Questions to Ask the Interviewer, Round by Round

The best questions to ask the interviewer depend on who is sitting across from you. A recruiter can tell you about pay, timeline and visa sponsorship. A hiring manager can tell you what success looks like in six months. A future teammate can tell you what the work is actually like on a Tuesday. Most lists mix all of these together, so people ask an engineer about benefits or a vice president about code review. This guide groups questions by round and by goal, gives each one a line on why it works, and adds two sections the usual lists leave out: how to ask about OPT, STEM OPT and H-1B sponsorship, and what new graduates should ask about mentorship and the first 90 days. Every question here is a sample written for this post.

How many questions to bring

Bring three to five, written down. NDSU's Career and Advising Center recommends having "3-5 questions prepared" and suggests bringing them "written on a notepad so you don't forget them". In a 30 minute conversation you may only have time for two or three, so put them in order of how much you need the answer.

Each question should either get you information you need to decide, or give the interviewer a reason to remember you. The best ones do both. "What does the first project look like?" helps you judge the job and shows you are already picturing yourself in it. Three habits help:

• Tie at least one question to the posting. If it names a tool, a project or a metric, ask where that stands today and what you would own. That proves you read it closely.
• Tie one to something said in the interview. A follow up beats a prepared question, because it cannot be faked.
• Change the list for each round. The same five questions asked of four people tell the last three nothing new about you.

The cheat sheet

Copy this into your notes before the interview. The sections below explain each question.

Recruiter screen questions

The recruiter screen is the narrowest gate in the data. Ashby, an applicant tracking system, found in its 2026 Talent Trends report, covering more than 54 million applications, that recruiter screens "see lower passthrough rates (~35%)" than later stages. The recruiter is checking basic fit: pay, location, work authorization, start date. Your questions can do the same from your side, because practical questions are expected here.

1. "What are the next steps, and roughly when do you expect to decide?" You learn how many rounds remain and how long to wait before following up.
2. "What is the salary range for this role?" The recruiter owns the range, so this is the right person. In California, an employer with 15 or more employees "must include the pay scale for a position in any job posting", and "upon reasonable request, an employer must provide an applicant for employment the pay scale", according to the state Labor Commissioner's Office. Check the posting first. If the range is there, ask where in it the role is usually filled.
3. "Is the role open because someone left, or is it new?" A new role means you may be defining it. A backfill means someone set expectations before you, and you can ask what they were.
4. "Who will I meet in the next rounds, and what does each one focus on?" You can prepare the right stories for each person, as our guide to preparing for an interview shows.
5. "What is the expectation for being in the office?" Hybrid policies are often loose in the posting and specific in practice.

If you need visa sponsorship, this is also the round to ask. The wording is in the sponsorship section below.

Hiring manager questions

The hiring manager decides, so this is where your best questions go. They want to know whether you understand the job. You want to know whether you would succeed at it and want to work for them.

To understand the role

• "What would a great first six months look like in this role?" It turns a vague posting into a target, and shows whether the manager has thought about it.
• "What is the hardest part of this job that the posting does not mention?" The answer is often the real job.
• "Which part of the posting matters most if you had to pick one?" Postings list ten requirements. This finds the one that decides the hire, and you can answer to it in your thank you email.

To judge the manager and the team

• "How does the team decide what to work on each quarter?" You learn whether priorities come from the team, from leadership, or from whoever complains loudest.
• "How do you give feedback, and how often do you meet one to one?" The answer describes your next two years of weekly conversations.
• "What has someone on your team done recently that impressed you?" It reveals what the manager values, in a story instead of a slogan.

Technical and panel questions

Panel interviewers are usually future peers. They cannot speak to pay, but they know what the job feels like. Ask about the work, and ask each person something different.

• "What does a normal week look like for you?" Simple, and the most honest answer you will get about meetings, focus time and on call.
• "How does work get reviewed before it ships?" For engineers, code review; for analysts, how numbers are checked; for designers, critique. A good answer describes a habit. A weak answer describes a person who catches mistakes.
• "What is something you would change about how the team works?" Peers are often frank when asked this way.
• "What did you learn in your first three months that you wish someone had told you?" It previews onboarding and usually starts a real conversation.

After a coding or case exercise, a follow up on the problem itself also works: "How would your team have approached that?" It shows you are still curious after the pressure is off.

Final round and executive questions

By the final round, the company is close to a decision. Ashby's same report found that later stages "see significantly higher conversion rates", with 95% at the post-onsite stage and 81% at the offer stage. Final interviews are often with a director or executive who cares about direction more than detail. Ask about the business.

