Questions to ask at the end of an interview

Good questions show judgment

Asking about how decisions get made, or how the team measures success, shows you are already thinking like someone in the role. Interviewers remember candidates who ask thoughtful questions.

Questions that work

• "What does success look like in the first 90 days?"
• "What is the team's biggest challenge right now?"
• "How does the team decide what to build next?"
• "What do the people who do well here have in common?"
• "What would you change about how the team works, if you could?"

Questions to skip

Anything you could have answered from the company website, and anything that signals you are mostly interested in leaving early or working less. Avoid asking the interviewer to assess you in the moment ("How did I do?") unless the format invites it.

Save salary for later

Compensation questions are fair, but they are usually better with the recruiter than with an interviewer in the middle of a loop. Ask the recruiter early about the range and process, so there are no surprises at the end.

Tailor them

Prepare more questions than you need and tailor them to the person in front of you. A hiring manager, a peer engineer and a recruiter will each have different answers worth hearing.