Interview guides

IT Developers

Assess coding, collaboration, and AI-driven development skills.

IT Developers Initial Questions

Career & Motivation

  • How long have you been coding, and what first drew you into development?
  • Tell us about your career path — what led you to your most recent role?
  • What did the average day look like in your most recent position?
  • What did you study in school? Which IT-related courses or topics were you most passionate about?

Learning & Community

  • Are you part of any user groups, online communities, or meetups to share knowledge?
  • What side projects are you working on at home? Who do you consult with for ideas or feedback?

Skills & Preferences

  • What is your development language of choice, and what tools do you most like using (IDEs, version control, CI/CD)?
  • Which project are you most proud of, and why? Which project was most challenging or disappointing? What lessons did you learn?
  • How do you ensure you meet deadlines and balance competing priorities?
  • Tell me about a time when a requirement wasn’t feasible. How did you handle it?

Portfolio & Leadership

  • Can you show examples of your work or code samples?
  • Have you been in client-facing roles? If yes, what was your involvement?
  • Have you had leadership or training responsibilities? Did you enjoy them?
Technical Questions

Core Technologies

  • What technologies are you most familiar with?
  • Do you hold certifications (Java, .NET, AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, security)?
  • Which certificates or new learning have you completed in the last 3 years?
  • What technologies are you intending to learn next year?

Specialization & Development Process

  • What type of development is your strength (web, mobile, cloud-native, client-server)?
  • What database environments have you used (SQL, NoSQL, cloud DBs)? Do you have a preference?
  • Describe your project experience: design, development, deployment, and maintenance.
  • Have you been involved in system architecture or design work?

Architecture & Methodologies

  • What formal application architectures are you comfortable with (SOA, microservices, event-driven, serverless)?
  • How comfortable are you with Agile, DevOps, or hybrid methodologies?
  • How would you bring a product from idea to deployment?
  • Describe techniques you’ve used to elicit user and business requirements.
  • What are the characteristics of a good requirement?
  • How do you handle incomplete or unclear requirements?
  • What are common non-functional requirements you’ve worked with (security, performance, scalability)?

UI/UX & Design

  • What are some guiding principles of UI design?
  • What is responsive design and why is it important?
  • How do you ensure accessibility (WCAG, AODA compliance)?

Prototyping & Mockups

  • What prototyping techniques do you use?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of using screen mockups?
  • How do you evaluate the impact of requirement changes mid-project?
Testing & QA Questions
  • How do you test your own code? Do you regularly conduct unit testing?
  • What testing tools and frameworks have you used (JUnit, NUnit, Jest, Cypress, Selenium)?
  • How do you connect QA test cases back to business requirements?
  • What are the advantages of fixing bugs early?
  • What is regression testing? How do you verify that changes haven’t broken existing features?
  • Have you used automated testing or continuous integration pipelines?
Website Developers
  • What size and scale of websites have you developed? Who was the target audience?
  • What technologies have you worked with (React, Angular, Vue, Node.js, Bootstrap, Sass, Webflow, etc.)?
  • What CMS platforms have you used (Drupal, WordPress, Joomla!, Webflow)?
  • Have you worked with WCAG accessibility and government compliance standards?
  • Have you developed bilingual or multilingual websites? What challenges did you face?
  • What testing do you consider essential for websites (performance, cross-browser, accessibility, security)?
  • How do you ensure high performance, usability, and security in production?
  • How do you debug systems in a live environment?
  • Have you integrated APIs or third-party services (Google Maps, social media, payment gateways)?
Web Application Developers
  • What languages and frameworks have you used (Java, .NET, Python, PHP, C++)?
  • Tell me about your current projects.
  • In what stages of the SDLC were you involved?
  • Describe your process from requirements to delivery.
  • How do you handle multiple users editing the same data?
  • What techniques do you use for robust data validation and security?
  • What is Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)? What is Model-View-Controller (MVC)?
  • Have you developed or integrated web services (REST, GraphQL, SOAP)?
  • What is your experience with mobile app development?
  • Which source control/versioning tools do you use (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)?
NET Application Developers
  • How many years of .NET experience do you have?
  • Which .NET languages do you use most (C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET)?
  • What are the main components of the .NET framework you’ve used?
  • Have you built applications using WinForms, WPF, or newer .NET MAUI?
  • Describe architectural patterns you’ve used (MVC, MVVM).
  • What do you look for when reviewing another developer’s code?
  • Have you implemented WCF or Web APIs for service-oriented applications?
Java Developers
  • What is the most recent version of Java you’ve used?
  • Do you have enterprise or mobile Java experience?
  • Which frameworks have you used (Spring Boot, Hibernate, Struts, Jakarta EE)?
  • Have you done front-end work (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) alongside Java?
  • What tools have you used for web apps (JSP, JSF)?
  • What design patterns have you applied (MVC, Singleton, Observer)?
  • What build automation tools have you used (Maven, Gradle)?
  • Which IDEs are your preference (Eclipse, IntelliJ, NetBeans)?
AI & Emerging Technologies (2025 Update)

AI for Development

  • Have you used AI-assisted coding tools (GitHub Copilot, Amazon CodeWhisperer, Tabnine)? How do they improve your workflow?
  • How do you review and validate AI-generated code for security, accuracy, and maintainability?
  • What’s your approach when AI suggestions conflict with coding standards or project architecture?

AI in Applications

  • Have you integrated AI/ML models into applications (e.g., NLP, computer vision, recommendation systems)? Which frameworks have you used (TensorFlow, PyTorch, Hugging Face)?
  • How do you design applications to make ethical, transparent use of AI?

Cloud & DevOps with AI

  • Have you used AI-driven DevOps tools for testing, monitoring, or CI/CD pipelines?
  • How do you monitor AI-enabled systems in production to ensure reliability and fairness?

Future-Readiness

  • What technologies or AI frameworks do you plan to learn in the next year?
  • How do you see AI reshaping the role of developers over the next 3–5 years?

Your next role starts here.