What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?
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I have two interviews today--one with the lead developer (non-management from what I understand) and one with the management staff.
What questions would you ask the developer to assess fit? I'm guessing some of these will be covered directly, but these are all "things I should know and should ask about if not covered".
Things I've come up with (what I know from research/guessing in italics):
- Tell me about your tech stack. I'm pretty sure they're using windows, so probably C#/Xamarin or HTML/CSS/JS/Cordova/Node. Backend is unknown, but must exist since the application pushes notifications around.
- How is source control handled? Guessing either Git or TF.
- Something I'm not sure how to phrase asking about project management (agile vs waterfall vs ??? vs micromanagement vs ...)
- Day in the life of a developer(?)
What else should I ask about?
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@Benjamin-Hall said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
Something I'm not sure how to phrase asking about project management (agile vs waterfall vs ??? vs micromanagement vs ...)
I would ask about their typical development process. Because if you just ask about project management, everyone will claim that they're agile™, but what you actually want to know is how you'll interact with other people on a daily basis and which tools and processes are used.
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@dfdub good idea. Thanks.
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@Benjamin-Hall my list of questions:
- Tech stack.
- Is there code review and how seriously it's taken?
- Do programmers directly contribute to project specification? (An indirect way of asking if there even is a spec at all.)
- Do they check test metrics, and if so, what's the test coverage? (An indirect way of asking if you'll have time to do things the right way.)
Don't ask about version control. They're all the same and it doesn't really matter. Tech stack matters if you want to shape your resume in a certain way (when you have multiple job offers and need a tie-breaker).
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I always judge candidates based on the questions they ask. Sometimes more than the answers they give.
When they ask too many "fact-based" questions (tech stack, source control, unit testing, agile vs water fall, tech stack, etc.), it worries me that they don't care about what we're building, just the tools we use. And besides, you should already have all the "facts" you need from the job advertisement.
I wonder, are they asking because they want to focus on ROR, or delivering value? Are they one of those primadona developer manchilds who will get religious about technology, and will be toxic to the team? Etc.
Avoid yes/no questions, because the answer is rarely that simple. Instead, ask narrative-based questions that elicit a story. Rephrasing @Gąska's questions, for example...
- how did chose your tech stack?
- how did you settle on your code review process?
- what happens when the specifications and code don't end up the same?
- how did you arrive at the testing process?
An experienced interviewer will see through bad questions as easily as poorly-fitted, so try ask naturally.
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@Benjamin-Hall It's too late but when I interview I try to find out if there's a style Nazi that will make my life hell. I don't use "style Nazi" but I'm sure it comes across that I don't want to be hassled about bracket placement in a system that's rife with real (functional) problems. If you can think of a nice way to ask that, I would love to hear suggestions for my next interview sometime in 2021.
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@Gąska said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
Don't ask about version control. They're all the same and it doesn't really matter.
Disagree - I hate Perforce with passion. And there are still companies out there that don't use version control consistently or use in-house systems.
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@Zenith said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
I don't want to be hassled about bracket placement in a system that's rife with real (functional) problems.
The best is actually if there's a commonly used autoformatting plugin for the IDE. Then you don't care what the style is because it will be consistent anyway. Or at least standard inconsistent.
Following the same style as everyone else on the project is the best plan, even if this does mean that someone gets to play nanoHitler with the style guide.
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@dkf said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
someone gets to play nanoHitler with the style guide
That nano-Hitlerism is sort of the point. It shows a great deal about the person/people you'll be working with. There's at least one control freak or micromanager. They've used a tool to impose their will rather than cope with an extremely minor inconvenience. Worse still if they've done this without more important procedures in place (which is why design and testing questions should be asked as well). You probably won't have "ownership" of anything because "hur dur, consistent" is an artifact of being an interchangeable cog and the most rigid Pascal-casing-is-hieroglyphics JavaScript academy graduate has to drop in. Further, if you don't get to see this guide beforehand, it shows that they're overly-secretive (it's not the football) and willing to weaponize it. Frankly, if they won't show something so trivial when both parties are kicking the tires, what else are they hiding?
@dfdub You have to realize that an interview is a two way street. I don't want to work somewhere that's so fucking controlling that it won't in a million years be able to benefit from employing me. All you're going to do is fight me on brackets. Your mind will be closed to suggestions and you'll never let me use my own judgement because you won't trust me. Be glad I have the courtesy to try to find that out before your project is delayed another 89/181 days.
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@Zenith Ahh, code style arguments. Please wait while I prepare some
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Done. Please go ahead!
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Hmm, too silent, wait, let's throw a pebble and see where this ends up.At some point (yes,
) I thought code style was crazily important. And especially my coding style.
