Several years ago, technical interviews were dominated by whiteboard exercises and brain teasers. But ask any engineer or developer today, and they’ll tell you: old-school tests and quiz methods rarely reflect the work they actually do.
Thankfully, hiring teams have caught on. Now, the most effective interviews look a lot more like the job itself—collaborative, practical, and grounded in real-world problem solving.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to write better technical interview questions, including ones that uncover the skills candidates actually need.
You’ll learn how to create realistic assessment scenarios, choose the right technical formats, and build a process that mirrors the real challenges of the role.
How interview questions end up shaping your team
Effective technical interviews do more than test skills. They predict job performance and shape the entire candidate experience. In a competitive and complex hiring market, it’s critical to assess how engineers will perform in realistic job scenarios.
Traditional algorithm questions can be useful for assessing core problem-solving skills, but don’t fully simulate the job of a software developer. Candidates who excel at theory might struggle with debugging or code reviews, while strong engineers may underperform in artificial test settings. That’s why companies are shifting to practical evaluations—like reviewing pull requests, designing systems, or explaining decisions—that reflect daily work.
This approach improves hiring accuracy and candidate clarity while reducing the bias that naturally seeps into even the most well-intentioned teams.
Collaborative, realistic environments are the best way to predict job fit.
🪄 Remove the guesswork with live tech interviewing with CodeSignal.
Step-by-step: How to develop technical interview questions
Creating effective technical interview questions requires a systematic approach, and many tech companies spend years searching for the right method or platform.
Here’s a simple, proven framework that top tech companies use to design assessments that truly reflect on-the-job success.
With the right prep, both interviewers and candidates can get the most out of the process and walk away with clarity.
1. Define the core skills of your role
Start by identifying what success looks like in the first 90 days of the role. Go beyond the basic job description to pinpoint the specific skills, tools, and knowledge the candidate will need.
Put this in your own words, with a nod to your company’s mission and core values.
Focus on both technical and soft skills relevant to daily tasks. Here are a few areas to define in a clear, concise way:
- Core responsibilities: What specific projects or tasks will they tackle early on?
- Technical requirements:
- For backend roles: API development, database optimization, code reviews
- For frontend roles: component architecture, performance tuning, cross-browser compatibility
- Language proficiency: Experience with key languages (e.g., Java, Python, C++) and ability to work across stacks
- Technical certifications: Optional, but can be useful for showcasing specialized knowledge or ongoing learning
- Soft skills: Ability to solve problems, communicate clearly, and work through situations where all the details may not be spelled out
Clarify these expectations upfront to ensure your interview questions reflect real job demands and guide candidates accordingly.
Did you know? CodeSignal’s Talent Science team helps our customers perform a rigorous job analysis for their open roles.
2. Align questions with real world problems
Design questions that simulate actual work scenarios rather than abstract computer science problems.
Include questions that address realistic, complex problems candidates are likely to face on the job. Instead of asking candidates to implement a data structure from scratch, give them a buggy piece of code to debug or a performance issue to investigate.
Create questions around common tasks like refactoring legacy code, implementing a new feature within existing architecture, or troubleshooting a production issue. Evaluate how candidates approach solving problems and their problem solving process.
You can also ask candidates to propose possible solutions to challenges they might encounter in a team project or when managing project management responsibilities. These scenarios test technical knowledge while showcasing a real problem-solving approach and communication skills.
3. Choose the appropriate format
Different question formats serve different purposes. Here’s a basic overview of common tech interview options that you’ve likely encountered before:
- Expert-level algorithmic questions can quickly assess foundational knowledge
- Live coding exercises reveal problem-solving processes
- System design discussions test architectural thinking and communication skills
- Coding problems and coding challenges helps evaluate a candidate’s programming and problem-solving abilities
- Remote coding challenges can be used to assess candidates in a virtual setting, providing flexibility and convenience
It’s important to include a technical portion in the interview to assess practical skills through tasks like whiteboarding and hands-on problem-solving.
