

10. Code Reviews: Is It Feedback or Ego Theater?

I’ve seen code reviews that felt like a mentoring session. I’ve also seen code reviews that felt like hazing.

Ask:

  • Who does reviews?
  • What kind of feedback is normal?
  • Can juniors review seniors?
  • Is it async or live?

A culture of thoughtful code reviews = a culture where engineers actually grow. Anything else is noise.

11. Local Testing + Deployment Cadence: How Painful Is Your Dev Loop?

You should be able to test code on your own machine. Sounds obvious, but I’ve joined projects where even that was impossible.

Ask:

  • Can I run the app locally without begging DevOps?
  • How soon does a pull request make it to prod?
  • What’s the deployment checklist?

Fast loops make happy devs. Slow ones make Slack-fueled burnout machines.

12. Releases: Do Your Commits Ever See Daylight?

Some teams “release” once a quarter, while others push to prod 15 times daily. I don’t care which one you choose; just make sure you know what you’re signing up for.

Also ask:

  • Is there a release manager?
  • How are rollbacks handled?
  • What’s the worst deploy they’ve had?

This isn’t about getting dirt, it’s about understanding risk and responsibility.

13. Process Drift: Are They Evolving or Stuck?

Every team either adapts or calcifies. Ask how their process has changed over the last year.

This one question tells you:

  • Whether they reflect
  • Whether they experiment
  • Whether they’re open to feedback (aka, whether your ideas will matter)

I once joined a team that claimed to be " agile” but hadn’t changed anything since 2014. Pass.

14. Dev’s Org Placement: Are You Heard or Herded?

Where does the engineering org live?

  • Do developers report to a CTO or a marketing exec?
  • Is QA part of the team or a separate afterthought?
  • Are data, infra, and product all sitting at the same table?

This isn’t politics. It’s power. Who owns the product vision? Who gets listened to? Who gets blamed?

If engineers aren’t in the loop early, you’re just a code monkey in a JIRA zoo.

15. Planning & Prioritization: Are Engineers Involved or Dictated To?

If you’ve ever built something that didn’t need to be built, you know how painful it is.

So ask:

  • Who decides what gets built?
  • Do devs get a seat at the table during roadmap planning?
  • Has the team ever successfully prioritized tech debt?

The best teams I’ve worked with had engineers involved from the start, not after six managers and a finance guy had already signed off on the spec doc.

Ask how design and engineering decisions get made. Ask how disagreements are handled. Team vote? Tech lead calls the shot?

You’ll learn quickly if this is a group of adults or a hierarchy pretending to be one.

16. Ask How They Measure “Good”

Look, every company loves to say they care about quality. But how do they actually prove it?

I always ask this in interviews: “What metrics do you track for engineers?”

If they jump straight to “story points,” “velocity,” or “how fast we ship,” I raise an eyebrow. Fast is great, but fast and broken is just tech debt on steroids.

You want to hear things like:

  • Defect escape rate (how many bugs make it to prod)
  • Mean time to recovery
  • Code review turnaround time

Those are signs they care about outcomes, not just output. They care about more than shipping for the sake of shipping.

17. Ask when they last took a risk

Here’s the question that always gets an awkward pause:

“When’s the last time the team tried something new like a new language, framework, or weird idea and how did it go?”

If they haven’t tried anything in years, that tells you everything. That’s not a team that’s learning. That’s a team running on autopilot.

And if they did try something, dig into how leadership reacted, especially if it flopped.

Did people get burned for failing?

Or did they treat it as part of the job?

I want to work somewhere that expects a few misfires. That’s where the real learning happens, not on teams where one bad pull request gets you sidelined.

18. Ask If Managers Still Touch Code

This one’s personal for me.

Early in my career, I had a manager reviewing my code who hadn’t written a line in six years. That was brutal. The feedback was vague and nitpicky, and usually missed the real issues.

So now, I always ask:

“Do any of the managers still code?”

If they don’t? That is no problem; just don’t expect technical mentorship.

But if they’re giving feedback, they better be close enough to the codebase to provide feedback that helps you grow. Otherwise, it’s just noise.

19. Ask How Often You’ll Talk To Non-Engineers

Some engineers want deep focus. Others like bouncing ideas around across teams.

So ask:

“How much do engineers interact with other departments?”

Then ask why.

