Looking for questions to ask developers in a fun interview series

Hey fam, if you recall, we shot some videos like this one and we're going to shoot a few more soon.

But with a slightly different format, and we're going to ask some devs from the community a variety of questions about their career, their stories, advice, thoughts, etc.

Questions like:

• What was your worst bug?
• What advice would you give in some situation?
• Tabs or spaces?

But we need some more questions.

So I urge you to drop some good questions in the comments below. No dumb questions, if we don't think it's the right question, we just won't use it. But I'd love to get some questions that we wouldn't have thought of, so anything goes.

P.S. If you're in the New York City area, we're shooting next week and still have a few slots still available if you want to take part. If you are a programmer and want to do a low-pressure interview to help other devs, please feel welcome to book a spot. HERE IS THE LINK TO BOOK

Thanks everybody for the help, happy coding.

Comments

[Ryan Palo]

1. What's your secret "code pet peeve" that doesn't really matter but drives you crazy?
2. What was something really hard for you to get when you were learning it? What helped it click?
3. What's something that you did outside your comfort zone that you're glad you did?
4. What's your favorite dev tool?
5. What are you learning right now?
6. What do you wish more people would ask/talk to you about? He asks this one on Developer Tea, and it always has really interesting answers.

[Ben Halpern]

Great ones!

[Jeremy Mill]

Tell us about the time you most misunderstood the client

[Ben Halpern]

Ooooh I bet I can come up with a good one for this! 😋

[Grant Tuttle]

Tell me about your day to day routines. How would you optimize them?

[Frederik 👨‍💻➡️🌐 Creemers]

• If you've been in the position to make hiring decisions, what usually most influences your decision?
• What would your advice be for companies to be better workplaces for women/non-white/disabled people?
• How would you explain your most recent project to a 5yo?
• Show us your fizzbuzz (everyone has their own way to implement it, and these differences say something about who you are as a dev)
• What's the best (physical) environment for you to code in?

[Ben Halpern]

Awesome.

[Matt Ellen]

(A bit assumptive and potentially too personal but) What caused your first burn out from programming?

[Ben Halpern]

Perfectly relevant, good question.

[Nathan Spears]

1. What is a breakthrough moment (or all your breakthrough moments) you had that accelerated your learning or deepened your understanding of what it means to be a good developer/engineer?
2. What debates do you wish you never had to participate in again because they seem important but in your experience are not that important (functional v imperative, tabs v spaces, etc.)?
3. What's something that has surprised you about coding in the last fifteen years?
4. What's something unexpected (except to you) that will happen in coding in the next fifteen years?

[aksfjh]

1. What was your most recent development "panic moment" and how did you end up handling it?

2. What is something you still have trouble understanding despite researching the subject?

3. What do you do to get "unstuck" on a really difficult problem/design/bug?

4. How many cups of coffee do you drink throughout a normal development day?

[Philip Hallstrom]

Q: What's your favorite language?
A: X
Q: What do you hate most about language X?

[Ian Parr]

1. What's the hardest SOLID principle to implement?
2. Do you actively contribute to any GitHub / open source projects?
3. Explain in as much detail as possible the process of loading a web page.

[Wesley Ameling]

When do you think of solutions for big bugs? (Eg at home, during a work out, etc)

[David James]

1. What are your productivity hacks?
2. What advice would you give to someone looking for a new dev job?
3. Mac, Windows or Linux?
4. What is the best advice someone has given you?
5. Are there any podcasts, books, or inspirations you swear by?

[Wernich ️]

how was your first ever code review?

(in case you're wondering, my code was compared to the opening sequence of "theme hospital")

[Judith]

If the "older" You could give advice to the "younger" You, what would he/she say to do about learning to be a programmer?

[Juan C. Andreu]

For how long do you think you are going to be coding as your main source of income? And Why?

[Max Antonucci]

1. What's your approach to solving a particularly tough issue or bug? What's your reaction once it's solved?

2. What's an old project or piece of code you wrote you'd be embarrassed to read again? How much as your code improved since then?

3. How do you prioritize what's on your "Learn Next" list?

4. What moments when you're programming make you think "Wow, I love my job/field so damn much."