Top 14 Best Questions To Ask In An Interview In 2021
By Mike Simpson
Have you ever been on a horrible date where the person you are out with spent the whole time talking about themselves without ever asking you a single question?
Ugh, sounds miserable, right? Would you want to see that person again? Probably not. Who would want to spend any more precious time with someone who was so self-involved?
Dating is a two way street and the goal is to learn as much as you can about your potential partner through a give and take approach to dialogue.
FREE BONUS PDF CHEAT SHEET: Get our “Questions To Ask The Interviewer Cheat Sheet” that gives you 18 more great sample questions you can ask the interviewer at your next interview.
Did you know a job interview is a lot like a date?
Youre kidding, right? Does this mean I have to start bringing flowers and chocolates with me as well as copies of my resume?
No. As charming as that might seem, we dont recommend that approach at all. In fact, leave the flowers and chocolates at home for your sweetie.
What you should bring with you are questions to ask at the end of an interview!
Waitquestions? Arent they interviewing me?
Yes, they arebut like any good date, shouldnt you try to learn a little bit more about the position and company before you decide to accept the job if they offer it to you? Of course!
How else are you going to find out if it really is a job you want to do?
What Is The History Of This Position
This is an important question to ask during the interview process because if you are offered the job, you will have to work in the environment affected and shaped by your predecessor.
Perhaps this opening was recently created to support company growth. If that is the case, ask a follow-up question about who owned the responsibilities up to this point, and how the duties will be transitioned.
If you are interviewing for a position left vacant by someone’s departure, get a sense for what happened. Why did the predecessor leave the job? Was he or she promoted or internally transferred? If the predecessor left the company, ask about the circumstances.
On the same note, it is usually fair game to clarify whether the company is considering internal candidates for the position.
Why Is This Position Available
Why ask it: The answer from this question can tell you a few helpful things including whether this is a new position , or whether someone left the position because they were promoted, moved laterally at the company, quit, or were fired. Whatever the answer, you will learn something valuable about the job and team you might join.
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What Are The Properties Used To Get Size Of Window
You can use innerWidth, innerHeight, clientWidth, clientHeight properties of windows, document element and document body objects to find the size of a window. Let’s use them combination of these properties to calculate the size of a window or document,
varwidth=window.innerWidth||document.documentElement.clientWidth||document.body.clientWidth varheight=window.innerHeight||document.documentElement.clientHeight||document.body.clientHeight
Best Questions To Ask In An Interview
Come to your interview with your questions prepared. Give thought to who you’re interviewing with and what questions would be best suited for them. For example, recruiters will have the best knowledge of company culture, benefits and high-level responsibilities of the job while VPs or CEOs are best equipped for questions about strategy, vision and goals of the company. Beforehand, practice asking at least three questions that demonstrate youve thought seriously about what it would be like to do this job. Here are a few examples of questions you might ask:
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What Are The Next Steps In The Selection Process
This may seem obvious, but not all employers have this information together during the interview, or the hiring manager may not know it.
If you are interviewing with a traditional selection committee, they should be able to outline exactly whats going to happen next: a second level interview, checking references, and so forth. They may even let you know how soon youll know any updates.
But be prepared to leave the interview without this information and know that youll need to follow up. At least by asking it, the potential employer will know that you are still interested and want to be kept up to date.
Hiring Process Questions To Ask In An Interview
One of the hardest parts of job searching is the constant unknowns. Hiring process questions are good questions to ask in an interview to give you a sense of whats going to happen next, how quickly they are looking to fill the position, and give you an opportunity to finish the interview as strongly as you started.
17. What are the next steps in the interview process?
This question shows that you are eager to move forward in the process. It will also help you gain important information about the timeline for hiring so that you can follow up appropriately.
18. Do you have an ideal start date in mind?
This is another way to get an understanding of their timeline and when you can expect to hear from them.
19. Are there any further details I can provide that will be helpful?
This question allows your interviewer to circle back to anything that concerns them about your experience or resume without phrasing the question negatively such as asking, is there anything that concerns you about my fit for this role? You dont want them to be thinking of reasons not to hire you, but you do want to have the opportunity to explain yourself if the interviewer has doubts about your qualifications.