Later, after encountering horrible code bases with the worst possible style[1], I realized that the style doesn't matter. That is to say, in the end consistency helps a lot, but which specific class of style that is inconsequential. So I fully agree with @dkf in this one. Luckily with things like editorConfig, with plugins in virtually any IDE or editor, this is actually fairly easy to achieve without a need to micromanage people.[1] Like files where almost every single line had a different whitespace indent strategy (2 space, 3 space, 4 space, tab) depending on who wrote that particular line, or in which editor the person wrote it. Together with inconsistent bracing style it made reviewing the code base nearly impossible.
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@Zenith said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
I don't want to work somewhere that's so fucking controlling that it won't in a million years be able to benefit from employing me. All you're going to do is fight me on brackets.
I took this discussion out of this thread on purpose, but you do realize that this whole issue can be avoided by just using literally any automated formatter, right? Just run your code through the thing so that everyone can focus on the important stuff. I still don't get why you're willing to die on that hill when you supposedly don't care about code style yourself. Of all the tools a company could impose, a code formatter will affect your productivity the least.
And as @robo2 said, it's never about the particular style, but about consistency, which affects readability. If you care as little as you claim to, why are you fighting the rest of the team?
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@dfdub said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
Just run your code through the thing so that everyone can focus on the important stuff. I still don't get why you're willing to die on that hill.
Besides why I said? Because you don't focus on important stuff. This is where you get cargo cult mentality from. It becomes step one of a one-step review process, barely a distinguishable from "if it compiles, it ships."
I'm not going to have somebody that doesn't know what exception handling or stored procedures or ADA compliance are A) dictate my typing or B) shift blame for the consequences of that onto style violations. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. I certainly wouldn't move to a new job, let alone a new area, and risk everything on that sort of damaged behavior.
Edit:
rest of the team
Oh no, don't conflate Adolf Jr's little power trip with the will of the entire team past, present, and future.
to another thread
In the one-post forum where you couldn't be replied to.
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Objecting to style guides is not because I object to writing in a particular style (although .Net bracket placement does annoy me, it's so wasteful of screen space), but because if people care too much about that it implies they don't care about more important things. If you're going to review my code and your comment is 'your bracket is on the wrong line' rather than asking me about what the code does or even parameter/method names, you're probably nanoHitlering for the sake of it and it isn't going to be a fun place to work.
Asking about VC is not pointless. Sure, in a good company you'll get "oh we use Git" (or SVN, maybe), and it's a five second question, though you can ask about branch strategies, code review/pull request process and CI/CD and so on if you care about that stuff on the back of it. But there are still places that won't have that five second answer and that's a clue to run away.
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@bobjanova said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
if people care too much about that it implies they don't care about more important things
They might just be nanoHitlers that care about everything.If the code reviewer is able to state anything about code formatting, then in my opinion you've f*cked up your development process. There are tools to ensure consistency, there is no reason you should be able to
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@robo2 said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
If the code reviewer is able to state anything about code formatting, then in my opinion you've f*cked up your development process.
Code formatters don't work too well with Python.
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Your argument has merit.
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@robo2 said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
If the code reviewer is able to state anything about code formatting, then in my opinion you've f*cked up your development process. There are tools to ensure consistency
I will sometimes let one or 2 slide. But when there's a lot of things that are inconsistent with the style, I'll usually just add a single
nit: please run the auto-formattercomment. (I actually have my vscode set up to auto format on paste and and save. Why? Because my personal style is not the same as the company's, so I have it set up like that so my code is consistent.)
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@apapadimoulis said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
When they ask too many "fact-based" questions (tech stack, source control, unit testing, agile vs water fall, tech stack, etc.), it worries me that they don't care about what we're building
News flash: most developers don't. And there's nothing wrong with it.
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@Zenith said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
Because you don't focus on important stuff. This is where you get cargo cult mentality from. It becomes step one of a one-step review process
Nobody would ever have to focus on brace style if you just ran the formatter. Or, even better, integrated a format check into your build.
Your broken review process in which no actual review occurs is a completely orthogonal problem that has nothing to do with style preferences. Both good and bad developers can have strong opinions on code style.
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@Gąska said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@apapadimoulis said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
When they ask too many "fact-based" questions (tech stack, source control, unit testing, agile vs water fall, tech stack, etc.), it worries me that they don't care about what we're building
News flash: most developers don't. And there's nothing wrong with it.
When I was interviewing over a year ago, that was my most critical thing (the what). Since I was currently employed, I could be picky (I think my job search was just shy of a year). I didn't want yet another office application. So I'm quite happy now at a surgical robotic company.
