Technical Interview Questions | Top 30 critical questions to ask before you hire!

Are you hiring someone new into the team and need help with the technical questions to ask? Here’s a lit of the top 30 critical technical interview questions to ask!

Conducting a technical interview might sound easy, but is it the case? Can you just use technical problems to assess a candidate’s skills? How can interviewers get a sense of how a candidate’s capabilities will help them succeed in the role they are recruiting for?

If you’ve got similar questions, then you’ve landed on the correct page. In this article, we will discuss what is a technical interview, why recruiters use tech support interview questions, and how to conduct a technical questions interview with example questions and answers.

Unlike any other job interview, a technical interview is a specialized, rigorous process that tests the coding skills, problem-solving abilities, and personality of the interviewee. The interviewer in this process must assess the way the candidate approaches the problem, breaks it down, solves it, and arrives at the conclusion.

While arriving at a correct answer can be beneficial in this type of interviewing scenario, interviewers should typically look for your methodology and should place more emphasis on that instead of a correct answer. 

Also Read: Remote interview guide | Everything you must know

Best technical interview questions

Below are a few tech interview questions to ask in an interview. These technical interview questions and answers shall help you understand what to expect from the candidate and they could be broadly divided as IT technician interview questions or as practice technical interview questions.

Question 1: What do you do to keep your tech skills up to date?

Rationale: This question evaluates how the candidate approaches his self-development as technology can change quickly.

Sample Answer: I regularly read tech blogs written by IT experts. I participate in short-term skills training and work on personal projects, where I frequently refer to some of my go-to sources and forums to check up on the tools I’m currently using. 

Question 2: What are your favorite tech products that you use?

Rationale: This question ascertains a candidate’s familiarity with different technologies and how well he’ll adapt to working with the company’s hardware and operating systems.

Sample Answer: I love the sleek design and quality user-end experience of working within frameworks that support JavaScript and Python.

Question 3: What are some benefits of working in an Agile environment?

Rationale: This question probes the candidates’ familiarity and understanding of the environment.

Sample Answer: Agile offers continuous fast-paced product testing at each stage of integration. It helps to fix the small bugs and defects of a project before these issues manifest into bigger problems. Agile is also advantageous for collaborating across departments to give and receive feedback during each phase of the development process of a project.

Question 4: Why are doors rectangular instead of round or square?

Rationale: Technical interviews should include complex questions, brainteasers, or numerical reasoning problems. It gives an idea of how the candidate approaches problems along with the way they think about different aspects of problem-solving. 

Sample Answer: I imagine that the shape of a door really has no constraints, but there would be a lot of product waste if manufacturers had to shape and cut circular or rounded doors

Question 5: What type of work do you want to do five years from today?

Rationale: This question can tell the interviewer what direction the candidate wants his or her career to move in and how long will he stay in the company.

Sample Answer: My goal is to become a software architect, is it because I want to make more money and also I am good at managing others.

Question 6: Do you write code outside of the office?

Rationale: It gives you a little bit of an insight into whether this is just a responsibility or job that they come and leave, or they really have a passion for technology.

Sample Answer: Definitely, whenever I get time, I start to upgrade my skills. 

Question 7: What’s the best software project that you’ve been part of in your previous organization?

Rationale: This question is meant to gather information about a candidate’s successes.

Sample answer: In order to get project zee completed in my previous job, I found out the key stakeholders and outlined the major milestones involved in completing the project. I worked backward to break down the work and identified obstacles. I then added some extra time to the schedule in case anything unexpected came up. I solved issues quickly and efficiently.

Question 8: How will you explain APIs to a non-technical stakeholder?

Rationale: This question will give you an idea of how the candidate handles the most difficult communication situations.

Sample Answer: An API is a web-based system, software library, computer hardware, and an operating or database system. It is a set of rules and specifications that software programs can follow in order to communicate. 

Question 9: Do you consider unit testing essential, or a waste of time?

Rationale: Asking this technical question will give you an understanding of the candidate’s attitude towards their working process.

Sample Answer: It is a best practice in code maintenance and software development. Testing is done for logic errors, coding flaws, and preventing bugs from advancing to the finished product.

Question 10: What are your 3 favorite technical languages?

Rationale: This question will give you an idea of the candidate’s programming knowledge, level of proficiency, and whether they are a good fit for your company.

Sample Answer: Java, Ruby, and PHP

Also Read: Virtual icebreakers for Remote teams | A complete guide

Question 11: which language do you consider as most important?

Rationale: This question will let you know about the proficiency and comfort level of the candidate with the language.

Sample Answer: Python is a powerful and general-purpose language that is used for a range of tasks, including web development, machine learning, and data analysis.

Question 12: What is a SAN?

Rationale: The question will let you know the technical knowledge of the candidate.

Sample Answer: SAN stands for Storage Area Network.

Question 13: How is SAN used?

Rationale: The question will let you know the technical knowledge of the candidate.

Sample Answer: SAN is a high-speed, specialized network that gives access to storage. Mostly are used to improve application availability, enhance performance, increase storage utilization with effectiveness, and improve data security protection.

Question 14: When is it appropriate to denormalize database design?

Rationale: This question tests whether you know how to identify the pros and cons of using denormalization for database optimization.

Sample Answer: Denormalization is needed when improvements are required to be made to a database for it to meet the application requirements.

Question 15: What is the role of continuous integration systems in the automated-build process?

