150 Questions for a Remote Developer Interview

1. 150 QUESTIONS FOR A REMOTE DEVELOPER INTERVIEW General personality questions “GETTING-TO-KNOW-YOU” QUESTIONS 1. What title would you give to your autobiography? What soft skills that you have will help you succeed in this role? Do you have a role model in the tech industry or in general? What is your best trait? When people talk about you, which of your talents might they mention? Why do you think you are a good fit for this position? What is your personal motto? If you were the CEO of this company, what three things would you check on each morning? If you could learn one new technology this year, what would it be? Do you contribute to open source projects, and if yes, which ones? Do you listen to any tech podcasts? What was the last book you read? What book are you reading right now? Do you have any pet projects? 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. ASSESSING COMMUNICATION SKILLS 1. Describe the best project partner or supervisor you’ve ever worked with. What made your communication work so well? BROUGHT TO YOU BY

2. 1. Describe the best project partner or supervisor you’ve ever worked with. What made your communication work so well How would you mediate between two people who suggest two opposing ideas about how to approach a new project? Have you ever worked in a multidisciplinary team including both tech and non-tech team members? Did you like it? Explain why or why not. Have you ever had to work with someone you had a difficult time getting along with? How did you approach this situation? How would you communicate a delay in a project to a senior manager or client? Have you ever had a situation when you had to tell your project lead or CTO that you have taken on more than you can handle? 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. ASSESSING LEADERSHIP SKILLS 1. How do you approach a new project that needs to get off the ground? Describe a time when you took ownership over a project. Were you successful? Why or why not?  What’s an example of an initiative at one of your previous workplaces that you started on your own accord? Was there a time when you felt you led others by example? If yes, were you successful? As a manager, how would you deliver negative feedback to your subordinates? What do you consider to be your greatest leadership achievement in a professional environment? Have you ever had to “sell” an idea to your employees or subordinates? How did you approach the task? How do you approach a situation where you’re absolutely sure that the other person is wrong? How do you feel about delegating responsibilities to your team? 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. BROUGHT TO YOU BY 

3. ASSESSING TIME MANAGEMENT 1. Tell about a time when you had to juggle several projects simultaneously. Are you okay with working under pressure, and how do you handle it? How do you prioritise your tasks? How do you determine what amount of time a task will take? Have you ever delegated a task to save time or to get things done on time? How do you react to tight deadlines, and how do you deal with them? How do you approach a complex, time-consuming task? What time-management or project-management tools do you use in your professional and personal life? 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. ASSESSING TEAMWORK SKILLS 1. Describe the latest project you worked on together with other people. What was your role in it? How did you mediate with other people’s needs? What team experience did you find disappointing? How would you feel if another employee on the team were not doing their share of work? How would you explain to your colleagues that you have a completely different opinion about something? What makes people within teams closer? Has your team ever failed to reach a certain goal? If yes, what went wrong and what were the lessons you took from the experience? What makes a good team and a good team player? How much interaction do you have with coworkers daily? How do you feel about “team spirit?” 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. BROUGHT TO YOU BY 

4. ASSESSING FLEXIBILITY 1. What is the most difficult change you’ve undergone in your career? Can you provide an example of a change that you initiated, and one that was forced on you? Do you have any personal techniques for dealing with stress? Did you ever have to adjust to a colleague’s workstyle in order to complete a project on time? If your boss gives you instructions about how to do something, but you believe they’re incorrect for the situation, what would you say to them?  Was there a time when a program you developed just wouldn’t run? How did you troubleshoot your code? How do you approach a situation where you have to take action, but there is no established procedure on how to do so? Recall a time when you were assigned a task far outside your job description. How did this happen, and how did you deal with it? Do you often have to rearrange your schedule for something important? Please give an example of when you had to deal with a request on very short notice. Have you ever witnessed a significant and unexpected change to a project? How did you adapt to the sudden change? Describe a situation in which you had to adapt to changes over which you had no control. How did you do this? 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. ASSESSING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 1. When was the last time you had to give a colleague difficult feedback? How did you handle it? How does your mood have impact your work, either positively or negatively? 2. BROUGHT TO YOU BY 

5. y p y p y negatively)How does your mood have impact your work, either positively or negatively) Have you ever had to resolve a conflict at work? How did it go What frustrates you in your work? How do you respond to professional criticism? Are you capable of working under pressure?? 3. 4. 5. 6. ASSESSING GROWTH MINDSET 1. Have you ever taken a calculated risk that didn’t pan out? What did you learn from the experience? Do you ever share useful knowledge with coworkers without being specifically asked for it? Give an example of a mission or goal you didn’t think you or your team could achieve, but did. Describe a time when you decided you needed new skills or knowledge to advance your career. What was your approach to gaining these skills? Tell me about your worst professional failure. Tell me about the time you discovered an opportunity for growth, and how you persuaded others to approach it. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. ASSESSING CREATIVITY 1. If you had $100,000 to start a new business of your choice, what would it be? Give me an example of a time you had to take a creative approach to solve a coding problem. How did you come up with the idea? Can you provide an example of an idea you believed in when no one else would? How did you convince others to give it a try? What were the arguments you used to do so? 2. 3. BROUGHT TO YOU BY 