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@dcon This is one of my weaknesses. I don't have a passion for...anything, really. As long as it's new to me and not unethical (so no working for King software), I'll do pretty much anything. The second (non-technical) interview spent a lot of time on my career changes--from PhD Physics to teaching to software development. Especially why I wanted to leave physics behind (I don't, but can't really get a satisfying job in it without being in academia, and academia is a non-starter especially now).
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@dcon said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@Gąska said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@apapadimoulis said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
When they ask too many "fact-based" questions (tech stack, source control, unit testing, agile vs water fall, tech stack, etc.), it worries me that they don't care about what we're building
News flash: most developers don't. And there's nothing wrong with it.
When I was interviewing over a year ago, that was my most critical thing (the what). Since I was currently employed, I could be picky (I think my job search was just shy of a year). I didn't want yet another office application. So I'm quite happy now at a surgical robotic company.
There's "I have multiple job offers that are about the same financially, but I prefer this kind of project over that kind of project". And there's "normally I wouldn't want to work for you but I saw the project and now I do". @apapadimoulis seems to think the latter kind exists.
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@Gąska said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
And there's "normally I wouldn't want to work for you but I saw the project and now I do". @apapadimoulis seems to think the latter kind exists.
Isn’t that pretty much the normal staffing mode for the games industry? Find people who want to work for them, and pay 50% of market rate for the privilege?
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@Unperverted-Vixen yes, it is. That's why every self-respecting developer never enters gamedev.
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@Gąska said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
every self-respecting developer never enters gamedev.
Paging @Tsaukpaetra.
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@Zenith said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@dfdub said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
Just run your code through the thing so that everyone can focus on the important stuff. I still don't get why you're willing to die on that hill.
Besides why I said? Because you don't focus on important stuff. This is where you get cargo cult mentality from. It becomes step one of a one-step review process, barely a distinguishable from "if it compiles, it ships."
So if you're too lazy to literally just hit Ctrl+I before saving the file (ok, that does indentation only, not naming conventions), how am I supposed to assume you care for those more important things?
That's like sending a manuscript to review that already has 5 typos/errors in the abstract and of 15 literature references in the bibliography only 4 are actually referenced in the text. Sure, you say, you should review it because it still might have merit, but if everything has this lack of attention to detail then that's a pretty bad sign. (I did review something like that once and the overall quality was exactly like this would predict)
Attention to detail is, after all, pretty important in this profession.rest of the team
Oh no, don't conflate Adolf Jr's little power trip with the will of the entire team past, present, and future.
And you fighting against trivially achievable consistency just because any kind of enforcement is bad makes you Graf von Stauffenberg, I assume.
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@HardwareGeek said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@Gąska said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
every self-respecting developer never enters gamedev.
Paging @Tsaukpaetra.
That's not really a counterexample.
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@Gąska Did I say it was? I merely attracted his attention because I think his response might be entertaining.
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Update: well, I guess the questions I did ask (and the answers I gave) were satisfactory. I've got an informal offer (details in the Lounge) with a formal offer coming in the next day or so. I haven't accepted (or decided whether to accept) yet, but it seems to be in my ZONA.
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@HardwareGeek I have been summoned, and so I appear.
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@topspin said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
And you fighting against trivially achievable consistency just because any kind of enforcement is bad makes you Graf von Stauffenberg, I assume.
I think that Zenith has been working in godawful teams with godawful managers and godawful employers for so long that he's simply decided that This One Thing is a sign on the apocalypse. He may have nothing else, but he has his code style!
@Zenith, have you worked anywhere you actually enjoyed? Or, if enjoyment isn't for employment, at least tolerated well?
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@PotatoEngineer said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
He may have nothing else, but he has his code style!
Don't forget about his HTML tables.
That reminds me, I should probably ask him about the table styling problem I had this week. I had to style actual HTML tables in a particular way and failed miserably - if anyone knows a crazy solution, it's probably be him.
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@Tsaukpaetra said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@HardwareGeek I have been summoned, and so I appear.
That response was less entertaining than I'd hoped for.
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@Gąska said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@apapadimoulis said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
When they ask too many "fact-based" questions (tech stack, source control, unit testing, agile vs water fall, tech stack, etc.), it worries me that they don't care about what we're building
News flash: most developers don't. And there's nothing wrong with it.
Organizations operate poorly when members don't know the big picture, and members who don't care about the big picture perform poorly.
That's not to say members to be passionate about «business-domain-or-problem», but developers with the "business is booooring, let me get to the code" are poor performers. High-performing developers are ones who realize that, sometimes, the best solution is not more code / more software.
