Questions to ask the interviewer (and the ones to avoid)

Every interview ends with "do you have any questions for us?" — and "no, I think you've covered everything" is a scored answer, and a bad one. Your questions are the last data point the interviewer collects, and they signal how you think: what you pay attention to, what you care about, and whether you are evaluating them as seriously as they are evaluating you.

Questions that make interviewers lean in

Ask two or three. Have five prepared, because interviews often answer some of them along the way — and saying "you actually covered my main question when you described X, but I'd like to ask..." shows you listened.

• About success: "What would the person in this role have done in the first six months for you to consider the hire a clear win?" — shows outcome orientation and gives you the real job description.
• About the team: "What does the team struggle with most right now?" — invites honesty and shows you expect to solve problems, not just fill a seat.
• About the interviewer: "What has kept you here?" — people answer this candidly, and the hesitation before the answer is data.
• About the role's history: "Is this a new position, or what led the last person to move on?" — reasonable to ask, revealing to hear.
• About decisions: "How does the team decide what to build/prioritize/take on?" — signals you think about how work actually happens.

Questions to avoid — and when they become fine

• Salary, vacation, remote days — legitimate topics, wrong venue in a first-round interview; they read as caring about the package before the work. They become normal at the offer stage or when the interviewer raises them.
• Anything answered on the company's website — "so what does this company do?" ends interviews.
• "Do you have any concerns about my candidacy?" — popular advice, but it forces an awkward on-the-spot evaluation many interviewers resent. If you want feedback, earn it in the thank-you note.
• Nothing at all — the only answer worse than a bad question.

Match the question to the person

The recruiter, the hiring manager, and the skip-level executive should not get the same questions. Ask the recruiter about process and timeline, the hiring manager about success criteria and team dynamics, and the executive about direction: "What are you betting the next two years on?" A question calibrated to the person's altitude is itself a demonstration of judgment.

Frequently asked questions