As a software developer candidate at a technology startup, what kind of questions can I ask the interviewer?

's answer covers all the good stuff, so I'll just try to add some side value here about how to approach thinking about this: Mostly you want to talk to the founders.  There may be someone intermediate that you are reporting to, but in a startup things are very heavily-driven by the founders, so you need to know about them.  Ask to interview with them (if you aren't already) - if you can't, that's usually a red flag right there.  You want to ask questions which will elicit information about what kind of people the founders are, what their real goals are (in terms of their deeper personal desires and how this startup serves as a vehicle for them), how they view the role of software developers or technologists within the context of a startup, and lastly, how they view their startup's route to success. Personally as a developer, I look for the following things: - I want founders who are idealistic and pragmatic at the same time.  Too much of one can be fatal.  This is a tip for life in general too, I suppose. - I want founders who are interested in building something really cool and great, product-wise, for its own sake, rather than trying to build a great product as a means to a high-value exit.  They need to be in "this startup thing" because it's the only kind of life they could imagine living, not because it's "likely to maximize their expected return."  Founders like this will tend to become bored with questions about exit valuations (bored, not evasive) and will prefer to talk about their product goals. - I want founders who feel that technology is a central force and provides the thought leadership in a startup, but which cannot drive everything by itself alone.  Founders who are looking for developers to implement some new business process idea of theirs aren't ones you want to work for, nor are ones who feel that technology is the answer to everything. - I want founders who do not see success as the result of building a great product (i.e. the notion of "if we build something really great, then we'll naturally get users").  That is totally false; you want a founder who believes that you will need to spam the world with your product and get it in front of users relentlessly until it catches on, and has a sense of gritty determination about this.  Finding out the answer to these things sometimes require that you ask sideways or probing questions to get them to talk about how they see things, because a lot of interviewers know how to give good-sounding or bland answers to candidates.  Those don't carry any useful information.  If you are joining a startup, this is terribly important (you are committing your life, time, energy and skills to follow these founders), so you want to get good information.  I think 's questions are pretty good for this - the key is to not just listen to the surface answers, but pay attention to what these mean about the founders and their outlook and intentions.

In addition to what and have said, I'd like to throw in questions about attrition, product voice, and attitude toward entrepreneurship. Re attrition, some questions might be: How long does the average engineer stay at the company? Why have the last few people left?  You also want to ask where product ideas tend to originate.  For example: Do they come largely from PMs?  Are engineers encouraged to have a product voice?  Are engineers encouraged to run with/prototype their own ideas? Lastly, if your ultimate goal is to start your own company one day, you may want to ask: How many former employees have gone on to found startups? Was their leaving to do so was generally looked on favorably? Does the company culture encourage entrepreneurship?

For any company you interview at, not only start-up, you should reseasrch as much as possible about the company, the products, the customers, ... you have to come in prepared. I have rejected candidates for the simple reasons that they were so badly prepared that it did seems they were interested in the job. I want to hire motivated people. Now questions to ask specifically for a start-up: Because a start-up is growing in a different way from a large company, its products and goals will change faster and further away. So to know if this is the right place for you, you have to focus on something else: the company vision, why are they doing what they do. What are they trying to change in our world. You will not have a rigid job description at a start-up, maybe no job description. Ask them what are their main challenges to see if anything excites you, match your previous experiences. Discover how you can help while doing what you are interested in. You most likely will have lower salary, maybe less benefits than some large corporations. So ask about stocks. Ask which exit strategies the company is aiming for (it might change, but good to know). Ask about the early customers (if they already have any), they have a strong influence on where the start-up will be heading too in the near future.

As the question relates to software developers, here are a few more concrete questions you may want to ask: Do you use source control? Can you make a build in one step? Do you make daily builds? Do you have a bug database? Do you fix bugs before writing new code? Do you have an up-to-date schedule? Do you have a spec? Do programmers have quiet working conditions? Do you use the best tools money can buy? Do you have testers? Do new candidates write code during their interview? Do you do hallway usability testing? These points come from 's article on 12 Steps to Better Code (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html), and were probably written from the point of view of introspection, but you may find it useful to ascertain the answers to these questions during the interview process.

Michael and Yishan have done a nice job posing what I'll call "higher level" questions for you to work with. There are concrete questions thaht you can also ask:   Please explain your org structure to me and how I would fit in.   What can you tell me about your new product or plans for growth?         How do you rate your competition?       Please describe the typical colleague, client and/or customer I would be dealing with?   What technology would I be working with?     What are the most immediate challenges of the position that need to be addressed in the first three months?     What would you expect that I would be doing during my first year?     How often would you expect me to see my work completed?   These questions tend to deal with the day-to-day. I want to also say that it would be hard to ask both Michael's and my questions in one interview. Pick several and see where the flow takes you. Jeff Altman The Big Game Hunter http://www.JeffAltman.com