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https://github.com/yousufislam191/company-interview-evaluator

A curated guide for software engineers to evaluate a company’s engineering practices during job interviews. Includes key questions, red flags, and good signs related to SDLC, codebase quality, team culture, testing, and developer experience.
https://github.com/yousufislam191/company-interview-evaluator

code-quality company-evaluation developer-experience developer-job-search developer-job-search-bd engineering-culture interview job-interview-questions legacy-code sdlc software-engineering technical-debt

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A curated guide for software engineers to evaluate a company’s engineering practices during job interviews. Includes key questions, red flags, and good signs related to SDLC, codebase quality, team culture, testing, and developer experience.

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README 

        
# 🏢 Company Interview Evaluator



This repository provides a structured set of interview questions and evaluation criteria to help software engineers assess a company’s engineering culture, technical maturity, and codebase quality **before joining**.



It helps identify **red flags** and spot **positive signs** in areas like SDLC, code quality, dev environment, testing practices, and team culture.



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## 📋 How to Use



During your technical interview process, use the questions below to evaluate the company. For each, we've listed:



- ✅ Good signs – what strong answers sound like  

- ❌ Red flags – what weak or problematic answers look like  



Ask follow-up questions when needed to clarify vague or overly positive answers.



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## 🧩 Evaluation Criteria & Questions



### 1. Codebase Quality



**Question:**  

> “Can you describe the age and state of the current codebase?”



✅ Good signs:

- Actively maintained, refactored over time  

- Clear documentation  

- Efforts to reduce technical debt



❌ Red flags:

- “It just works, so we leave it alone.”  

- No one understands parts of it  

- No documentation or refactoring plan



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### 2. SDLC Process



**Question:**  

> “Can you walk me through your SDLC—from requirements to deployment?”



✅ Good signs:

- Structured sprints (e.g., Scrum, Kanban)  

- Planning, QA, peer review, staging environments  

- Clear CI/CD process



❌ Red flags:

- No defined process  

- Development is ad hoc  

- “We’re agile-ish”



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### 3. Testing & CI/CD



**Question:**  

> “How is testing handled? Do you have unit, integration, or E2E tests?”



✅ Good signs:

- Tests for new features and bug fixes  

- Automated CI/CD pipelines  

- Tools like Jest, Cypress, GitHub Actions



❌ Red flags:

- Heavy reliance on manual testing  

- No CI/CD or flaky tests  

- QA team handles all testing



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### 4. Dev Environment & Tooling



**Question:**  

> “How easy is it to set up the project locally?”



✅ Good signs:

- Docker or setup scripts available  

- New devs onboard quickly  

- Local setup well-documented



❌ Red flags:

- Difficult or undocumented setup  

- Requires manual configuration  

- Takes days to onboard



---



### 5. Code Ownership & Team Culture



**Question:**  

> “How do developers handle ownership of features or modules?”



✅ Good signs:

- Shared knowledge and clear ownership  

- Documentation and mentorship practices  

- Code reviews and rotation of responsibilities



❌ Red flags:

- Tribal knowledge only  

- One person owns large parts of the system  

- No formal process



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### 6. Refactoring & Technical Debt



**Question:**  

> “Have there been recent efforts to modernize or refactor parts of the system?”



✅ Good signs:

- Modernization projects planned and prioritized  

- Technical debt is tracked  

- Recent tech stack upgrades



❌ Red flags:

- No time/resources allocated  

- “It’s not a priority right now”  

- Management avoids refactoring



---



### 7. Real-World Example



**Question:**  

> “Could you walk me through a recent feature or bug fix from planning to release?”



✅ Good signs:

- Includes planning, tracking, testing, review, and deployment  

- Shows collaboration and accountability  

- Lessons learned are shared



❌ Red flags:

- Untracked or undocumented workflows  

- Ad hoc development  

- “Just fix and push to production”



---



## 🧠 Additional Areas to Evaluate (Simplified)



### 8. Onboarding Experience



**Question:**  

> “What happens when a new engineer joins the team?”



✅ Good signs:

- There’s a clear plan for the first few weeks  

- Someone is assigned to help you (mentor or buddy)  

- Documentation and setup are ready so you can start coding quickly



❌ Red flags:

- No plan — you're left to figure things out alone  

- No one to help or guide you  

- It takes a long time just to set up your computer or tools



---



### 9. Career Growth & Learning



**Question:**  

> “How do engineers grow in their career here?”  

> “Do you support learning or training?”



✅ Good signs:

- Clear paths to promotions or new responsibilities  

- Regular feedback and 1-on-1 meetings  

- The company gives time and money for learning new things



❌ Red flags:

- No clear way to grow or get promoted  

- No feedback or support for improvement  

- No learning resources or time to upskill



---



### 10. Decision-Making Process



**Question:**  

> “How are technical choices made, like picking tools or designing systems?”  

> “Do engineers help make those decisions?”



✅ Good signs:

- Engineers are involved in making decisions  

- They have design discussions or review meetings  

- Trying new tools or improvements is encouraged



❌ Red flags:

- Managers or leads decide everything without input  

- "We've always done it this way" mindset  

- Engineers don’t feel heard or included



---



### 11. Security & Reliability



**Question:**  

> “What happens when something breaks in production?”  

> “Do you have tools to catch problems quickly?”



✅ Good signs:

- There’s a team or schedule for handling urgent issues  

- Tools are used to watch and alert when something fails  

- After a problem, they talk about what went wrong and how to fix it



❌ Red flags:

- No monitoring or alerts — they only find problems after users complain  

- No clear way to respond to issues  

- People blame each other instead of fixing the root cause



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### 12. Team Communication & Collaboration



**Question:**  

> “How do engineers from different teams work together?”  

> “What happens when people disagree on something technical?”



✅ Good signs:

- Teams talk regularly — through meetings, chats, or shared documents  

- People listen to each other and discuss ideas openly  

- It’s easy to work with other teams



❌ Red flags:

- Teams barely talk to each other  

- Poor communication leads to confusion or delays  

- Arguments go unresolved or cause frustration



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## ✅ Pro Tips



- Ask to speak with a current engineer.

- Pay attention to honesty and transparency.

- Look for inconsistencies across interviewers.

- Trust your instincts—if it feels disorganized, it probably is.



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## 📄 License



This is a free and open resource. Use it, share it, or adapt it as needed.



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