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@apapadimoulis fully agreed. But I wouldn't say any of this requires caring about the product. It makes no difference to me whether I'm making an online store or a military drone - it's still the same old "push bits from one end of the cable to another", just with slightly different KPIs. But I will still do my best to support the product I'm working on. I will get in email fights over design if I think it'll benefit the company. I will uphold the culture of professionalism and encourage others to do the same. And then, a few years down the line, I will hand in my resignation notice with zero regrets, and after exactly 14 calendar days and not a minute more I will leave it all behind and not pay it a single thought for the rest of my life.
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@apapadimoulis said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@Gąska said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@apapadimoulis said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
When they ask too many "fact-based" questions (tech stack, source control, unit testing, agile vs water fall, tech stack, etc.), it worries me that they don't care about what we're building
News flash: most developers don't. And there's nothing wrong with it.
Organizations operate poorly when members don't know the big picture, and members who don't care about the big picture perform poorly.
That's not to say members to be passionate about «business-domain-or-problem», but developers with the "business is booooring, let me get to the code" are poor performers. High-performing developers are ones who realize that, sometimes, the best solution is not more code / more software.
In my case I would say the "what" matters only in general terms: are you building an internal app, a middleware / storefront app, a product which is pretty much tied to a number of huge customers or an honest-to-$deity off-the-shelf product?
Currently I'm working for a software house trying to do the last one, and once you get to that tier it doesn't matter which specific product I work on, I care for them all and as a result care for none more than the other.
But then to use that single datapoint and circle back to your original statement, of how too many fact-based questions about how something is built might show that they don't care: the process matters, and it can reveal things about the company. I head once that "a company builds software the way it is organized", and from personal experience I would say there's some truth to this. So, when a candidate is asking a bunch of fact-based questions, it might also be that they're just not taking your word for it that you're building the software you say you are, they might want to cross-reference things with information about the process.
Admittedly, I don't interact much with initial rounds of job candidates (generally I'm asked to join second round interviews) so it's extremely likely that I'm overestimating candidates. Just want to add that people should have some concern about the process as well.
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@Gąska I think it's a language subtly thing, I can't think of how works English good; I don't mean "caring" as like "being passionate about", but "taking into consideration" or something. An online store or a military drone are hard to compare, but the software between an online store for "a handful of self-produced products" and "a kind of marketplace/reseller" would be designed differently at all levels
@JBert
"a company builds software the way it is organized" sounds like the so-called Conway's Law, and it's an amazingly true observation. I don't think it necessarily apples at the "individual application" level, but it's more about the interaction of software systems. It's one of the many reasons you need to change your culture before "splitting the monolith"But in any case I agree, the questions should be focused on learning how they build things from a process standpoint. The fact-based questions I was envisioning were more along the lines of, things you could answer with fill-in-the-blank on a survey sheet:
- What version of .NET are you using?
- What version of Visual Studio do you use?
- What library do you use for JSON parsing?
- How are variables cased?
- What curly-brace style do you use?
Getting a little ridiculous there, but the latter ones would definitely come across as red flags depending on how they're asked.
: Thanks for answering my questions; before we wrap, I wanted to see what questions you had for me?
: How do you case your variables?
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I haven't had anyone ask me that, but I've had plenty of nervous interviewees ask similarly silly questions, mostly because they made a "check-list" and wanted follow the rule of asking questions that I didn't already give them the answer to. Others, it was clear that had no organizational or personal growth interest (just more money / less work / shorter commute / etc.), and that's a quick NEXT!.
The best "trick" I give to people who interview are to prepare the questions ahead of time (most already do), but to then take notes about answers given so they can ask follow-up questions or to demonstrate interest and that they were listening.
Most people aren't great at interviewing, but it's the only way to judge someone in a short amount of time.
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@apapadimoulis said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@Gąska I think it's a language subtly thing, I can't think of how works English good; I don't mean "caring" as like "being passionate about", but "taking into consideration" or something. An online store or a military drone are hard to compare, but the software between an online store for "a handful of self-produced products" and "a kind of marketplace/reseller" would be designed differently at all levels
Yeah, there might be some linguistic/cultural friction between us. Reminds me of a recent-ish talk I've had with Blakey. He couldn't understand how I could call him professional if he constantly bitches about his employer, the project he works on, and the people he works with. For me, "professional" means looking like you care in front of your boss and your customers, and nothing more. Keyword: looking (as in, you do what a good employee would do, but only 9 to 5 Monday to Friday and only when people can see you).
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@PotatoEngineer said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
I think that Zenith has been working in godawful teams with godawful managers and godawful employers for so long that he's simply decided that This One Thing is a sign on the apocalypse. He may have nothing else, but he has his code style!