Is it because the team is collaborative? Or is the company just chaotic, and everyone ends up doing everything?

On the other hand, if engineers are siloed, is this intentional so they can focus, or is it just poor communication?

I’ve been in both setups. Find what works best for you and see if the company matches.

20. Ask How They Support Junior Devs: It Tells You Everything

Even if you’re not junior anymore, this is one of my go-to questions:

“How do you support junior developers on the team?”

Why? Because if the company invests in juniors, it usually means they invest in people. That’s the kind of culture that doesn’t ghost you when you’re stuck or blame you when something weird happens in prod.

Bad Answer

“We expect them to keep up.”

Good Answer

“We pair them with a mentor and ramp them up with scoped tasks.”

This one’s a peek into how they build talent or whether they just burn through it.

21. Ask What “Training” Actually Looks Like

You’d be surprised how many companies say, “We train juniors,” and then just hand them Confluence links from 2017.

Ask this:

“What does training look like for someone starting out?”

You’re not looking for some big fancy program; it's just a sign they’ve considered it.

Do they do code-alongs? Pair programming? Give juniors real tickets early on? They probably don't have a plan if they don’t have an answer.

22. Ask What The First Week Of Work Looks Like

This is a fun one because it breaks the script.

“What are the first few tasks you typically assign to new hires?”

If they say “setup your dev environment and then figure things out,” yikes.

You’re looking for answers like:

  • Small, scoped bugs
  • Internal tooling tasks
  • Shadowing a code review

This tells you how intentional their onboarding process is and whether they just throw people into the fire or help them get their footing.

23. Ask When Juniors Ship To Production

This one tells you a lot about trust and team confidence.

“How soon do junior devs get to push changes to production?”

If the answer is “within the first month,” that’s a great sign. They trust their onboarding process and review pipeline and are not afraid to let people learn by doing.

If the answer is “not for a long time,” follow up with why.

Sometimes it’s for legit reasons. Other times, the culture treats juniors like liabilities instead of future rock stars.

24. Ask If Mentorship Continues Beyond Onboarding

Mentorship isn’t just a “first 30 days” thing.

So I always ask:

“Is there ongoing mentorship after the first few weeks or months?”

Are juniors left to fend for themselves after onboarding ends? Or is there structured support, regular check-ins, pair sessions, and access to senior engineers who actually care?

This one matters a lot if you’re still early in your career. But it also matters if you’re mid or senior level. Because if you join, you might be the one mentoring, and you want to know what kind of culture you’re walking into.

1. “How Did You End Up Here, And Why Are You Still Here?”

This one’s gold. Ask it casually like you’re genuinely curious (because you should be). It’s not just about getting a feel-good story. It shows you care about people, not just perks. Listen to what they say and what they skip. That tells you everything.

2. “Do You All Ever Run Hackathons?”

If a team has hackathons, they give engineers space to think outside the box, build fast, and break stuff well. If they say “yes,” ask what came out of the last one. If it ended in pizza and a Jira ticket no one touched again, that’s one vibe. If something was shipped? That’s different.

3. “Do Devs Actually Go To Conferences Or Meetups, Or Is That Just Marketing Talk?”

I like to ask this one after they say they value learning. If no team member has been to a meetup in two years and is allergic to travel budgets, you know where things stand. Bonus points if they name specific conferences and devs who went.

Also, come ready. Mention a few events you’d want to attend. Signal you're not just asking, you're someone who cares about growing.

4. “What Do Your Customers Actually Use The Product For?”

If the person you’re talking to can’t answer this without reading off the website, that’s a flag. Ask what makes customers stick around. Sound engineers ask about code. Great ones care about why that code exists.

5. “What’s The Biggest Thing The Company’s Trying To Do This Year?”

Forget vision decks and brand manifestos. Ask what they’re actually trying to pull off this quarter or year. If they can tie your role directly into that effort, it's nice you’re not joining some backwater team that ships once a year. You’re in the flow.

6. “How Have You Seen [Insert Company Value] Show Up In Real Life?”

Every company has a list of values that sounds like ChatGPT generated them. This question cuts through that. You want the messy examples. The hard calls. Like: “We almost launched that thing, but didn’t because it went against XYZ.” Absolute values cost something. Look for receipts.

7. “What Makes You Excited About Where The Company Is Heading?”

