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Questions to ask the company during your interview

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💯 Curated coding interview preparation materials for busy software engineers

A complete computer science study plan to become a software engineer.

:octocat: A curated awesome list of lists of interview questions. Feel free to contribute! :mortar_board:

Everything you need to know to get the job.

A list of helpful front-end related questions you can use to interview potential candidates, test yourself or completely ignore.

Quick Overview

The "reverse-interview" repository by viraptor is a curated list of questions that job candidates can ask potential employers during interviews. It aims to help interviewees gather important information about the company, team, and role they're applying for, enabling them to make more informed decisions about their career moves.

Pros

  • Comprehensive coverage of various aspects of a job, including the company culture, team dynamics, and technical practices
  • Available in multiple languages, making it accessible to a global audience
  • Regularly updated and maintained, with contributions from the community
  • Helps candidates appear more prepared and engaged during interviews

Cons

  • May be overwhelming for some users due to the large number of questions
  • Some questions might not be applicable to all industries or job roles
  • Could potentially make the interview process longer if too many questions are asked
  • Might require careful selection of questions to avoid appearing overly critical or demanding

Getting Started

To use this resource:

  1. Visit the GitHub repository: https://github.com/viraptor/reverse-interview
  2. Browse through the questions in the README.md file
  3. Select questions that are most relevant to your situation and interests
  4. Prepare and practice asking these questions before your interview
  5. During the interview, use the selected questions when appropriate, adapting them to the conversation flow

Remember to be respectful and considerate when asking questions, and pay attention to the interviewer's responses and body language.

Competitor Comparisons

💯 Curated coding interview preparation materials for busy software engineers

Pros of tech-interview-handbook

  • Comprehensive coverage of technical interview topics, including algorithms, data structures, and system design
  • Includes practical advice on resume preparation, behavioral questions, and negotiation
  • Regularly updated with new content and community contributions

Cons of tech-interview-handbook

  • Primarily focused on the interviewee's perspective, lacking guidance for interviewers
  • May be overwhelming for beginners due to the extensive amount of information

Code comparison

While both repositories don't contain significant code samples, tech-interview-handbook includes some algorithm examples:

def binary_search(arr, target):
    left, right = 0, len(arr) - 1
    while left <= right:
        mid = (left + right) // 2
        if arr[mid] == target:
            return mid
        elif arr[mid] < target:
            left = mid + 1
        else:
            right = mid - 1
    return -1

reverse-interview doesn't include code samples, as it focuses on providing questions for candidates to ask during interviews.

Summary

tech-interview-handbook is a comprehensive resource for job seekers preparing for technical interviews, offering a wide range of topics and practical advice. reverse-interview, on the other hand, is a concise list of questions for candidates to ask potential employers, providing a different perspective on the interview process. While tech-interview-handbook is more extensive, reverse-interview offers a unique approach to empowering candidates during interviews.

A complete computer science study plan to become a software engineer.

Pros of coding-interview-university

  • Comprehensive curriculum covering a wide range of computer science topics
  • Structured learning path with clear goals and milestones
  • Extensive resource list including books, videos, and practice problems

Cons of coding-interview-university

  • Primarily focused on technical knowledge, lacking emphasis on soft skills
  • May be overwhelming for beginners due to its extensive content
  • Less emphasis on company-specific interview preparation

Code comparison

Not applicable, as both repositories primarily contain text-based content rather than code samples.

Key differences

  • Purpose: coding-interview-university is a study plan for technical interview preparation, while reverse-interview is a list of questions for candidates to ask potential employers
  • Scope: coding-interview-university covers a broad range of computer science topics, while reverse-interview focuses on company culture, work environment, and job-specific details
  • Format: coding-interview-university is structured as a curriculum with checkboxes for progress tracking, while reverse-interview is organized as a simple list of questions

Similarities

  • Both repositories aim to help job seekers in the tech industry
  • Both are open-source projects with community contributions
  • Neither repository contains significant code samples

Use cases

  • coding-interview-university: Ideal for developers looking to strengthen their computer science fundamentals and prepare for technical interviews
  • reverse-interview: Useful for candidates who want to gather important information about potential employers during the interview process

:octocat: A curated awesome list of lists of interview questions. Feel free to contribute! :mortar_board:

Pros of awesome-interview-questions

  • Comprehensive collection of interview questions across various programming languages and topics
  • Well-organized structure with separate sections for different technologies
  • Regularly updated with contributions from the community

Cons of awesome-interview-questions

  • Focuses primarily on technical questions, lacking broader job-related inquiries
  • May overwhelm candidates with its extensive list of questions
  • Limited context or explanations for the questions provided

Code comparison

Not applicable for these repositories, as they primarily contain lists and text-based content rather than code samples.

