In this article
Before you start
Why interviewers ask this
"Do you have any questions for us?" arrives near the end of almost every round, and a blank answer is a missed signal. The question tests whether you listened, whether you have thought about the job as something you would do rather than something you want, and whether you can lead a conversation as a peer.
A weak set of questions is a generic list read out in turn, or a question the company's website already answers. A strong set is specific to this role; the strongest is tied to a decision you have to make. One honest limit before the detail: in one of the few studies of this that we found, Heimbaugh (2016) had 353 participants (employed business and psychology students) act as interviewers, and the candidate's interview performance mattered more than the questions asked. Good questions help; they do not rescue weak answers, so give them proportionate preparation.
Questions to ask in an interview from first principles
- Open question
- An open question is a question that cannot be answered with yes or no and invites the interviewer to describe something specific, such as how a decision was made.
In plain words
An interview is a two-way decision. The employer is deciding whether to hire you, and you are deciding whether to accept. Your questions are your side of that decision: they are how you collect the facts you do not yet have.
Think of buying a house. You would not ask the seller what the house is; you can see that. You would ask what the pictures cannot show, such as how old the roof is. The analogy breaks in one place: the seller is not also judging you while you ask. The interviewer is, so a good question also shows how you think.
Google's re:Work guide (updated March 2026) describes structured interviewing as assessing every candidate for a job with the same questions, scored on the same scale. That is our inference, not Google's: with the interviewer's own questions fixed, the closing minutes may be the one place a candidate can steer the conversation.
Step-by-step description
- What do you still need to know before you could say yes?
- Phrase it as an open question about work already happening.
- Check the answer against what you heard earlier.
- A question is useful when its answer could change your decision about the role.
- One open question about current work plus one follow-up is stronger than a list of questions read out in turn.
Step 1: Name the decision you still have to make
List what you would need to know to say yes: what the job really is, how success is measured, who you would work with, what is hard right now. Anything the website, the job posting or the interviewer has already told you is crossed off. Typical gaps are who you would report to, how the team measures success, and whether the role is new or a replacement; each one is an input to your decision, and ranking them tells you which question to ask first.
Input: your picture of the role so far. Output: two or three gaps in it. You now know what to ask about, and why a question borrowed from a list often misses.
Step 2: Turn each gap into one open question about real work
Phrase the gap as an open question about work that is already happening, not about the company in general. Compare "What is the culture like?" with "When two priorities collide on this team, how does it decide what waits?" The second forces a story. That difference is the Strong-to-Staff line in the rubric below: a culture question gets a slogan, a question about colliding priorities gets a decision, and asking it is what lifts a set of questions to Staff level.
Marquette University's career service advises preparing 10 to 15 questions beforehand and says to craft questions "that are important to you and will help you determine if the organization is a good fit" (Marquette, read 2026-10-24). The table is an original starter set; each row says what the answer teaches you.
| Question (adapt the wording) | What the answer teaches you |
|---|---|
| What would a strong first six months look like, and how would you tell? | How success is measured |
| What is the hardest part of this team's work right now? | The real problems you would inherit |
| What did the best person in this role do differently from the rest? | The unwritten bar |
| When two priorities collide, how does the team decide what waits? | How decisions and trade-offs work |
| How and when does feedback reach people here? | Whether you will know how you are doing |
| How are technical or product disagreements resolved? | The decision culture |
| What does the support or on-call load look like in a typical month? | The day-to-day cost |
| Which other teams does this role depend on most? | Where friction will be |
| What, if anything, in my background would you like me to clarify? | Doubts you can still address |
| What are the next steps, and when can I expect to hear back? | The process; Marquette calls this customary |
Step 3: Listen, then follow up once
Ask one question, listen, and follow up on a detail instead of moving to the next item on your list. A follow-up that links the answer to something said earlier ("You mentioned the migration earlier; does that change what the first six months look like?") shows listening, which a list cannot.
Input: the interviewer's answer. Output: one specific follow-up. If the answer contradicts what the recruiter said, that is information about the role, not a gotcha to point out. If an answer is vague, ask for a recent example; if it is clear, move on to your next gap. One follow-up is enough, because a chain of them turns a conversation into a cross-examination.
Text description of the diagram
- A question the company website already answers shows little preparation.
- Good questions are open, specific questions about work that is already happening.
Knowing it is half the job. Saying it is the other half.