When someone answers this with genuine energy, not just “we’re growing” or “lots of opportunity,” pay attention. Do they light up talking about a new project, team, or direction? If they’re stoked, maybe you will be too.

8. “What Are The Expectations For This Role In The First 30, 60, 90 Days?”

Let’s skip the vibes and get practical. This question helps you determine whether they’ve considered the role. Some places will have a plan (excellent), while others will basically say, “I don't know, figure it out” (less significant). Expectations change over time, so ask about that, too.

9. “Can You Walk Me Through The Team I’d Be Working With?”

Get names. Get roles. Get a sense of size, structure, and chaos levels. Ask how they work together, do they pair? Do they throw tickets over the wall? You’ll spend much time with these folks, so you might as well know what you’re walking into.

10. “What Tech Stack Are Y’all Using?”

You’re not asking this to quiz them, you’re trying to see if you’ll be productive on day one or googling setup instructions on some deprecated internal Confluence wiki. Ask what tools they like, what they hate, and what’s being replaced soon.

11. “How Does The Team Usually Plan Projects?”

This one tells you more than you think. Do they run on sprints? Do they ship weekly? Is it chaos with deadlines that change on Slack every Friday? You want to know how work gets from idea → done. If their planning process makes sense to you, great. If not, at least you know.

Want to add a line about Interview Coder here to tie this in?

Let me know if you want these structured into a single blog section with markdown formatting. I'd be happy to format it blog-ready.

25. “How Did You End Up Here: And What’s Kept You From Bouncing?”

Forget the job description. This question gets to the real stuff. People don’t stay at a company for five years because of the snack bar. Ask the hiring manager why they joined and what’s made them stick around. Watch their face. You’ll learn more from their tone than the actual words.

If they say something generic like “the people,” push a little. “What about them?” You’re not interrogating, you’re looking for something real.

26. “Ever Run A Hackathon Here?”

This is how I find out if a company respects devs who like to mess around and build cool stuff outside the Jira hamster wheel. Hackathons don’t have to be fancy. I just want to know if they make space for engineers to be curious.

If they say yes, ask, “Did anything actually ship from it?” There’s a big difference between a hackathon that ends with pizza and one that ends with a feature.

27. “Do People Here Actually Go To Meetups Or Conferences Or Is That Just Brochure Talk?”

You want to join an alive team, not just cranking tickets in silence. Ask if developers attend events. Ask if they come back and share ideas. That tells you whether the team has a learning culture or just likes to say it does.

I usually have a few conferences in mind when I ask this. You should, too; it flips the dynamic. You’re not asking for permission but showing you care about leveling up.

28. “What Do Your Customers Actually Use The Product For?”

This is a sneaky-good question. You’re not just trying to impress them with business curiosity. You’re trying to understand how close engineering is to the people using what you build.

If they can’t give you a clear answer or, worse, they say, “That’s more of a product question,” you’ve got your signal.

29. “What’s The Company’s Biggest Priority Right Now?”

I ask this in every final round. It tells you whether leadership is focused or flailing. You’ll also get a glimpse of whether your work will matter or if you’ll just be in a corner shipping “nice-to-haves.”

And can they tie the priority back to your potential role? That’s when you know you’re not being hired just to plug a hole.

30. “How Have You Seen (Insert Company Value) Show Up In Real Life?”

Every company’s a page that says, “We care about integrity and transparency.” Cool. Ask for a moment where that happened, especially when it would’ve been easier not to.

If they hesitate or if they give you some vague PR story, that tells you a lot. Values don’t mean anything unless they cost something.

31. “What Are You Personally Excited About For The Future Here?”

I love this one. It’s not “Where do you see the company in 5 years?” It’s “What gets you hyped?” You’ll get a sense of whether people are sticking around for a paycheck or because they like the direction of things.

Look for eye sparkles. Seriously. If they light up, that’s a good sign. If they say “lots of opportunity” and trail off... not as much.

32. “What Are Your Expectations For This Role In The First 30, 60, And 90 Days?”

If you don’t ask this, you’re setting yourself up for surprises. Some companies want you to ship in week one, while others want to marinate for a month. You need to know what kind of runway you’ve got.

Also, ask how those expectations shift over time. What looks good at 90 days? What looks great at 6 months? Their answers will tell you how much they’ve thought this through or if they’re just winging it.