20. Do you have any further questions to ask me?
This can be a less-detailed alternative question to the above. It leaves the door open for the interviewer to ask for clarification on one last thing before concluding the interview.
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How Would You Build A Product For People Who Are Looking For An Apartment
Bangaly Kaba gives candidates 45 minutes to work through this one on a whiteboard. Its part of the product sense portion of the PM interview process and he finds that this seemingly mundane hypothetical can prove to be very difficult.
Heres why its one of his favorite questions to ask in an interview:
Theres no one right answer. As the interviewer Im agnostic when it comes to the exact product solution, says Kaba. What I care about is the rigor of the candidates approach, the depth of thinking and coherence of the product outcome, and the frameworks used to get there.
Its relevant to everyone. Many product sense questions are niche and pertain to the company youre interviewing for, which carries bias because theres asymmetric information between interviewer and interviewee, he says. But finding housing is a universal need.
Its hard to game. Even if you know the question in advance I can offer new constraints or twists that are similar to on-the-fly changes that PMs face day-to-day, says Kaba. It checks whether the interviewee can think the thorough the product idea holistically.
Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years
A job candidate who has professional drive and lofty career aspirations is valuable. Look for someone who is engaged in their career and has clear goals, and consider mentioning how your organization can help them achieve those objectives. Finding a prospect who is interested in career advancement and sees opportunity with your company increases the chances that theyll be happy in the long run.
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How Do You Find Min And Max Values Without Math Functions
You can write functions which loop through an array comparing each value with the lowest value or highest value to find the min and max values. Let’s create those functions to find min and max values,
varmarks= functionfindMin}returnmin }functionfindMax}returnmax }console.log) console.log)
How Does The Company Represent Its Core Values
Use this question to learn about the company’s culture, core values, and commitment to them. Be sure to research its values before your interview and consider prefacing this question by sharing what you understand about the company’s culture and values. The answer may help you learn how the company’s actions support its verbal claims and determine if their values align with yours.
Related:What Is Corporate Culture?
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Questions You Should Not Ask In A Job Interview
Ok, now that you have some surefire questions you can ask that will impress hiring manager lets go over the types of questions you should avoid asking. As youll see, these questions reflect poorly on you and paint you as a less than ideal candidate
Go Beyond The Common Interview Questions
Yes, the job search is intimidating, but reviewing interview questions and answers in advance is one way to calm your nerves and boost your confidence. Are you looking for more ways to stand apart from the competition? Set up a free profile with Monster and we can send you career advice, workplace insights, and more job interview tips directly to your inbox. It’s a quick and easy way to stay one step ahead.
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Is Javascript A Compiled Or Interpreted Language
JavaScript is an interpreted language, not a compiled language. An interpreter in the browser reads over the JavaScript code, interprets each line, and runs it. Nowadays modern browsers use a technology known as Just-In-Time compilation, which compiles JavaScript to executable bytecode just as it is about to run.
What Is Minimum Timeout Throttling
Both browser and NodeJS javascript environments throttles with a minimum delay that is greater than 0ms. That means even though setting a delay of 0ms will not happen instantaneously.Browsers: They have a minimum delay of 4ms. This throttle occurs when successive calls are triggered due to callback nesting or after a certain number of successive intervals.Note: The older browsers have a minimum delay of 10ms.Nodejs: They have a minimum delay of 1ms. This throttle happens when the delay is larger than 2147483647 or less than 1.The best example to explain this timeout throttling behavior is the order of below code snippet.
functionrunMeFirstsetTimeout console.log
and the output would be in
Script loadedMy script is initialized
If you don’t use setTimeout, the order of logs will be sequential.
functionrunMeFirstrunMeFirst console.log
and the output is,
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What Metrics Can I Use To Measure My Performance In This Role To Ensure Im Positively Impacting The Company
Substitute For: How will my supervisor measure my performance?