Interview Clozo is an AI interview copilot for real interview rounds: it hears the question and puts a strong answer on your screen, and you say it in your own words. See the features or how it works.
Start Free Trial →The Staff-level answer
Do you have any questions for us?
Yes, three. Before this round I wrote down what I would need to know to say yes: what success looks like in the first six months, what is hardest for the team right now, and how it decides when priorities collide. Could you start with the last one? When two priorities collide here, how does the team decide what waits, and can you give me a recent example? Then I would like to come back to what a strong first six months looks like.
What makes it Staff-level: each question traces back to a decision the candidate must make, the lead question tests how the team trades off, and it asks for a recent example, which forces a specific answer instead of a policy statement. Say it in about a minute and then stop talking.
The rubric
| Dimension | Weak answer | Strong answer | Staff answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preparation | No questions, or a generic list | Questions specific to this role | Questions tied to a decision you must make |
| Depth | Asks what the company does | Asks about challenges in the work | Asks how the team trades off under pressure |
| Listening | Reads the list in order | Reacts to what was said | Links the answer to an earlier point |
| Tone | Pay, perks or leave first | Curious, about the work | Peer to peer, asks for an example |
| Closing | Silence or a thank-you | Asks about next steps | Asks about next steps and offers to clarify doubts |
Three variants of this question
What questions should I ask a recruiter or on a phone screen?
Ask about process and fit: what the stages are, what the role is for, and when you will hear back. Save the deep questions about team trade-offs for the hiring manager and peers. For the stage structure, see how interview loops are typically organised.
What should I ask the hiring manager, a peer and a senior leader?
The hiring manager can answer success measures and priorities, a peer can answer the day-to-day and support load, and a senior leader can answer strategy and how the team's work connects to the business. Ask each person the question only they can answer; the same question to all three sounds rehearsed. Leadership interviews go further on the leader's side.
What questions should a software engineer ask the interviewer?
Ask about the engineering practices that decide your week: how code is reviewed and released, how incidents and on-call are handled, how technical disagreements are resolved, and how much of the roadmap is planned against reactive work. The same pattern applies in data engineering and product management rounds, with the questions adapted to those jobs.
Common mistakes
- "So, what does your company do?" (wrong) The website answers it, and it signals little preparation. (right) "I read that the team is moving to X; how is that changing the work?"
- "I do not have any questions." (wrong) It reads as low interest. (right) "Most of mine were answered; the one thing still open is how priorities are set."
- Opening with pay or perks. (wrong) Marquette advises not mentioning salary or benefits first and waiting until the employer raises them. (right) Ask about the work now; pay belongs to a later stage, covered in salary negotiation.
- Reading a list in order. (wrong) It ignores what you heard. (right) Choose the one or two questions the conversation left open.
Follow-up questions
What questions should I ask the interviewer at the end?
Ask the two or three questions the conversation left unanswered, usually about success measures, the hardest current problem and how the team decides. End by asking about next steps and when you can expect to hear back, which Marquette calls customary.
What are the five best questions to ask an interviewer?
Five that work for most roles: what a strong first six months looks like, what is hardest for the team right now, what the best person in the role did differently, how the team decides when priorities collide, and what the next steps are. Adapt the wording to the person you are talking to.
How many questions should I ask?
Prepare many and ask few. Marquette suggests preparing 10 to 15; in the room the time left decides, and two or three well-chosen questions with a follow-up beat a long list. Ask the ones the conversation has not already answered.
Can I ask about salary and benefits in the first interview?
Marquette's guidance is not to mention salary or benefits first and to wait until the employer raises them. When the topic is open, the salary negotiation hub covers how to answer and how to ask.
- Start from the decision you must make, not from a list.
- Ask open questions about real work; avoid asking what the website already answers.
- Ask one question, listen, then follow up once.
- Your answers matter more than your questions, so prepare both; the behavioral interview hub covers the rest of the round.
- Leave pay for the stage where the employer raises it.
Sources
- Interviewing Guide (questions to ask the employer) — Marquette University Career Services (date = read date), 24 Oct 2026
- Questioning the Questioner: The Effect of Applicant Questions on Interview Outcomes — University of Missouri-St. Louis (Heimbaugh, dissertation), 12 Dec 2016
- A guide to structured interviewing for better hiring practices — Google re:Work (updated March 2026), 1 Mar 2026