Rationale: The interviewer should ask this question to make sure that the interviewee understands what continuous integration systems are and how they are used in the automated build process.

Sample Answer: Continuous integration is a development process that requires developers to integrate code into a shared repository multiple times throughout the day. Every time a code is integrated, it is verified by the automated build. This allows for the detection of defects and problems within the codebase at an early stage. 

Question 16:  When you don’t know the solution to some technical glitch, what is the first thing that you do?

Rationale: This question tells the interviewer the capability of a candidate to self-manage, and if they’re a fundamental problem solver.

Sample Answer: I do the research and attempt to find a solution on my own before bringing the problem to their manager.

Question 17: If you are given the freedom to design your dream job, what would it look like?

Rationale: Along with creating a connection with the prospective employee, the question allows a candidate to be creative, this question also reveals bits and pieces about an individual’s long-term goals.

Sample Answer: If I am given the freedom, I will design my profile which is just not limited to office working hours. I like the concept of workcation. Also, my dream job would allow at least 15 hours of research and interaction with the clients who are the ultimate customers of our products.

Question 18: What is your process of getting work done when you get a new job?

Rationale: Every person has a very specific methodology behind the way they work. The question tells their strategy.

Sample Answer: I try to gel up with the culture of the team, and align my strategies with the hiring manager. I try to understand the purpose, plan, and process that are existing in the team and then set up my own goals and processes.

Question 19: Can you describe a coworker’s working style?

Rationale: The question tells what they respect most about the colleagues, and what they learned from them. Does this candidate think about others in the team? Can they distinguish between the strengths different coworkers possess?

Sample Answer: I was really impressed with my working manager in the previous organization. She had the talent to explain complex coding concepts in a way that was easily understood by each one of us on the team.

Question 20: Tell me something about the more interesting problems you’ve been working on the past few years.

Rationale: When the candidate explains what they’ve been working on, the interviewer is able to ask for more details about specific things as they are answering. 

Sample Answer: In the past few years, I have been working in the front-end and have been on the client face. It is really difficult to satisfy clients. In the past few years, I have really learned how to explain complex things to clients in a simple manner. 

The above section is also a summary of IT technical interview questions, which could also be considered for technical phone interview questions or towards technology interview questions.

Now that you have an idea of how to prepare for technical interview that you would ask a candidate, it’s time you learn about the questions to ask in a technical interview that you would ask freshers. So let’s begin!

Also Read: Remote work policy | Know before you start

Technical interview questions for freshers

Below are the top 10 technical interview questions for freshers. These common technical interview questions will help you understand the candidate who isn’t experienced. 

Question 1: At what age did you first learn to program and what was the first thing you had built during that time?

Rationale: The interviewer can get a sense of how excited this candidate gets while talking about something that was presumably a big moment in their life and also showcases their basic communication skills.

Sample Answer: Well, I started programming at the age of 15 during my summer vacations. I started by learning Java. The first program I had built was real fun at that age. It was a program which asks you questions like “Ask me about anyone’.

Question 2: Can you tell me about a side project you’ve worked on (apart from college) in the past year or so?

Rationale: Having a side project is an indicator that the candidate likes to code and is passionate about writing software.

Sample Answer: I have worked on many important projects throughout college. Last year, I built a web scraper. It is a tool that takes a URL as an input and returns the content of the URL as HTML.

Question 3: Can you create an expense tracker? What features will you give it?

Rationale: The answer shall show the technical capabilities of the candidate.

Sample Answer: Yes I can create an interface that clients can use to add and categorize their expenses. I will add features like generating monthly reports based on the inputs and write custom alerts for things, like, “spending too much money on cosmetics… like always.”

Question 4: Have you ever worked on an artificial intelligence-related project?

Rationale: The answer shall show the technical capabilities of the candidate in the upcoming technologies.

Sample Answer: Yes, I had worked on a Chatbot. I created a chatbot that produces real-sounding responses based on cricket sports teams.

Question 5: would you like to work on fun and light-hearted projects? Suggest some?

Rationale: The question shall enquire about the creative side of the candidate.

Sample Answer: Yes, I would love to work on a movie showtime finder or a spoiler blocker.

Also Read: Virtual water cooler for Remote teams | A how-to guide for beginners

Question 6: Can you tell me how the Internet works in a very simple language?

Rationale: The answer will tell the capabilities of a child to simplify complex questions.

Sample Answer: Well, it is like a post office, where you send out a letter and eventually you will get a response back.

Question 7: If I were to ask your last set of teammates (in college projects) to describe to you, what do you think they would say?

Rationale: It forces the candidate to think through the lens of those he has worked with. This can provide interesting insights into the candidate’s working style.

Sample Answer: I think they would call me dependable, sincere, and punctual.

Question 8: What’s the one thing we haven’t asked you about that you want to make sure we should know?

Rationale: This question gives the candidate an opportunity to tell us exactly what they exactly want from the job.

Sample Answer: I am very good at managing people. I really want to be a senior software engineer in this company.

Question 9: Where did you first learn to program?

Rationale: The question helps in getting the background of the candidate.

Sample Answer: As a beginner, I started learning programming from a local institute in my city (Jaipur). But, after that, I started learning from online tutorials. Luckily, some of them were free as I didn’t have a lot of money during my school years.

Question 10: What have you learned from your failures?

Rationale: This question tells the interviewer about how a person overcomes his failures.

Sample Answer: Failures motivates me, as a technical professional. It pushes me beyond my current technical scope to want to learn and achieve more.