35 questions to ask at the end of an interview, and which to skip

“No, I think you’ve covered everything” is the weakest possible answer. It suggests either low interest or no preparation, and it wastes the last impression you make. Even if your prepared questions were answered along the way, you can ask a follow-up about something the interviewer said earlier, which shows you were listening.

Good questions do three things at once: they show you’ve understood the role, they help you decide whether to accept an offer, and they often prompt the interviewer to describe you in the job. Prepare them the way you prepare your answers, for example the STAR stories you use earlier in the interview. Re-reading the job ad next to your CV beforehand helps too: the free CV score checker shows where they match and where they don’t, which often points to the best thing to ask about.

Start with the work itself. These turn a job description into a picture of the actual job.

1. What does a typical week look like in this role? Shows the real balance of work behind the job description.
2. What would you most want me to achieve in the first three months? Reveals the priorities, and whether the expectations are realistic.
3. What’s the biggest challenge someone in this role will face? Tells you where the difficulty is, and gives you a chance to address it.
4. Why is this position open? A new role suggests growth; a replacement invites a polite follow-up about why.
5. How does this role work with the other teams mentioned in the job ad? Shows you read the ad closely and reveals how much collaboration is involved.
6. Which parts of the job description matter most, and which are nice to have? Helps you prioritise, and exposes a wish-list ad.

These show you’re already thinking about doing the job well, and the answers tell you how you’ll be judged.

7. How will you measure success in this role after six months, and after a year? Concrete answers point to a well-defined job; vague ones are worth noting.
8. What separates someone who is good in this role from someone who is great? Tells you what the manager values most.
9. What did the last person in this role do particularly well? A tactful way to learn the expectations, and how the role has gone before.
10. How are performance and feedback handled, and how often? Reveals the feedback culture before you’re inside it.
11. A year from now, what would make you say hiring me was the right decision? Invites the interviewer to picture you in the job.

Your manager and colleagues shape your day more than any company policy. Ask about them directly.

12. Who will I work with most closely day to day? Clarifies the people you’ll depend on and who depends on you.
13. How is the team structured, and how big is it? Shows reporting lines, seniority mix and how stretched the team is.
14. How would you describe your management style? Best asked to the hiring manager; listen for specifics, not slogans.
15. How does the team divide up work and make decisions? Reveals how much autonomy you’d have.
16. How long have most people on the team been here? Tenure is a quiet signal of how well a team keeps its people.
17. What do you enjoy most about working on this team? A personal question gets a personal answer, and hesitation is telling too.

Especially useful with senior interviewers. Do your reading first, so your questions go beyond the website.

18. What are the company’s main priorities for the next year? Shows how your role connects to what leadership cares about.
19. How has the team or company changed over the last year? Surfaces reorganisations, growth or cuts you won’t find in the ad.
20. What are the biggest challenges the company is facing right now? A frank answer is a good sign; a scripted one is information too.
21. How does this team’s work feed into those priorities? Tells you whether the team is central or peripheral.
22. How do you see this team growing over the next year or two? Signals growth, new roles and room to take on more.

Culture is easier to judge from specific examples than from adjectives, so ask for examples.

23. How do people here usually communicate: meetings, chat or written documents? Tells you what a normal day of collaboration feels like.
24. What does flexibility look like in practice, for hours and location? Asks about remote and flexible work without sounding like a condition.
25. How does the team handle periods when the workload spikes? Reveals whether crunch is occasional or a way of life.
26. Can you tell me about a recent disagreement on the team and how it was resolved? Shows how conflict is handled, which says more than any values statement.
27. If you could change one thing about working here, what would it be? An honest answer is a good sign about the culture itself.

Ask these once you’ve shown interest in the job itself, so they read as ambition rather than an exit plan.

28. What learning and development support is available? Budgets, courses, conferences or mentoring: what actually exists.
29. Where have people in this role gone on to? Real career paths are more convincing than promises.
30. How do promotions work here? Shows whether progression is structured or ad hoc.
31. What new skills would you like the person in this role to develop? Tells you where the manager sees the role going.

End every interview with at least one of these, so you leave knowing what happens next.

32. What are the next steps, and when can I expect to hear back? Sets a timeline, which tells you when to follow up.
33. Is there anything about my background you’d like me to clarify? A gentle way to surface a doubt while you can still answer it.
34. Who else will I meet during the process? Lets you prepare for each conversation and its audience.
35. Is there anything I can send that would help your decision, such as work samples? Shows initiative and gives you a natural reason to follow up.

Asking different people the same question is fine and often revealing: compare how a manager and a future colleague describe the same team. For questions specific to your field, our interview questions by job pages include role-specific questions to ask, for example for a product manager or a nurse. Interviewing for a remote role? Our guide to remote job interview questions adds questions about time zones, equipment and onboarding.

1. Reread the job ad and mark anything vague or surprising: a responsibility without detail, a team you hadn’t heard of, a tool you’d want to know more about.
2. Look up who you’re meeting. Their role tells you which group of questions fits: a recruiter, your future manager, a peer or a senior leader.
3. Skim recent company news or the careers blog for a product launch, a new office or a reorganisation you can ask about specifically.
4. Pick five or six questions, at least one each about the role, success and next steps, and adapt the wording to what you found.
5. Order them by importance, so the one you most need answered comes first if time runs short.

Specific beats generic. Asking how the new Berlin office will change the team shows far more preparation than asking how the company is growing.

Questions to skip

• Anything the website answers, such as “What does the company do?”. It signals you didn’t prepare.
• “Did I get the job?” It puts the interviewer on the spot. Ask about next steps instead.
• Yes-or-no questions such as “Do you like working here?”. Open questions get better answers.
• Questions that assume the worst, like “How many hours do people really work?”. Ask how the team handles busy periods instead.

Questions to time carefully

• Pay, bonuses and holidays. In an early interview with the hiring manager, wait unless they raise it. Confirm the range with the recruiter if the ad doesn’t show one, and negotiate at the offer stage.
• Remote work as a condition. Ask neutrally what flexibility looks like. If it’s a deal-breaker for you, raise it in the recruiter screen, not the final round.

When pay does come up, research it first. Salaries by role and country shows advertised pay from real job ads, and the salary negotiation email template helps once an offer arrives.

• Prepare five or six, expect to ask two or three. Some will be answered during the conversation.
• Write them down. Glancing at notes is fine and shows you prepared.
• Follow up. The best second question builds on the first answer: “You mentioned onboarding is changing; what’s driving that?”
• Connect briefly. If an answer matches your experience, say so in a sentence, then let them continue.
• Watch the clock. If the interview is running over, ask your most important question and offer to send the rest by email.
• Note what you hear. Vague success measures, high turnover, or an interviewer who can’t describe a typical week are worth weighing before you accept.

The answers are also the raw material for your thank-you note. Mention one specific thing the interviewer told you; the free thank-you email generator gives you a short draft to personalise, and our guide to following up after an application covers what to send if you don’t hear back by the date they gave you.