your ultimate guide to technical interview questions

So you searched through our jobs board and applied to a remote IT job. But to successfully upgrade your career, you first need to pass the technical interview. Every hiring manager wants to evaluate your skills and experience before they offer you the role, and they accomplish that task by asking a series of queries related to your particular niche.  

To ace your technical interview, you need to prepare. And to assist with your research, we compiled a complete list of common tech interview questions you can expect during the interview process. You'll find links below for detailed interview questions across multiple IT career paths and possible roles. Use this page as your starting guide for passing the technical interview.    

A technical interview is a skills-based assessment that has two distinct goals:

1. To discover a potential candidate's previous experience and past real-life success
2. To discover a potential candidate's theoretical knowledge and practical skills

In your interview, hiring managers will ask several behavioral, situational, and technical questions to see how you can process job-specific information. The purpose is not to have you recite back trivia answers. Instead, the interview questions are tools that explore how you might approach common problems you will likely encounter on a company project. As you answer the preset questions, the company can better assess whether you will be an ideal fit for the role.

A typical technical interview proceeds through four common stages:

• A background check: The first stage is a brief overview of your past work, education, certifications, and supporting credentials.
• A core technology check: The second stage involves more technical queries designed to uncover your competencies with network engineering and tools required for the particular role. You can expect some practical tasks during this stage of the interview.
• A soft skills check: The third stage will turn to more conceptual questions, as the interviewer wants to explore your unique processes, habits, and communication skills. IT specialists must work independently and within team settings, so exploring your soft skills (e.g., teamwork and communication) is vital.
• A Q&A session: Lastly, you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions in return. Do not underestimate the importance of this final step, as both you and the company should work to find a mutually beneficial relationship that ideally leads to a job offer.

A proficient software developer has access to a multitude of possible career paths. Your career can cover a variety of programming languages, leadership opportunities, and company roles that demand different skill requirements.

As you can expect, software developer interview questions will change based on the unique job description. A backend developer should focus less on client-side and end-user experience and instead answer questions concerning server-side web application logic.

While comprehensive knowledge of multiple company roles will help your case, when you prepare for your technical interview questions at EPAM Anywhere or elsewhere, it is best to demonstrate the skills that directly match the job description.

Here’s our selection of top technical interview questions asked by developer type:

• Web developer interview questions
• Backend developer interview questions
• Frontend developer interview questions
• Full-stack developer interview questions
• Data engineer interview questions
• Machine learning engineer interview questions
• Big data developer interview questions
• Network engineer interview questions
• Data scientist interview questions

Interview questions by programming language, framework, and platform

In addition to the varied developer types, there are a myriad of sub-skills a software engineer can specialize in. Different projects require talent with unique programming languages and platforms, and most companies fill open roles with the engineer that offers the most applicable skills.

The job description will outline the crucial frameworks the ideal candidate should know. Often, supporting experience with different programming languages will be considered an asset, but the technical interview questions will depend on the particular skill sets required.

Use the following interview question guides to prepare for your core technology check:

• Android developer interview questions
• iOS developer interview questions
• Angular developer interview questions
• .NET developer interview questions
• Kotlin interview questions
• JavaScript interview questions
• Java interview questions
• AWS interview questions for cloud developers
• SAP developer interview questions
• Azure cloud interview questions
• Python interview questions
• Django developer interview questions
• Salesforce interview questions
• Google Cloud interview questions
• Ruby on Rails interview questions

It goes without saying that the interview questions used for an entry-level position will differ from those asked of a senior developer entering a leadership role. The difficulty of the questions will increase so that you can demonstrate your advanced experience.

In addition, you will likely receive more behavioral queries. A hiring manager often places more value on how you might act towards priority clients, how you approach management duties, and how you would lead a project from inception to completion. The technical interview questions could also include more hypothetical scenarios to test your reactions and evaluate soft skills like problem solving and collaboration.

Use the following questions as an opportunity to explain past successes and demonstrate how you will bring value within a senior role:

• Solution architect interview questions
• Senior software engineer interview questions
• Senior frontend developer interview questions
• Senior JavaScript developer interview questions
• Senior data engineer interview questions
• Senior .NET developer interview questions
• Advanced ASP.NET Core interview questions
• Senior iOS developer interview questions
• Senior Android developer interview questions
• Advanced Android interview questions
• Senior Java developer interview questions
• Senior PHP developer interview questions
• Senior Angular developer interview questions
• Senior React JS developer interview questions
• Advanced ReactJS interview questions
• Advanced NodeJS interview questions

While developers are skilled at writing code, DevOps professionals excel at streamlining application deployment through automated processes. There is significant overlap between the two roles, but the job description and technical interview will focus on the differences.

First, you will receive standard tool and core technology queries related to DevOps (Ansible, Kubernetes, etc.). In addition, prepare for further situational questions that will assess your approach to seamless software delivery, automation testing, rapid and stable code deployments, and designing according to the cloud specifications of AWS or Microsoft Azure.

Use the following technical interview guides as a launchpad for further research and preparation:

• General DevOps interview questions
• Ansible interview questions
• AWS DevOps interview questions

Quality assurance (QA) engineers support a development team with application testing and troubleshooting. You uphold the application creation process to the ideal standard, ensuring proper function and performance. The technical interview is meant to evaluate those specific abilities.

QA engineers must demonstrate knowledge of software and defect life cycles, automation tools, and crafting test cases. By extension, the hiring manager will assess how you approach the entire development process, as you are in charge of the internal standards the company maintains after changes are made to source code. Your work can mitigate a host of future problems, so use the following technical interview questions as a chance to show how you will bring value to the business:

• QA interview questions: a practical guide
• Senior QA engineer interview questions
• Functional tester interview questions
• Automation tester interview questions
• Manual tester interview questions
• Python automation testing interview questions
• Selenium interview questions

Analysts offer a unique set of skills to an organization, helping coordinate and integrate multiple computer systems for increased efficiency. Any operation, program, or dataset within a business can fall under the purview of an analyst, and it is your job to find ways to improve the current processes.

For a data analyst specifically, many of the technical questions will revolve around collecting and cleaning data. But make sure you emphasize how you glean insights from the data and translate that information into actionable steps. Both the analysis and interpretation of the data are valued skills sought by hiring managers.

A business or data analyst holds an integral role within the company structure, so expect open-ended questions designed to assess your unique fit within the company culture:

• Business analyst interview questions
• Senior business analyst interview questions
• Data analyst interview questions
• Power BI interview questions
• Web analyst interview questions

Brushing up on your technical skills will always help you feel ready, but an interview can still feel like a nerve-wracking event. Keep the following tips in mind when you go for your interview, and you'll surely pass the test!

• Tip #1: Don’t speak ill of previous clients. Give positive reasons for why you are seeking new job opportunities rather than denigrating previous industry partners. It speaks volumes about your intrapersonal relationships and maturity.
• Tip #2: When possible, share personal experiences. You don’t need to recite one-line answers. Instead, use each question as a chance to demonstrate your experience and talents.
• Tip #3: Use the correct terminology. Needless complexity is less than ideal, but when answering technical questions, use the right naming conventions.
• Tip #4: Be honest. Showcase your competencies in the best possible light, but do not lie about past accomplishments or skills. Start the working relationship on the right foot.
• Tip #5: Avoid passivity and reticence. Hiring managers evaluate the content of your answers alongside your response delivery. Talking clearly and confidently shows your leadership and communication qualities.

Browse our open remote jobs at EPAM Anywhere and take your career to the next level in our global community of passionate tech professionals.