33. “Can You Give Me A Quick Snapshot Of The Team I’d Be Working With?”

You’re not trying to memorize the org chart; you just want a vibe check. Who’s on the team? What do they do? How do they work together? Do they actually talk to each other, or is Slack silent?

This question helps you picture your day-to-day personalities, dynamics, and chaos. It's helpful if you’ve ever joined a team and realized on day two, “Oh no. I’m the only one who talks.”

34. “What Tech Stack Does The Team Use And What’s Being Phased Out?”

The stack tells you how modern (or not) the team is. But it’s the transition tech that tells you how honest they are.

Every company says it’s moving to TypeScript. Ask what’s still in PHP. Ask what’s still manual. You’re not judging; you’re gauging the mess you’re walking into.

35. “How Do Projects Actually Get Planned And Shipped Here?”

No team says, “We’re disorganized and nobody knows what’s going on.” So don’t ask “Do you use agile?” Ask: “How does a feature go from idea to done?”

Do PMs toss specs over the wall? Do engineers push back on timelines? Do you have to write a doc for every one-liner change? Their answer tells you if you’ll be productive or stuck in planning purgatory.

36. How Do You Know When Someone’s Doing A Good Job Here?

I once asked this after a final round at Amazon. The VP paused and said, “No one’s asked me that today.” That told me everything.

Asking about performance metrics shows you’re not there to coast, but you also want clarity. Will output measure your work? Code quality? Ship speed? Make them define it.

37. Who Does This Role Report To? Can I Meet Them?

Your manager is half the job. I’ve had good ones and... some I’d rather not talk about publicly. Ask this early. If the hiring manager dodges the question or won’t introduce you, that’s a yellow flag.

38. What’s Been Tough For Your Engineering Team Lately?

This is my go-to “real talk” question. No company is perfect. I’ve heard everything from “tech debt from 2016” to “cross-team drama we’re still figuring out.” Useful intel. Plus, it shows you’re not afraid of messy stuff you want to help with.

39. What Does Growth Look Like Here?

Not every role has a clear ladder. If it’s just “heads down, ship code,” cool, but say that. Some teams invest in skill development, others don’t. This question helps you figure out if you’ll level up or flatline.

40. How Do You Plan Projects? Scrum? Something Else?

Don’t ask this to sound smart; ask because your sanity depends on it. I’ve worked in sprints that felt like sledgehammers and others that ran like a group chat with deadlines. You want to know how chaos is (or isn’t) managed.

41. Can I Work From Home In Sweatpants, Or...?

Some companies are remote-friendly, or at least say they are, but your manager wants to see your face at 8:45 a.m. sharp. Just ask. It will save you the calendar rage later.

42. Who Decides How Systems Are Designed?

If you care about writing good code and making good decisions, ask this. Do junior devs get a voice? Do architects act like gatekeepers? This will tell you how much say you’ll actually have.

43. What’s It Actually Like To Work Here?

I’m not talking about ping pong tables. I’m talking: Do people get interrupted all day? Is there space to focus? Do engineers go to lunch together or vanish into Jira hell? Ask for stories, not slogans.

44. What Makes Someone Great At This Job?

This helps you see what the team values: Speed? Clean code? Mentoring others? Or just surviving meetings without crying? Their answer lets you decide if you want to optimize for the same things.

45. What’s A Typical Day Like Here?

Yes, it’s basic. But sometimes I ask this just to watch them squirm. If they can’t answer it straight, the job probably lacks structure. Or they’re hiding something. Either way, it’s telling.

46. Do You Support Learning Or Mentorship?

No one wants to feel stuck. I once asked this, and the manager said, “We expect folks to learn on their own.” That’s code for “we don’t invest in people.” Glad I found out before signing.

47. What’s Coming Up Soon For Your Team?

This is a good way to get insight without sounding nosy. Are they planning a rewrite? Launching a product? Shuffling orgs? It’ll give you a peek at the work you’d step into.

48. How Do Engineers See The Effect Of Their Work On Users?

Even if you’re deep in the backend, it helps to know if your code has purpose. Do users thank the team? Is feedback shared regularly? Or are you just pushing to prod and hoping for the best?

49. Why Do You Work Here?

End with this one. It’s simple. It’s personal. And it tells you what keeps them from rage-quitting. If they light up when they answer, that’s a green flag. If they hesitate? You just learned something valuable.

