- 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?
- 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?
- What are the usual stacks used at the company?
- How quickly can you setup a new local test environment for the product? (minutes / hours / days)
- Are all developers allowed to have local admin access of their computers?
- 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?
- Walk me through a typical sprint on this team
- How do you share knowledge?
- How big are the teams?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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 / ...)
- Where do you see the company in the next 5/10 years?
- What does it mean to be successful here, and how do you measure success?
- Is there a Sports / Team building Activity?
- What kind of social events does the team/company host and are these attended by everyone?
- What do you think are the gaps in the company culture? (and what is the company culture?)
- What does work-life balance mean here?
- 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?
- What's the ratio of remote to office workers?
- Does the company provide hardware and what's the refresh schedule?
- Are extra accessories/furniture possible to buy through the company? Is there a budget for them?
- How often are office visits expected?
- What's the office layout? (open plan / cubicles / offices)
- 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?
- 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? Is there a waiting period or do I have medical coverage on Day 1?
- Do you pay for relocation?
- 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?
- Can you cash out unused PTO during the year or when you leave the company?
Find more inspiration for questions in:
- Questions I'm asking in interviews by Julia Evans
- Curated list of salary negotiation advices by Peter Mekhaeil