Digging deeper into assessment results? It just got easier. Learn more about CodeSignal’s live technical interviews.
Consider whether synchronous or asynchronous formats work better for your goals.
Asynchronous coding assessments let candidates work in their preferred environment without time pressure, while live interviews allow for live collaboration and clarification. Mock interviews can help candidates prepare for the types of technical challenge and coding interview questions they will face, improving both their technical and communication skills.
4. Set difficulty and time expectations
Do your interview questions match the level of the role? Ensure that they do.
Senior engineers should tackle architectural or system-level challenges, while junior developers need more straightforward tasks. For senior roles, don’t shy away from advanced interview questions that dig into their depth of knowledge. Just be sure to provide clear instructions, realistic time limits, and examples of what a strong answer looks like.
Be upfront about how you’ll evaluate their answers. Let candidates know whether you’re prioritizing working code, an optimized solution, or thoughtful trade-offs. Encourage them to ask follow up questions—this can lead to richer conversations, surface edge cases, and show how they think.
⭐ Hire smart tip: Include a few behavioral interview questions to get a feel for how candidates communicate, work with others, and fit into your team. When everyone knows what to expect (on both sides) the interview process feels smoother and more productive.
5. Test for fairness and bias
Before using any interview questions, run them past your team to check for unintentional bias. Do questions lean too much on a certain education path, cultural background, or language style that’s not actually needed for the job?
Mix in situational questions, and use role-specific questions, to see how candidates might tackle real-world challenges. Pair those with behavioral questions to learn how they’ve handled things in the past. This helps keep the focus on skills and actions—not assumptions.
Read more: Reducing bias in assessment with job-relevant coding tasks
And don’t forget about accessibility. Make sure your questions work for people using different devices or tools, choose a platform that’s compatible with screen readers, and skip any pop culture or company references that not everyone will relate to. Keeping it fair helps everyone shine.
Integrating system design and architecture questions
System design questions help you see how candidates think through bigger engineering problems—not just how they write code. Instead of solving a small algorithm, they might be asked to design something like a chat app or a caching system. This shows how they break down complex challenges, choose the right tools, and think through trade-offs.
For example, a candidate might be asked: “How would you build a system like Slack?” A good answer would include questions about user load, message storage, and delivery speed. You’ll also see how they communicate ideas, sketch solutions, and explain their choices.
Encourage candidates to talk through their approach, ask clarifying questions, and use visuals if possible. It mirrors how real teams plan projects and solve problems together.
A note on technical interview prep
➡️ To prepare, candidates should practice identifying bottlenecks, thinking about scale, and weighing different architecture options. Including these kinds of questions in your interview helps you find engineers who can design smart, scalable systems—not just write working code.
“You get there by trying out something similar, like CodeSignal’s practice questions. These let you get comfortable with the coding environment, the types of questions, the timer, and the flow of the test. Just getting familiar with where the buttons are and how everything works can make a big difference. The more you practice, the more mentally prepared you’ll feel going into the real assessment.”
Tigran Sloyan, CEO @ CodeSignal (Advice from Tigran Sloyan)
Incorporating database and SQL query challenges
If you want to see how well someone can solve problems in a real-world setting, give them a database or SQL challenge. These kinds of interview questions are a great way to test technical know-how and see how candidates think through one of the most important parts of modern software: managing data.
You might ask them to speed up a slow query, design a clean and efficient database schema, or pick the right indexing strategy to boost performance. These tasks show how well a candidate understands SQL, data structures, and the ins and outs of building reliable, high-performing databases.
Grab our 28-question SQL guide with example tasks to help you get started with writing your own!
When reviewing answers, look for candidates who explain their thinking. The best ones won’t just write working queries. Instead, they’ll suggest ways to improve data security and show how their solution could reduce storage use or make builds run smoother.
To help them prepare for a technical interview like this, encourage candidates to practice real-world database problems, try different query languages, and dig into topics like transactions and optimization techniques.
What do great technical interview questions really look like?