Related Reading

Some Interview Stuff That’s Actually Worth Remembering

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Ask Questions That Actually Matter

Don’t fake it. Ask questions because you need answers, not because some career coach said, “Always ask something at the end.” You’re not trying to impress them, you’re trying to figure out if this job won’t make you hate your life. Ask about the team, the work, how people ship code, and who decides what. Skip the fluff. If you can Google it, don’t ask it. One question per round should be non-negotiable.

After every round, you should walk away with one big unknown answered. If not, you weren’t asking the right stuff.

Don’t Wait Until the Last 5 Minutes to Speak Up

Yes, most people wait until the end to ask questions. That’s fine. But if something confuses you during the convo, ask right then. You’re not interrupting, you’re showing you actually care. That said, don’t be the person who keeps circling back to stuff the interviewer just explained. Be sharp. Pay attention. Use your questions wisely.

Match the Person to the Topic

Simple filter:

  • Recruiters: logistics, process, timeline
  • Managers: goals, growth path, how they measure “good”
  • Engineers: code stuff, tooling, day-to-day

Please don’t ask the junior dev about equity. Don’t ask the manager about the Paid Time Off (PTO) policy. Know who you’re talking to. Ask accordingly.

Salary Talk: Not First Date Material

I know money matters. I also know that bringing it up on the first call makes you look like you’re checking boxes, not trying to work there. If the recruiter brings up comp, cool. If not, save it. The first call is for “Do I want to keep talking to these people?” not “What’s your 409A valuation?”

Use early calls to confirm:

  • Does this role match my level?
  • Is the timeline realistic?
  • What’s the process look like?

Practice Doesn’t Mean Grinding LeetCode All Day

I’ve said this before, but I didn’t get into Amazon/Meta/TikTok by just solving 300 questions blind. My prep was split:

  • Timed problem sets (with constraints)
  • Mock interviews (recorded, then self-roasted)
  • System design sessions with friends
  • Reading team blogs + open source code from the company
  • Practicing speaking out loud while solving

Set up your next 4 weeks. If your plan doesn’t scare you a little, it’s too soft.

Think Out Loud: No One Can Read Your Mind

One of the fastest ways to tank your interview? Staying quiet. Say what you’re thinking. Literally narrate:

  • “I’m assuming input is sorted is that fair?”
  • “If n is big, I’ll go with heap here over sorting everything.”
  • “I just realized this won’t work for duplicates, here’s a fix.”

You’re not talking to impress. You’re talking so they don’t guess. Even if you mess up, clear thinking buys you points.

Want to make this even easier? That’s literally why I built Interview Coder. You can run through these scenarios, practice your talking points, and track what questions work before you’re sweating on a Zoom call.

Ready to stop winging it? Try Interview Coder free today.

Problem Solving: Structure Before Code or You're Just Guessing

The biggest mistake I made early on? Jumping straight into code like I was racing the clock. Interviews aren’t Code Golf. They want to know if you think like an engineer or a Stack Overflow script bot. So now I do this:

  • Clarify the question. Literally out loud.
  • Sketch a plan. Like “I’ll use a set to track seen elements,” something stupidly simple.
  • Say what I expect the output to be before writing a single line.
  • Keep the plan in front of me while I code.

I still mess up sometimes. But at least I know when I’m messing up, which is half the battle.

System Design: Don't Start Drawing Boxes Yet

You want to impress in a system design round? Don’t touch the whiteboard until you've asked 5-6 questions. Scale? Traffic patterns? Latency targets? What infra already exists? What’s off-limits? I made this mistake at a Meta onsite. I once started talking sharding before even asking what “high traffic” meant. Dumb.

I begin by asking like a product person, not a backend monkey. Then, I talk about architecture and tradeoffs. Always anchor to a use case. Otherwise, you're just name-dropping services.

Behavioral Rounds: Stories: Buzzwords

If you say you’re a “team player,” you’ve already lost. Have 6-8 short stories instead. Not fairy tales, real stuff.

  • “We had an outage, and I stayed late to rollback X.”

Use metrics when you can.

  • “That saved 12 hours of QA per sprint.”

Structure? I use the STAR thing

  • Situation
  • Task,
  • Action
  • Result

But I don’t recite it like a robot. Pick one story that makes you sweat a little. That’s probably the one they’ll remember.