6. y p p y no one else would? How did you convince others to give it a try? What were the arguments you used to do so? What do you find most creative about being an engineer Where do you look for inspiration for your work? If you could make some small adjustments to make a development team’s daily or weekly meetings more productive, what would you suggest? What do you do outside of work hours to grow as a software engineer? 4. 5. 6. 7. ASSESSING RELIABILITY 1. Do you often miss deadlines, and why? Were there times when your work days ended before you were able to finish important tasks? What’s your definition of an efficient and reliable employee Have you ever had to speak up in a situation that was unfavourable to you? Tell me about the last time you promised to take care of something at work that turned out to be very difficult to handle. Was there a time when personal issues pulled you away from work? How did you handle it? Tell me about a time when you had to admit mistakes to your colleagues. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. ASSESSING ORGANIZATIONAL FIT 1. What are the three most important things in a job for you? What do you think about the startup environment? What would be your perfect company culture? What kind of work environment do you thrive in? What would make you choose our company over others, especially when everyone is working from home anyway? 2. 3. 4. 5. BROUGHT TO YOU BY 

7. p y y g y choose our company over others, especially when everyone is working from home anyway?home anyway? Have you ever found a company policy unfair or inefficient? If yes, what kind of policy was it and why did you feel that way? Did you do anything to approach the issue? Are you currently feeling satisfied, energized, and productive at work? What makes you feel best while you’re working? What type of leadership does a company need to have in order for you to be successful there? What’s the most interesting thing about you that we won’t find on your resume? What’s the biggest misconception people have about you and why? What would make you quit a job in the first month? How does your personal mission align with our company mission? 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Assessing remote-readiness GENERAL 1. What does “remote work” look like for you these days? When the quarantine is over, would you prefer to work in a co- working space, at home, in a coffee shop, in the library, or in a hotel room? Before COVID-19, did you have experience working remotely Do you have any pet projects you’re working on? What were the most challenging and surprising things you learned when you first started working from home? What are the biggest advantages and disadvantages of remote work for you? What is required in your physical workspace for you to be successful in your job? 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. BROUGHT TO YOU BY 

8. q y p y p y successful in your job?What is required in your physical workspace for you to be successful in your job? What do you like about working remotely, and what led you to apply for a full-time remote job like this? What is your biggest asset when it comes to remote work? What do you think is your biggest challenge as a remote worker, and how will you deal with it? Is there anything you miss about being part of an office community? 8. 9. 10. 11. REMOTE COMMUNICATION SKILLS 1. Imagine I know nothing about job titles. Explain the job to me in less than 1 minute. How do you handle lack of face-to-face contact when you work remotely? Do you use any tools to approach co-workers more efficiently? How do you get to know new members of your remote team How do you communicate your progress clients and/or stakeholders while working remotely? How good are you at written communication? What was the most significant written report or presentation that you’ve completed? If you had a problem when the rest of your remote team was offline, how would you go about solving it? Do you have any strategies to help you focus? What would you do if you had an internet connectivity issue during a meeting with your manager or a call with a customer? 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. TIME MANAGEMENT REMOTELY 1. How do you schedule your remote work day? BROUGHT TO YOU BY 

9. schedule your remote work day?How do you schedule your remote work day?How do you schedule your remote work day? When do you feel focused and start working at earliest? What are the work hours that work best for you? Are you a night person or a morning person? What's your typical day, week, and weekend like when WFH? What tools have you used in the past few weeks to work effectively while remote? How do you manage your time during a development cycle? Which methods do you use to estimate how long specific development tasks will take? Do you efficiently handle your daily remote to-do list, or do you lose track of time and work extra hours when at home? Imagine your teammate is working in a different timezone and you’ll have to run meetings with them at 9 pm. How do you cope with that? What activities do you do that help you maintain a healthy work-life balance? How do you switch off from work, especially when at home? How would you manage a big remote project with a lot of moving parts? Do you prefer a more structured or unstructured work environment? 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. CRITICAL THINKING 1. If you saw a metric drop week over week, what would you do? How do you weigh pros and cons before making a decision? You have one hour until the project deadline and code that doesn’t work. What’s your next step? Tell us about a situation when you made a mistake at work. What happened next, and how did you deal with it? What steps did you take to avoid it happening again? 2. 3. 4. BROUGHT TO YOU BY