What questions should you ask interviewers?

Question

Accepted Answer

Asking **thoughtful questions** when interviewers offer you the chance is important — it shows genuine interest and engagement, and helps you **evaluate whether the role and company are right for you**. Interviews are two-way: you're assessing them too.

## Why asking questions matters

```text
✓ Shows INTEREST and engagement (not asking anything looks disengaged/uninterested)
✓ Demonstrates you're THOUGHTFUL about the role and company
✓ Helps YOU evaluate the opportunity → you're interviewing THEM too (mutual fit)
✓ Often the LAST impression → end strong with good questions
→ "Do you have any questions for us?" is almost always asked — be ready.
```

## Good questions to ask

```text
ABOUT THE ROLE/TEAM:
  → What does a typical day/week look like? What would I work on first?
  → How is the team structured? What's the tech stack and why?
  → How do you measure success in this role?
ABOUT GROWTH/CULTURE:
  → What growth/learning opportunities are there? How do people advance?
  → What's the team culture like? How do you handle code review / collaboration?
  → What do you enjoy about working here? (to the interviewer)
ABOUT PRACTICES:
  → How do you approach testing / deployment / on-call / technical debt?
  → What are the biggest challenges the team is facing?
```

## Tips

```text
✓ Prepare several questions in advance (some may get answered during the interview)
✓ Tailor to the interviewer (ask engineers technical/team questions, managers about
  growth/process)
✓ Ask GENUINE questions you care about (authenticity shows)
✗ Avoid only asking about salary/vacation in early rounds; avoid easily-Googled basics
```

## Why it matters

Understanding what questions to ask interviewers is valuable career knowledge because **interviews almost always include the chance to ask questions**, and doing it well both makes a positive impression and helps you evaluate the opportunity, so it affects outcomes and decisions.

Asking thoughtful questions matters for two reasons: it **shows interest and engagement** (not asking anything looks disengaged — a common mistake that hurts candidates) and demonstrates thoughtfulness, while also being an opportunity to **evaluate whether the role and company are right for you** (interviews are two-way — you're assessing them too, which matters for making a good career decision).

Since the "do you have any questions?" prompt is almost always asked and often leaves a last impression, being prepared to ask good questions is important.

Understanding **good questions to ask** — about the role and team (typical day, what you'd work on, team structure, tech stack, how success is measured), growth and culture (advancement, learning, team culture, what the interviewer enjoys), and practices (testing, deployment, technical debt, challenges) — provides a toolkit of questions that show engagement and gather useful information.

Understanding the **tips** — preparing several in advance, tailoring to the interviewer (technical questions to engineers, growth questions to managers), asking genuine questions, and avoiding asking only about salary/vacation early or easily-Googled basics — reflects asking effectively.

Good questions strengthen your candidacy and inform your decision, while asking nothing or poor questions can hurt.

Since interviews almost always offer the chance to ask questions and doing it well (thoughtful, tailored, genuine questions) makes a positive impression and helps evaluate the opportunity, and since being unprepared or asking nothing is a common mistake, understanding what questions to ask interviewers is valuable, practically-relevant career knowledge — important for the near-universal question opportunity in interviews, helping both impress interviewers and evaluate the role for a good career decision, a simple but impactful aspect of interviewing well.