General
Warm up, "getting to know you" questions
Describe the interview process, and set expectations for initial phone screen, secondary technical phone screen, and face to face technical interview.
Can you tell me a little about what you know about DAT?
Given that you're interviewing, you are obviously looking for something new, can you describe what you're looking for in a new job? (What responsibilities, technologies, type of team, type of company, company culture, etc)
Do you have a preferred place in the stack (from database to javascript/html/css) to work? Where would you say you are strongest?
Do you have experience with JavaScript / MongoDB? Rank expertise
Open Ended
What keeps you engaged and motivated in your work? What makes you want to stay at a company?
What is a professional achievement that you are proudest of?
What’s your favorite part of your current position?
What’s your least favorite part of your current position?
How would your current manager describe you?
What projects/tasks are you looking to do more of in your next job and what are you looking to do less of?
What drives and motivates you?
What is a skill that you would like to grow?
What split do you want between management/coding?
What would you say are the habits of a good Software Engineer?
How do you feel about code reviews?
How do you stay abreast of what is going on in our field?
Experience with shell scripting?
What (if anything) do you open a shell for on a regular basis?
Where do you see yourself in 5/10 years?
Leadership/Management
What is the most challenging part about being a tech lead?
How do you deal with an underperforming engineer that you are the lead for?
What is the ideal “split” you are looking for between development/management?
What areas of the code do you focus on when getting involved?
How do you ensure code quality is maintained?
What area(s) do you find you need to provide the most guidance and mentoring for the engineers you are responsible for?
How does writing and running tests fit into your development process?
Tell me about your philosophy when it comes to hiring
How do you manage tech debt?
How much tech debt is good to have?
How do you measure team efficiency and productivity?
Describe a time when you and one of your reports disagreed on priorities. How did you handle the situation?
When you join a new team, how do you like to learn the product?
How hands-on are you with the team? Are you involved in coding, design reviews, architecture, etc.?
Do you have experience managing remote teams or individuals? What is different about that?
What kinds of meetings do you hold to run your team?
Tell me about a time there was a conflict between members of your team and how you resolved it.
What made you interested in moving into management?
You have a program with something or component that fails 1 week before launch. What do you do?
What are your thoughts on CI/CD? How is it achievable?
Describe your best hire. Why were they your best hire?
Describe your worst hire. How did you manage him/her?
Do you have a to do list? How do you manage it?
How have you improved as a manger over the years?
What was your most recent big mistake? Why did it occur and how do you repair the situation?
How do you measure success for yourself as a manager?
Tell me about a time when you had an underperforming team? What did you do to find/motivate/correct situation?
Tell me about a time when you had an underperforming team member. How did you address the individual.
DAT embraces a flexible schedule. We already use Slack and Hangouts for inter team communication. Are there any other tools you find helpful in enriching a collaborative environment?
Tell me about a time when a high performant team member wanted to leave. What questions did you ask, what are some things you did to encourage the team member to stay.
What are the characteristics of a high performing contributor. How do you score/keep track of these individuals? How do you find out about them?
How do you approach mentoring/coaching? Can you give examples of individuals you have mentored and promoted?
Other
Personality
Let's say you work with an engineer that has strong opinions and can be pushy at times, how do you deal with that?
What is the toughest non-technical problem you've ever had to solve?
In-person interview questions
What qualities do you like to see in a manager?
Let's say you have been put in charge of a legacy code project with maintainability problems. What are some steps you would take to get the project on a stable footing?
Let's say you've just been assigned to a project in a technology that you don't have experience in, how would you get started?
You see something wrong, but the product owner doesn’t want to fix