General questions

At the beginning of your interview, you will be asked basic questions to provide the hiring manager with more information about yourself and your general skills.

Examples:

• Tell me a little bit about yourself.
• What are your career aspirations?
• Where do you see yourself in five years?
• Why are you leaving your current job?
• Why do you want to work for our company?
• What do you know about our company?

Questions about experience and background

Along with general questions, hiring managers will also want to find out more about your previous experience and how it applies to the role you are interviewing for. This will determine how you can use your previous experience to be successful at their company.

Examples:

• Tell me about a project you completed successfully. Why do you consider it a success?
• How have you previously detected errors that weren’t obvious?
• What qualities make you a great developer?
• What programming languages or frameworks are you familiar with?
• Have you ever had a project delay or error that you had to explain to your supervisor or client? How did you go about it?
• What is your favourite thing about being a developer?

In-depth questions

In-depth questions are used to evaluate your work ethic. They also allow the hiring manager to understand how you solve problems and handle certain situations.

Examples:

• Tell me about your typical day in your current or most recent role as a developer.
• Have you ever had a failed project? Give me an example and explain why you think it was a failure. What would you have done differently to ensure its success?
• How do you prioritise your tasks as a developer?
• If we gave you several tasks due at the end of the day and you weren’t able to finish them in time, how would you handle this situation?
• Can you briefly tell me about some projects you worked on recently and the approach you took from start to finish?
• Tell me about a tough development problem you’ve had in the past and how you solved it.

What type of development are you currently working on?

When hiring managers ask you this question, they want you to understand your contribution to the company. When you answer this question, explain what you do in your current job and why.

Example: “I’m currently working as a developer for a global eCommerce business. I build applications that help the company process customer orders and track important customer information and payments”.

What tools do you use to keep projects on track?

Hiring managers want to know how you keep organised and how you keep track of your time to make sure projects are delivered on time. When you answer this question, tell the hiring manager what specific software and tools you use to stay on top of your projects.

Example: “I use Trello to track not only my project tasks but their deadlines too. Trello lets me manage all my tasks easily and I use it to collaborate with my team too so everyone understands what tasks they need to complete and what the deadlines are for these tasks”.

What programming languages are you familiar with?

The hiring manager is likely to ask you this question as they will want to see whether you are comfortable using multiple programming languages, especially the ones that are mentioned specifically in the job ad. It’s also important to show that you are willing to learn new languages to fit the needs of the job.

Example: I have extensive experience using, JavaScript, Python and C#. I’m also currently learning Ruby via online classes and I’m always open to learning new languages to expand my skill set to contribute to our company’s success and to advance my career as a developer”.