Live Coding + Take-Homes: Clarity Beats Cleverness

Live rounds? I always start dumb. Brute-force it, then refactor once I have something that runs. Don't be the guy trying to one-liner a trie in Python. Also:

  • Ask upfront about language, libraries, and constraints.
  • Narrate your thoughts. Even if you’re wrong, they want to hear how you debug. Take-homes? Keep it clean.
  • Write a README.
  • Add tests.
  • Submit it as if you care about how other engineers work with you.

When You Freeze: Say It Out Loud

Freezing isn’t failure. It’s normal. What helped me:

  • Say what I’m stuck on: “I don’t know how to handle duplicates in this step.”
  • Break it down: “What if I ignore that case for now?”
  • Ask for a hint. Doesn’t hurt you. Helps you finish

You’re not there to ace a pop quiz. You’re there to show how you think under pressure. If you need to reset. Just don’t ghost the problem.

After the Interview: Say Thanks Like a Human

Send a short thank-you email. Not the LinkedIn template crap.

Something Like

“Hey [Name], thanks for the convo. I appreciated your comment about [insert thing they said]. I’d love to bring my experience with X to your team. Let me know what next steps look like.” One paragraph. Don’t overthink it. Just be real.

When to Talk $$$

Don’t bring up comp in 30 minutes of your first screen. You’ll look like you’re already halfway out the door. Wait until the recruiter asks, or you’ve got momentum. When the moment comes:

  • Ask for the total comp breakdown: base, equity, bonus, and perks.
  • Say you’d like it in writing so you can review carefully.

I always cross-check offers with levels. FYI, chat with 1–2 friends at similar companies.

Ask Questions That Make You Look Smart (Because You Are)

Questions I Ask

  • Recruiter: “What are the biggest dealbreakers in this loop?”
  • Hiring manager: “What’s your biggest bottleneck right now?”
  • Engineer: “What’s your deployment flow like? CI/CD or wild west?”
  • Design round: “What kind of failure scenarios should I design for?”
  • Behavioral: “Can you tell me about a recent team conflict and how it played out?”
  • Product: “What trade-offs are you debating this quarter?”

Stuff I Avoid Asking

  • “What’s the salary?” (too early)
  • “What’s the 5-year roadmap?” (too broad)
  • “What does your company do?” (bro seriously, Google it)

Got Rejected? Cool. What Now?

When I bombed my Amazon interview, I asked for feedback. I got a line that helped me fix my recursion game. So when you get that rejection:

  • Say thanks.
  • Ask if they can share 1–2 areas you could improve.
  • Use it. Then ask yourself: “Did I actually work on this before my next shot?”

Rejections suck. But they’re not always the end. Sometimes they’re just better prep for your successive win.

Related Reading

Nail Coding Interviews with our AI Interview Assistant − Get Your Dream Job Today

Solving 200 LeetCode problems was the way to go. Then I bombed my first Google interview and realized that it’s not volume. It’s precision.

Most people grind for months and freeze when a follow-up question hits. You don’t need more brute force. You need better reps that actually fix what’s broken: shaky problem framing, weak system design, awkward runtime explanations.

Interview Coder isn’t here to hold your hand. It’s built to punch holes in your prep and show you where you're leaking confidence.

What Interview Coder Actually Does (In Plain English)

No fluff. No career guru nonsense. Just:

  • Smart problem picks based on your past answers
  • Real-time feedback while you code on logic, structure, and even how you explain
  • Mock interviews that don’t feel fake
  • A fast way to practice system design without overcomplicating it

You know that feeling when your answer’s almost there, but something’s off? It fixes that.

How I Use It (And You Should Too)

I treat it like gym sets.

  • Quick warm-up with a gap check: Am I slipping on graphs again?
  • One hard-timed problem
  • Instant code review (yes, by the AI, but it’s sharp)
  • System design or behavioral run-through if I’ve got time

That’s it—no 4-hour marathons. No burnout. Just clean sessions, 3–4 times a week.

It Doesn’t Cheat. You Shouldn’t Either.

If you're looking for a way to whisper answers into your AirPods during a real interview, you're using the wrong tool.

Interview Coder only helps when you're practicing. Use it to simulate whiteboard sessions, mock interviews, screen-sharing with a friend, or anything legit. You’ll still need to think, but you'll sound way less like you're guessing.