• "What is the company betting on over the next year, and how does this team contribute?" It connects your role to the strategy, which is how senior people think about every hire.
• "What would make you say this hire was a mistake in a year?" It is direct, and the answer tells you which risk they are worried about.
• "Is there anything about my background that gives you pause?" You get to answer an objection before the debrief instead of after. Listen to the full answer before responding.

Asking about sponsorship: when and how

This general information is not legal advice. Check your own situation with your school's designated school official (DSO) or an immigration attorney.

When to ask. At the recruiter screen, or earlier if the application form asks. The recruiter knows the company's policy and can answer in one sentence. A panel of engineers usually cannot. If the posting already says the company does not sponsor, the answer is in writing.

What the employer is likely to ask you. The Justice Department's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) wrote in a 2013 letter that it cautions employers against asking applicants to specify their citizenship status, and "prefers" this question: "Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g. H-1B visa status)?" The same letter says an employer that does not sponsor may say so in its job postings. Expect a yes or no question, and answer it honestly. On OPT or STEM OPT, the honest answer to "now or in the future" is usually yes if you would need H-1B later.

What to ask, by status. These are sample wordings.

Why these details matter:

• STEM OPT needs specific things from the employer. DHS's Study in the States describes the extension as "a 24-month period of temporary training" that requires an employer "enrolled in USCIS's E-Verify employment eligibility verification program", formal training and learning objectives on the Form I-983, and "a minimum of 20 hours per week per employer". A company that is not in E-Verify cannot support the extension.
• The OPT clock runs while you search. Study in the States says "a student on post-completion OPT can be unemployed for a total of 90 days." Asking early saves days you cannot get back; our post on OPT unemployment days explains the counter.
• H-1B selection changed for fiscal year 2027. USCIS used a weighted selection for the first time, under a final rule published 29 December 2025 that gives higher wage levels more entries. Registrations fell to 211,600 from 343,981 the year before, according to Fragomen, citing USCIS. A September 2026 proclamation reported that the largest IT outsourcing firms cut their combined registrations from 24,946 to 2,055. Employer behavior is moving, so ask rather than assume last year's policy holds.

Check before you ask. You can look up any employer in the E-Verify Employer Search, which lists "employers who are currently enrolled in E-Verify", and in the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, which covers fiscal year 2009 through fiscal year 2026 (quarter 3). If the company has sponsored recently, ask a sharper question: "I saw the company has sponsored H-1B in the past. Is that still the policy for this team?" Our list of companies that sponsor H-1B shows how to read the Data Hub.

Questions new grads should ask

A first job is as much about what you learn as what you are paid. These questions find out whether anyone will teach you. Ask the hiring manager, or a recent hire on the panel.

• "What does onboarding look like in the first two weeks?" A clear answer (a buddy, a starter project, a list of people to meet) means the team has done this before. A vague one means you will figure it out alone.
• "Who would I go to with questions in my first month?" You are asking whether a mentor exists, without making it sound like a demand.
• "What did the last person who joined at this level work on first?" It tells you whether new hires get real work or are parked on side tasks.
• "What does success look like at 30, 60 and 90 days?" Managers who can answer this have a plan. It also tells you how you will be judged.
• "How often do new grads get feedback, and in what form?" Regular feedback is how a first job turns into skill, and this question finds out whether you will get it.

Questions to avoid

NDSU's career center advises "Don't ask anything that you can find on their website" and, in a first interview, not to ask "about salary or other benefits". The second rule is about who you are talking to: pay belongs at the recruiter screen.

If they already answered everything

It happens, especially with an interviewer who explains the role well. "No, I think you covered it" wastes the last two minutes. Try one of these instead:

1. Follow up on something specific. "You covered most of what I wanted to ask. You mentioned the data migration, how will the team know it went well?"
2. Ask for their view. "What do you enjoy most about working here?" works at any round.
3. Check for doubts. "Is there anything about my background you would like me to clarify?" gives you a last chance to fix a weak answer.
4. Confirm the next step. "What is the best way to follow up, and when should I expect to hear?" It is practical and sets up your thank you email.

Write down what they said in the last two minutes. It is the material for your thank you email that evening.

Where ApplyEze fits

ApplyEze, which publishes this blog, reads each posting to tailor a resume and cover letter to it before applying. You can use the same habit by hand: pull your best interview question straight from the posting's responsibilities and named tools, because that is the question only a careful reader could ask.