Reverse interview
A curated list of questions for tech job applicants to ask companies during interviews to evaluate fit and avoid red flags.
What is Reverse interview?
Reverse Interview is a curated list of questions for tech job applicants to ask companies during the interview process. It helps candidates evaluate potential employers on technical practices, team dynamics, company culture, compensation, and business health. The project aims to balance the interview power dynamic by providing tools for informed decision-making.
Tech job applicants, especially software developers, engineers, and IT professionals preparing for interviews at tech companies. It's also useful for career coaches, recruiters, and hiring managers wanting to understand candidate concerns.
Unlike generic interview advice, this project offers a comprehensive, categorized question bank that covers often-overlooked aspects like conflict resolution, disaster recovery, and promotion processes. It's community-maintained, translated into multiple languages, and focuses on practical, actionable questions rather than theoretical advice.
Overview
Questions to ask the company during your interview
Use Cases
Best For
- Preparing for technical interviews at software companies
- Evaluating company culture and work-life balance during job searches
- Identifying red flags in potential employers before accepting offers
- Understanding team dynamics and engineering practices in new roles
- Negotiating compensation and benefits packages effectively
- Researching remote work policies and logistical support
Not Ideal For
- Candidates in time-constrained or highly formal interviews where extensive questioning might be perceived negatively
- Non-technical job seekers, as many questions are specific to software development and IT roles
- Users who prefer interactive, guided interview preparation tools over static lists
- Situations requiring legal or region-specific employment advice, due to the general nature of the questions
Pros & Cons
Pros
Covers all aspects from day-to-day role expectations to business health, including technical deep dives and social issues, as outlined in the categorized sections.
Offers translations in over 20 languages, facilitated by community contributions, making it accessible to a global audience.
Provides specific, practical questions like 'What's the on-call plan/schedule?' and 'How do you prepare for disaster recovery?', based on real interview scenarios.
Advises users to research answers online first and respect interview time, promoting a balanced and informed approach, as noted in the 'Expected usage' section.
Cons
With hundreds of questions across multiple categories, users may find it overwhelming without guidance on prioritization, as the list is not ordered or filtered.
Lacks tools to filter or recommend questions based on factors like job seniority, industry, or interview stage, requiring manual selection.
Since translations are community-maintained, some may be incomplete or less accurate, affecting usability for non-English speakers, as noted in the translations list.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
Back-End Developer Interview QuestionsA list of back-end related questions you can be inspired from to interview potential candidates, test yourself or completely ignore
Engineering Leadership InterviewsRepository of interview questions for Engineering Leadership roles - Engineering Manager, Director of Engineering, VP Engineering and also senior IC roles
Book Summary of "Who: The A Method for Hiring"The essential of Who, a popular book on recruiting executives
The Intangible Skills You Can't Interview For“1) Cut-Through on Crappy Tasks; 2) Knowing How to Finish; 3) Knowing How to Start; 4) Giving (And Receiving) Diagonal Feedback; 5) Harnessing the Value of Intangibles.”
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