Interview Guides

Smart Questions to Ask Your Interviewer (and the Ones to Avoid)

Updated 2026-09-17 · Interview Buddy team

'Do you have any questions for us?' is not a courtesy — it's a scored part of the interview. Your questions reveal how you think, what you care about and how seriously you've considered the role. Arrive with none and you've told them the answer.

Prepare five or six from the lists below (some will get answered during the interview), ask two or three, and make at least one specific to this company.

Questions that make interviewers lean in

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'What would the first 90 days look like for whoever gets this role — and what would success look like at the six-month mark?' Signals outcome-thinking and gives you the real job description.

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'What's the biggest challenge the team is wrestling with right now?' Invites honesty and shows you're already thinking like a member of the team.

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'What separates people who are good in this role from people who are exceptional?' Tells you the real performance bar, and signals ambition.

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'I read about [specific recent announcement/product/result]. How is that changing this team's priorities?' The single highest-value question — proof of genuine research.

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'How does the team give and receive feedback day to day?' Reveals culture at the operating level, not the poster level.

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'What made you join, and what's kept you here?' People enjoy answering it, and the pause before an answer tells you plenty.

Good questions for specific situations

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Graduate roles: 'How are rotations decided, and how much say do graduates get?'

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Technical roles: 'What does the path to production look like — how often do you ship, and who owns quality?'

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Leadership roles: 'What is the team's biggest capability gap you'd want this hire to close?'

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Panel/final rounds: 'Is there anything about my background giving you hesitation that I could speak to now?' Bold, but it surfaces objections while you can still answer them.

Questions to avoid

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Anything answered on page one of their website ('So what does the company do?').

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Salary, leave and benefits in a first interview — legitimate topics, wrong stage; raise them at offer.

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'How did I go?' — puts the interviewer on the spot; the objection-surfacing version above works, this doesn't.

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Interrogation-length lists. Read the room; two or three good questions asked with genuine curiosity is the target.

Make it a conversation, not a quiz

The best closing questions build on something said earlier: 'You mentioned the platform migration — is that where this role would spend most of its first year?' Listening for these callbacks during the interview is itself great practice, and it converts your closing five minutes from a formality into the part they remember.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions should I ask at the end of an interview?

Two or three, chosen from five or six you prepared — some will already have been covered. One is acceptable if time is short; zero is the only wrong number.

Can I ask about salary in the interview?

If they raise it, engage with a researched range. Otherwise keep first interviews about fit and raise compensation at offer stage, when you have maximum leverage. Recruiters (as opposed to hiring managers) are the exception — being direct about range with a recruiter early saves everyone time.

What should I ask in a final-round interview?

Go strategic and personal: where the business is heading, what keeps the leader up at night, what would make this hire a clear win in a year — plus the objection question ('anything giving you hesitation I could address?') if you sense unspoken doubts.

Is it okay to write my questions down and bring them?

Yes — a small notebook signals preparation, not weakness. Glance at it when the moment comes: 'I had a few prepared — you've covered two, so just this one…' lands perfectly well.

Put it into practice

Reading only gets you so far. Run a realistic mock interview with Interview Buddy's AI coach — tailored to the company you're targeting — and get scored feedback on every answer.

Start a practice interview

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