Modern technical interview questions share several key characteristics: they’re realistic, collaborative, and focused on practical skills rather than theoretical knowledge.
Great questions should reflect the types of challenges faced by a modern engineering team, ensuring candidates are evaluated on scenarios relevant to actual project responsibilities. It’s also important to develop a hiring process that highlights candidates’ thought process and team fit.
Here are a few interview scenarios to get you started:
Debugging exercises
A debugging exercise could present candidates with a web application that has several issues affecting user experience. In this type of question, candidates investigate the problems, propose solutions, and explain their reasoning.
This approach also allows interviewers to evaluate candidates’ understanding of technical aspects relevant to the role, such as front-end and back-end technologies, tools, and core programming concepts. This mirrors real development work where understanding existing code is often more important than writing new code.
Code review
Code review simulations are gaining traction as a practical way to assess both technical and collaborative skills. For example, a candidate might be given a pull request written in Python that includes inefficient logic, inconsistent formatting, and a few subtle bugs. They’re asked to review the code, leave comments, suggest improvements, and explain their reasoning. This not only tests their grasp of the programming language but also shows how they communicate feedback, spot issues, and contribute to a cleaner, more maintainable codebase.
A coding review provides insight into their understanding of team workflows and continuous integration practices.
System design interview
System design interviews have evolved beyond drawing boxes and arrows. Modern whiteboarding formats provide collaborative tools where candidates can sketch architectures, estimate capacity, and discuss trade-offs in real-time. The focus shifts from memorizing system patterns to demonstrating problem-solving methodology and technical communication.
Learn: How to run remote system design interviews on CodeSignal
How technical interview platforms enhance performance
Modern technical interview platforms simplify question development and enhance the overall interview process, while gauging the specific knowledge of each great candidate. With CodeSignal, you’ll save time, improve hiring consistency, and help candidates prepare more effectively.
Look for these qualities for your next technical interview platform:
- Pre-built question libraries: Curated assessments by tech stack and skill level to reduce prep time
- Code playback tools: Review how candidates solve problems (instead of final outputs)
- AI-powered scoring: Ensure consistent evaluation, reduce bias, and get deeper skills insights
- Candidate prep tools: Offer practice questions and real-world simulations to reduce interview anxiety
- Live interview environments: Support pair programming, system design, and collaborative debugging with real-time code editing and whiteboarding tools
These platforms create a more accurate, fair, and realistic hiring experience—for both teams and candidates.
Mistakes to avoid: Common technical interview mistakes
Even the best interview processes can go off track if you’re not careful. Here are a few common pitfalls to watch for—and how to avoid them:
- Overcomplicated questions. Many technical interviews feel more like trivia contests than reality. If this is the case, you might be testing recall, not candidate readiness. Stick to challenges that mirror the day-to-day work. Investing in interviewer training can ensure everyone stays on track.
- Poor candidate experience. Long, confusing, or tedious interviews are one of the fastest ways to lose stellar candidates in your hiring process. Top candidates usually have options, so make sure your process is clear, respectful of their time, and communicates expectations upfront.
- No clear scoring system. Without defined criteria, evaluations are inconsistent, and bias can creep in. Set standards for what a strong, average, and weak answer looks like. Then train interviewers to use them consistently.
- Outdated or overused questions. If your questions have been circulating online for years, you’re likely not getting authentic answers. Rotate your question bank regularly and be alert to signs that candidates are simply repeating rehearsed solutions.
A strong process doesn’t just test for technical skills—it reflects your company’s values and professionalism. Make it count.
Build a smarter job interview process
You’re not just testing what someone knows but seeing how they work.
Great interviews reflect real tasks, set the tone for what success looks like, and value the candidate’s time. The best questions reveal how someone integrates code, applies the right optimization technique, and collaborates under pressure.
CodeSignal streamlines tech hiring with research-backed, role-specific questions across hundreds of coding languages. Our AI native skills platform also features automated scoring, bias-reducing features, and cheating and fraud prevention. You’ll get reliable insights into candidates’ competency and fit, without sacrificing candidate experience.