Summary

awesome-interview-questions is a vast resource for technical interview preparation, covering a wide range of programming languages and concepts. It's ideal for candidates looking to brush up on specific technologies or practice coding questions.

reverse-interview, on the other hand, provides a list of questions for candidates to ask potential employers during interviews. It focuses on company culture, work environment, and career growth opportunities, offering a more holistic approach to the interview process.

While awesome-interview-questions excels in technical depth, reverse-interview shines in its ability to help candidates gather important information about potential employers. The choice between the two depends on whether you're preparing to answer technical questions or formulating questions to ask during an interview.

Everything you need to know to get the job.

Pros of interviews

  • Comprehensive collection of coding interview questions and solutions
  • Covers a wide range of data structures and algorithms
  • Includes implementations in multiple programming languages

Cons of interviews

  • Focuses primarily on technical interview preparation
  • May not address broader aspects of job searching and company evaluation
  • Less emphasis on soft skills and cultural fit

Code comparison

interviews:

def reverse(head):
    prev = None
    while head:
        curr = head
        head = head.next
        curr.next = prev
        prev = curr
    return prev

reverse-interview:

- What are the tasks I would do on a usual day?
- Are there any specific goals for me?
- What's the junior/senior balance of the team? (and are there plans to change it)

Summary

interviews is a comprehensive resource for technical interview preparation, focusing on coding questions and solutions. reverse-interview, on the other hand, provides a list of questions for candidates to ask potential employers, covering various aspects of the job and company culture. While interviews helps with technical skills, reverse-interview aids in making informed decisions about potential employers.

A list of helpful front-end related questions you can use to interview potential candidates, test yourself or completely ignore.

Pros of Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questions

  • Comprehensive coverage of front-end development topics
  • Well-organized structure with categorized questions
  • Regularly updated with contributions from the community

Cons of Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questions

  • Focuses primarily on technical questions, lacking emphasis on company culture and work environment
  • May be overwhelming for junior developers due to its extensive scope
  • Limited guidance on how to ask or answer the questions effectively

Code Comparison

Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questions:

function duplicateEncode(word) {
  return word
    .toLowerCase()
    .split('')
    .map((char, index, array) => 
      array.indexOf(char) === array.lastIndexOf(char) ? '(' : ')'
    )
    .join('');
}

Reverse-interview:

# Questions to ask the company during your interview

Remember that things tend to be fluid, re-organizations happen often.
Having a bug tracking system doesn't make bug handling efficient and CI/CD doesn't mean your code is clean.

The code comparison highlights the different focus of each repository. Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questions provides specific coding examples, while Reverse-interview offers guidance on asking questions about the company and work environment.

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README

Reverse interview

This is a list of questions which may be interesting to a tech job applicant. The points are not ordered and many may not apply to a given position or work type. It was started as my personal list of questions, which grew over time to include both things I'd like to see more of and red flags which I'd like to avoid. I've also noticed how few questions were asked by people I interviewed and I think those were missed opportunities.

If you asked something not listed here, send in a PR.

Translations:

Expected usage

  • Check which questions are interesting for you specifically
  • Check which answers you can find yourself online
  • Otherwise ask

Definitely don't try to ask everything from the list. (Respect the interviewer's time and show initiative by finding answers on your own if they're already published)

Remember that things tend to be fluid, re-organizations happens often. Having a bug tracking system doesn't make bug handling efficient and CI/CD doesn't mean your time to deliver is necessarily short.

The Role

  • What's the on-call plan/schedule? (what's the pay for standby and call-out)
  • What are the tasks I would do on a usual day?
  • Are there any specific goals for me?
  • What's the junior/senior balance of the team? (and are there plans to change it)
  • What does the onboarding look like?
  • How much freedom for decision making do individual developers have?
  • What are the expected/core work hours?
  • What is your definition of success for this role?
  • What do you expect me to accomplish in the first 1 month/3 months?
  • How will you evaluate my performance at the end of the trial period?
  • What does a typical day/week look like in this role?
  • Do you have any concerns about my application?
  • Tell me about who I would be working most closely with.
  • What management style does my immediate manager and their manager have? (from micro- to macro-)
  • How can I develop in my new role / what opportunities are offered?

Tech

  • What are the usual stacks used at the company?
  • How do you use source control?
  • How do you test code?
  • How do you track bugs?
  • How do you monitor projects?
  • How do you integrate and deploy changes? Is it CI/CD?
  • Is your infrastructure setup under version control / available as code?
  • What's the workflow from the planning to the finished task?
  • How do you prepare for disaster recovery?
  • Is there a standardised development environment? Is it enforced?
  • How quickly can you setup a new local test environment for the product? (minutes / hours / days)
  • How quickly can you respond to security issues in the code or dependencies?
  • Are all developers allowed to have local admin access of their computers?
  • Tell me about your technical principles or vision.
  • Do you have a developer documentation for your code? Do you have a separate documentation for customers?
  • Do you have some higher level documentation? (ER diagrams, database schema)
  • Do you employ static code analysis?
  • How do you manage internal / external artifacts?
  • How do you manage dependencies?