From my cold, dead hands.
I've had a broken code style thrust upon me in at least three terrible jobs. Those projects were complete and utter train wrecks due to a hundred other issues yet that was the hill they chose to die upon. At one of them, I was explicitly told that I'd be held responsible for the project's (continuing) failure no matter what I did (that also happened to be one where I was actively deceived in the interview). To people like that I say "if you are sick or injured, ignore your doctor's instructions at your peril."
I have rarely had a chance to answer technical questions. I think that's what sets me off. Nobody is evaluating my ability to perform the work. It's interpersonal bullshit where I have to pretend to like certain things or think a certain way. Do you want somebody that can turn your vague spec into a viable product or are you looking for somebody to emotionally abuse because social services already took your kids away?
@Zenith, have you worked anywhere you actually enjoyed? Or, if enjoyment isn't for employment, at least tolerated well?
I enjoyed my second and third development jobs spanning just over eight years just over seven years ago. I tolerated the first two years of the job before this one until my manager was pushed out and my projects were taken away because the H1Bs were upset. At this point, I derive more professional satisfaction from stocking shelves two nights a week. When I get far enough out from under business debt to quit the job where I constantly hear "oh me, oh my, we can't find developers" (not unlike being friendzoned and having to endure whining about there being no good guys out there), I may be able to cope with being a "just" a hobbyist programmer.
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@apapadimoulis said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
Most people aren't great at interviewing
Yeah, it's kinda funny how the very goal of interviewing prevents anyone from becoming good at it. Either you fail, which means what you do isn't good, or you succeed, in which case you're getting at least a few years of break in interviewing. Pretty much every skill can be mastered through repetition - but interviewing cannot.
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@dfdub said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@PotatoEngineer said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
He may have nothing else, but he has his code style!
Don't forget about his HTML tables.
That reminds me, I should probably ask him about the table styling problem I had this week. I had to style actual HTML tables in a particular way and failed miserably - if anyone knows a crazy solution, it's probably be him.
You lose the semantic argument the instant everything becomes a
<DIV>instead of a dozen other specific purpose tags. Again, it's a question of whether you want the layout itself or to feed on somebody else's frustration. If it can wait until I get back from out of town this weekend I can try to help you with your table problem.
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@Gąska the language/cultural friction is very severe in Japanese, so I've come to just Image Searching basic words. I searched "professional" (プロフェッショナル) and "pro" (プロ) for curious, and the images are interesting...
"Professional" with en-us (my image, sounds like Blakey's image too):
Japan results:
No tentacle porn (surprisingly), "Professional" is maybe best defined by an old but very popular TV show?
"Pro" just looks like sports"...
Wonder what Polish local results are for polish-word...
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@apapadimoulis said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
Wonder what Polish local results are for polish-word...
Pre-search guess: like English.
I have never been so wrong.
"Profesjonalny" - adjective:
"Profesjonalista" - a person:
"Profesjonalizm" - the trait:
That was weird.
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And just for shits and giggles, I also googled "pro". I had no expectations, but was still disappointed.
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@Gąska I love that the top results for professionalism are demotivational posters.
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@Gąska it's pretty wild! So I guess en-us version of the noun is a kind of status or look/feel (true story: I rarely feel like a professional most of the time), and the Polish results seem to be more paid/competence related?
I scrolled down on the Japanese results some more. It looks like プロフェッショナル ends up being "people who are really good (top of the game?) and very serious at their work" (people) or "high-quality good/product/service" (things). I get the feeling it's used more commonly used as an adjective for things though? I've certainly used it wrong though.
Maybe it's like this:
anyone can be a professional if they do their job
anyone can be a professional if they try really hard
anyone can try really hard to be a professional, but only the best truly are
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@HardwareGeek that's how we did image macros before Impact font covering the picture became the standard. We call them "demotywatory", but they're rarely demotivational (well, no more than typical Polish jokes).
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@apapadimoulis said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@Gąska it's pretty wild! So I guess en-us version of the noun is a kind of status or look/feel (true story: I rarely feel like a professional most of the time), and the Polish results seem to be more paid/competence related?
Yeah, you can say that. But when you see some service marketed as "professional", especially "professional approach to all our clients" and such, it's about look/feel.
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@Gąska said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
"professional approach to all our clients"
Is that an oldest professional approach?
it's about look/feel
Oh yes, it is.
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@dkf said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
@Gąska said in What questions should I ask in an interview with a technical person?:
"professional approach to all our clients"
Is that an oldest professional approach?
Kinda. You're gonna get screwed over, hard.