Last on our list of questions to ask in an internship interview is one thats sure to impress. To show the interviewer that you take responsibility for your work, ask about performance metrics. This clarifies that you are willing to be accountable for your actions in the role and work hard to ensure that they are helping the department and the company.
Good Questions To Ask At The End Of The Interview
As the interview winds down, or when the interviewer has indicated that the interview is ending, you need to ask these end-of-the-interview questions.
Tell the interviewer that you are very interested in the job and enthusiastic about joining the organization. Then, finish by asking these questions.
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What Are The Expectations About Managing Workflow
Virtually every company has enough work to keep everyone busy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In practice, everyone gets to go home at the end of the day. How do you know when you are done for the day? What are the expectations around working on weekends and responding to emails outside the normal working hours?
A Cliche Interview Questions
You might have noticed that many of the common questions to ask in an interview are missing. These are questions were all familiar with such as Whats your greatest weakness? or Why should we hire you? The biggest problem with these questions is that theyre some of the most asked interview questions and candidates likely have prepared their answers ahead of time. There is plenty of content online for candidates instructing them how to answer these questions, meaning you may not get a truthful answer at all.
Plus, you cant be sure what exactly the answers to these questions indicate. Granted, if someone says I dont have any weaknesses or offers the covert brag of Im too hard-working, youll know they may not have the attitude youre looking for. But, most candidates will likely take the middle road naming a weakness thats small and unimportant. So, how do you compare answers of different candidates? You probably cant at least not confidently.
So, every time youre thinking of asking a well-worn, cliched question, consider a refreshing alternative not to catch the candidate off-guard, but to get a more genuine answer from them. Here are some examples:
Old question: Why should we hire you?
Better alternative: If you were hired, how do you think you could help with this project?
Old question: What is your greatest weakness?
Better alternative: Describe a time when you failed in your previous job.
Old question: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
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B Illegal Interview Questions
This goes without saying. Using one of these illegal interview questions to ask the interviewee can damage your employer brand at best and, at worst, you might actually run afoul of the law or even get sued.
The problem with illegal questions is that they often crop up in an interview without the interviewer being aware that theyre illegal. But, often, these questions are also personal and not job-related, so its easy to learn to steer clear of them. Here are some examples of illegal questions:
- How old are you?
- Are you a native English speaker?
- Do you plan to have children?
- Are you married or plan to get married soon?
- Have you ever been arrested?
- Have you ever used any drugs?
- When did you graduate?
These interview questions have the potential of illegally disadvantaging a protected group. For example, in the United States, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warns against making decisions based on arrest records because this may cause you to unwittingly discriminate against protected groups. Similarly, in the UK, age is one of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010. This means that a direct question about age, or even an indirect one might get you in trouble.
If I Were Hired For This Position Would I Be Going Through Any Training Prior To Actually Starting The Work
This is a great question to askespecially if you are concerned about your ability to do the job. With the right training, an employee can quickly be brought up to company speed. If no training is offered and youre not sure you know enough to do the jobthis would also be a great time to get clarification on that.
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Questions To Learn About The Job
Ask questions that will help you determine if you would actually like the job, and be able to do it well.
- Why is this position open? Is it a new position? Or is it a replacement for someone?
- How long does someone typically stay in this job?
- How many hours a week does someone in this job typically work? Is overtime accepted or expected?
- Do most employees check email over the weekends and stay in touch while on vacation? Is that required for this job?
- Do employees sometimes work from home or telecommute in this job? How many people telecommute? How many hours a week?
- Who does the person in this job report to? What is the bosss job title, and where are they located?
- What is the salary grade for this job? Where does this job salary grade rank in your salary grades?
- What can you tell me about this job that isnt in the description?
- What are your future plans for this job?
- What are the prospects for growth for the person in this job?
- How long do people stay in this job?
- How often is this job open?
- Who does the person in this job report to?
- How often are performance reviews provided? Do employees receive feedback from their managers?
- Is travel to meet with clients or suppliers or to represent this organization required for this job? If so, where, how long, how far, and how often?
- Where is this job located?
Ask about anything else in your preparation that raised questions for you. Read for leveraging Google before the interview.
