You Must Ask Software Engineers This Question In Interviews

Think of a complex system that you’re familiar with. In the next five minutes, explain to me how it works.

The point of this question is to figure out two core things: is the candidate truly familiar with something they claim to be an expert in, and are they good at articulating complex ideas to people who may not know anything about them.

I recently asked this question to a frontend developer candidate. He claimed on his resume to be an expert in WordPress, something with which I have more than a passing familiarity.

His explanation was not so good. He instantly became very jittery and gave me a rambling, incoherent explanation of the popular CMS. Although technically accurate, it barely scratched the surface of what WordPress is for and why I should care about it. He was a really nice guy, and I think his technical chops are probably average-to-strong, but his failure to satisfy the question was a huge red flag for me.

The role he was interviewing for was to be the only frontend resource on a team with a handful of backend developers. His ability to clearly explain the frontend technology to the backend folks would be critical to his success or lack thereof. It could have just be interview-specific anxiety, but my product’s success is too important to roll the dice.

Another candidate for the role answered the question with an excellent explanation of a complicated embedded system that he had built. In addition to checking all of the other boxes, he was great at explaining the system and why things worked the way they did, and he was able to do it in a tight timebox (five minutes). Hired.

As a product manager, when I interview a developer candidate my role is not to check if they know the technology they claim to, but rather to get a sense of personality and leadership qualities. Asking them to explain something complicated to a person who may not know anything about it can tell me something about both.