--- title: 3 Developer Interview Tips description: At HubSpot, we do a lot of interviewing for the Dev Team. For more than two years now, I've been talking to candidates that ranged from very disappoi image: https://product.hubspot.com/hubfs/BlogCode_Green-3.png --- # 3 Developer Interview Tips [ Dan Abdinoor ](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/author/dan-abdinoor) on Aug 28, 2009 At HubSpot, I do a lot of interviewing for the Dev Team. For more than two years now, I've been talking to candidates that ranged from very disappointing to utterly amazing (of course we've since hired the amazing folks). After interviewing in the neighborhood of one hundred developers I've come up with a bunch of interviewing guidelines, here are my three most valuable tips: **1. Never take basic skills for granted.** When interviewing someone with loads of experience I tend to want to skip the basics. More than once this has bitten me when I figured out the candidate has poor logic, design or coding skills. Never assume that experience means skill. Hopefully the candidate will breeze right through your easy questions, if they don't: Fail fast. **2. Ask for the outcome.** All candidates should be willing tell you about projects they either spearheaded or contributed to significantly, but not all will be eager to share the outcome. I always ask for the outcome of important projects and what measure they used for success. Great developers either succeeded in a measurable way or failed while learning very important lessons (that they should be able to explain). **3. Have a red flag policy. **Ideally, you'll ask a candidate about many different areas of development and be impressed with all of their answers. However, sometimes you'll get good answers in two areas and a complete bomb in the third. I consider the bomb to be a red flag, and seriously reconsider the other areas that didn't seem to be a problem. If your interview questions are chosen to test separate core areas, a single red flag should be enough to disqualify the candidate. What are your developer interviewing tips? [![so-hiring](https://d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/51294/6b9a27b2-9f52-41f9-9d92-488c8f59765a-1333593960679/so-hiring.jpg?v=1333593960.98)](https://www.hubspot.com/jobs) [Share on Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fproduct.hubspot.com%2Fblog%2Fbid%2F19209%2F3-developer-interview-tips)[Share on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fproduct.hubspot.com%2Fblog%2Fbid%2F19209%2F3-developer-interview-tips)[Share via email](mailto:info@example.com?&subject=&body=https%3A%2F%2Fproduct.hubspot.com%2Fblog%2Fbid%2F19209%2F3-developer-interview-tips)[Share on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fproduct.hubspot.com%2Fblog%2Fbid%2F19209%2F3-developer-interview-tips) ## Recommended Articles [Product](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/topic/product) ## [Building Products Across Multiple Teams](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/building-products-across-multiple-teams) Unless you work on a very small Product team—anything less than 10 people—you’ve experienced the need for cross-team collaboration. Here at HubSpot, ... [ Ethan Kopit (He/Him) and Dylan Sellberg (He/Him) ](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/author/ethan-kopit-and-dylan-sellberg) on Jan 24, 2020 [Product](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/topic/product) ## [Attribution Reporting: Delivering the Core, Not Just Building More](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/attribution-reporting) If you’re a marketer, you want to show how you’ve helped move the needle for your business. You want to know what’s working, not just what’s ... [ Dave Chen (He/Him) ](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/author/dave-chen) on Apr 22, 2020 [Product](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/topic/product) ## [How to Build Sustainable Word-of-Mouth Demand Through Your Users](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/how-to-build-sustainable-word-of-mouth-demand) “How do I build a product that sells itself?” This is a question that I’ve thought a lot about ⁠— I’ve studied companies that have seemingly answered ... [ Eric Peters ](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/author/eric-peters) on Dec 15, 2020 ## Join our subscribers Sign up here and we'll keep you updated on the latest in product, UX, and engineering from HubSpot. [Subscribe to the newsletter ](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/bid/19209/3-developer-interview-tips#subscription-popup) [Back](https://product.hubspot.com/blog/bid/19209/3-developer-interview-tips#) ## Get Connected The latest engineering, UX, and product news from the HubSpot Product Blog, straight to your inbox. Next Not using [HubSpot](https://www.hubspot.com/) yet? Search Term: ** Search HubSpot.com ** Search the blog Load more