Something you can always count on to happen at the end of your Software Engineer interview - both technical and non-technical rounds - is for the interviewer to ask you if you "have any final questions?".
This question actually isn't a real question at all - candidates are generally expected to ask questions. As an interviewer myself, candidates who don't have any questions might come off as less interested in the role.
Besides that, the questions you ask reveal what you care about. If asked well, this can be a very predictable opportunity for you to leave a good impression while also knowing more about the role (including uncovering potential red flags).
Here, I present questions to ask at the end of your software engineer interviews, for every purpose. The ones in **bold** are the ones that tend to make the interviewer go "That's a good question" and pause and think for a bit.
- **What are the engineering challenges that the company/team is facing?**
- **What has been the worst technical blunder that has happened in the recent past? How did you guys deal with it? What changes were implemented afterwards to make sure it didn't happen again?**
- **What is the most costly technical decision made early on that the company is living with now?**
- **What is the most fulfilling/exciting/technically complex project that you've worked on here so far?**
- **I do/don't have experience in domain X. How important is this for me to be able to succeed?**
- How do you evaluate new technologies? Who makes the final decisions?
- How do you know what to work on each day?
- How would you describe your engineering culture?
- How has your role changed since joining the company?
These questions are suitable for asking Engineering Managers or senior level management, such as CEO, CTO, VPs and are especially useful for the Team Matching phase of Google interviews or post-offer calls that your recruiters set up with the various team managers.
- **How do you train/ramp up engineers who are new to the team?**
- **What does success look like for your team/project?**
- **What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current team? What is being done to improve upon the weaknesses?**
- **Can you tell me about a time you resolved an interpersonal conflict?**
- Where do you spend more of your time, high performers or low performers?
- Sometimes there's a trade-off between what's best for one of your team members and what's best for the team. Give an example of how you handled this and why.
- Give an example of a time you faced a difficult mentoring/coaching challenge. What did you do and why?
- What is your management philosophy?
- What is the role of data and metrics in managing a team like ours?
- What role does the manager play in making technical decisions?
- What is an example of a change you have made in the team that improved the team?
- What would be the most important problem you would want me to solve if I joined your team?
- What opportunities for growth will your team provide?
- What would I work on if I joined this team and who would I work most closely with?