The Team

  • How is the work organised?
  • How does the intra/inter-team communication typically work?
  • Do you use any tools for project organization? What is your experience with them?
  • How are differences of opinions resolved?
  • Who sets the priorities / schedule?
  • What happens after pushback? ("this can't be done in the projected time")
  • What happens when the team misses a release target?
  • What kind of meetings happen every week?
  • Would there be a regular 1-on-1 with my manager?
  • What's the product/service schedule? (n-weekly releases / continuous deployment / multiple release streams / ...)
  • What happens after production incidents? Is there a culture of blameless analysis?
  • What are some ongoing challenges the team is experiencing that you are yet to resolve?
  • How do you track progress?
  • How are expectations and goals set, and who does the setting?
  • What does a code review look like here?
  • Walk me through a typical sprint on this team
  • How do you balance technical vs business goals?
  • How do you share knowledge?
  • How big is each team?
  • How are services and projects delegated to each team?

Your Potential Coworkers

  • Who do developers tend to learn from?
  • What do you like best about working there?
  • What do you like least?
  • What would you change if you could?
  • How long has the longest team member been there?
  • If it's a small team, has there been experiences of conflicting personalities and how was this dealt with?

The Company

  • Why is the company hiring? (product growth / new product / fluctuation / ...)
  • Is there a conference/travel budget and what are the rules to use it?
  • What's the promotion process? How are requirements / expectations communicated?
  • What is the performance review process like?
  • Is there a separate tech and management career path?
  • Are there any company-wide resources for learning available, like ebooks subscriptions or online courses?
  • Is there a budget for getting certifications?
  • What's the maturity stage? (early finding direction / feature work / maintenance / ...)
  • Can I contribute to FOSS projects? Are there any approvals needed?
  • Are there any non-compete or non-disclosure agreements I'll be asked to sign?
  • Where do you see the company in the next 5/10 years?
  • What does clean code mean to the majority of developers here?
  • When is the last time you noticed someone growing here, and in what way were they growing?
  • What does it mean to be successful here, and how do you measure success?
  • Is there a Sports / Team building Activity?
  • Are there any Hackathons conducted internally?
  • Does the company support open-source projects?
  • What kind of social events does the team/company host and are these attended by everyone?
  • Why did the company decide to hire an outsider over promoting an internal employee?
  • Is the company willing to assist overseas job applicants in applying for work visas?

Social issues

  • What's the status of / view on diverse hiring?
  • What do you think are the gaps in the company culture? (and what is the company culture?)
  • What does work-life balance mean here?
  • Does the company have a stance regarding climate change?

Conflict

  • How are differences of opinions resolved?
  • What happens after pushback? ("this can't be done in the projected time")
  • What happens when the team is under pressure and commits to work over their capacity / velocity?
  • If someone identifies areas of improvement in process / technology / etc, what happens?
  • When there is a gap between expectations from management and performance of an engineer or team, what happens?
  • Could you tell me a story about a toxic situation and how the company dealt with it?

The Business

  • Are you profitable?
  • If not, how long is your runway?
  • Where does the funding come from and who influences the high level plan/direction?
  • How do you make money?
  • What's preventing you from making more money?
  • What is the company's growth plan for the next 1 year? 5 years?
  • What are the big challenges you see coming up?
  • What have you identified as your competitive advantage?

Remote Work

  • What's the ratio of remote to office workers?
  • Does the company provide hardware and what's the refresh schedule?
  • How do you feel about BYOD? Are there any policies around it already?
  • Are extra accessories/furniture possible to buy through the company? Is there a budget for them?
  • Is there a budget for co-working space or internet access?
  • How often are office visits expected?
  • Are the office meeting rooms always prepared for video conferences?

Building Layout

  • What's the office layout? (open plan / cubicles / offices)
  • Is there a support / marketing / other call-heavy team close to my new team?

Catch all

  • What's the best and what's the worst aspect of working in this role / team / company?
  • What got you to choose to work for the company initially?
  • What keeps you at the company?

Compensation

  • If you have a bonus scheme, then how are bonuses determined?
  • If you have a bonus scheme, then what have been the typical bonus percentages over the past few years?
  • Do you have a 401k or other retirement plan? If so, does the company match additional plan contributions?
  • Are there medical benefits and if so, when do they start?
  • Do you pay for relocation?

Time Off

  • How much Paid Time Off (PTO) is offered?
  • Are sick time and vacation time separate or do they come from the same pool?
  • Can I use vacation time before it's accrued, effectively going into a negative PTO balance?
  • What is the roll over policy is there for PTO?
  • What is the parental leave policy?
  • What is the policy on unpaid leave?
  • What is the policy for sabbatical leave?

Other resources

Find more inspiration for questions in:

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.