Why It Works (And Who’s Using It)

I made this because I needed it. So did the folks who now work at Meta, Pinterest, and a dozen startups. They weren’t dumb. They were scattered.

Interview prep can feel random. Interview Coder helps you keep track of your code, design diagrams, and mistakes in one place.

Most people just “hope” they’re ready. You’ll know.

Want to stop guessing? Try Interview Coder free today. Then pick one weak spot and fix it.

Questions To Ask Interviewer Software Engineer: The Real List That Doesn’t Suck

As someone who’s bombed interviews just by smiling and nodding at the end… let me tell you: asking good questions isn’t optional. It’s how you show you think like an engineer without sounding like you’re trying too hard. Here’s the list I wish I had when I was fumbling through calls with Meta, Amazon, and TikTok before I figured it out with Interview Coder.

Team Setup and Ownership

You’re not joining a “company,” you’re joining a team. Know how they build stuff and who’s got skin in the game.

  • How’s the engineering team split up?
  • Who will I actually work with day-to-day?
  • Who decides what gets built, and who decides how it gets built?

Tech Stack and Systems

Don’t just nod when they say, “We use Kafka.” Ask why. Ask what breaks.

  • What’s your main stack, and was that a deliberate choice or tech debt inertia?
  • How do your services talk to each other, and what’s the pain point there?
  • What’s the most annoying bottleneck you’re constantly trying to fix?

Workflow and Code Quality

If things are broken here, you’ll spend more time in PR comments than coding.

  • What’s your code review process really like?
  • CI/CD, are we talking GitHub Actions? Jenkins duct tape? What’s the flow?
  • Do you test like you care? Or just PR-merge-and-pray?

Deploy and Stability

You want to know if pushing code feels like launching a missile.

  • How often do you deploy, and how painful is rollback?
  • Who’s on call and what happens when prod goes sideways?
  • Do you track uptime with charts or just vibes?

Roadmap and Priorities

How they pick what to build says everything about what you’ll be stuck doing.

  • How do you split time between fixing old stuff and building new stuff?
  • What’s coming up for this team in the next 6–12 months?
  • Can engineers influence what gets built, or is it all top-down?

Career Stuff (a.k.a. “Am I Going to Get Stuck Here?”)

You want to grow. You want clarity. Ask.

  • How do promotions actually work here?
  • Is there structured mentoring or just “ask around”?
  • What paths have other engineers taken after joining this team?

Culture and Collaboration

This stuff matters way more than people admit.

  • How would you describe your team culture?
  • What do new hires do differently when they succeed early?
  • How do you handle design or product handoffs without chaos?

Interview Details (Don’t Walk In Blind)

Get tactical. The better you prep, the better you’ll do.

  • Who else will I meet, and what do they look for?
  • What’s the usual timeline for an offer or rejection?
  • Will I get feedback after each round?

Work-Life, Comp, and Real Life Stuff

Money. Hours. Boundaries. Ask.

  • How do you approach equity and salary bands?
  • What’s a “normal” workweek here?
  • Can I take time for conferences or professional growth without begging?

How Not to Sound Like a Robot When Asking All This

Here’s the trick: don’t rattle off 20 questions. You’re not reading from a checklist. Instead:

  • Pick 2–3 that actually matter to you for this team.
  • Tie your questions to something they said earlier. If they mentioned monolith pain, ask how they plan to split it.
  • Ask things that set you up to share something relevant from your background.

This isn’t about showing curiosity. It’s about showing you can think critically in the moment.

Use Questions to Signal You're Not a Junior Dev

They say, “We’ve been trying to reduce our p99 latency.”

You Could Ask

“What part of the system’s causing that?”

Then follow with

“I had a similar problem in my last job; we had to rewrite a queue worker and batch responses to cut down tail latency.”

You move from “interested” to “I’ve been here before.”

Quick Note on AI, Ethics, and Not Getting Banned from the Industry

I built Interview Coder to help you practice, not cheat.

  • Record mock interviews. Listen back. Improve your clarity.
  • But don’t be the person pasting answers from shady Discords mid-call.

You’ll get flagged, and honestly? You’ll be worse for it long-term.

Unlike a stunt double, use AI like a gym mirror to check your form.


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