I almost always end my interviews with the same question: “Do you have any questions for me?”

And, almost every time, the candidate asks: “How did I do?”

It is a fair question and I genuinely try to give useful feedback. But I am always cautious when doing so for one of two reasons. First, even if my feedback is positive, a candidate could be rejected due to other reasons. I do not want to give false hope. Second, it’s hard to be candid in the moment, especially when the interview didn’t go well.

After starting SynthOps, I realized that instead of a partial guarded feedback,I could simply explain the mental model I use to evaluate the candidate.

In this post I cover

Every question that I ask has a very simple common motive - to gauge how prepared/confident you are for the interview. This signals that you are taking the opportunity and my time seriously. Unfortunately, some candidates make the mistake of confusing confidence with dominance.

Here are some low-scoring signals that I see often:

A strong candidate on the other hand exhibits these high-scoring signals instead:

An interview can feel like a grueling Q&A. I actively try to make it a conversation. When I ask open-ended questions that invite discussion, that’s intentional. It’s your opportunity to show me how you think, how you communicate. I am evaluating something very important - What would it be like to work with this person on a real team?

You are not going to work solo. You will have to:

There have been candidates I have hired who were average technically but had strong people skills and had an earnest drive to learn/improve. They were simply people I knew I would enjoy working with.

One of the mistakes I have seen candidates make is that they assume the interview is a test of knowledge. It’s not. Its a simulation of collaboration. If I can see myself working with you under pressure, you have already won half the battle.

I will ask technical questions but they are not trick questions. Most of the time they are quite basic. This is intentional too, because basic questions give you space to demonstrate depth.

Unfortunately, most candidates waste that opportunity. I have had candidates answer every question with a single sentence and then wait for the next one as if the objective was to answer correctly as many questions as possible. The problem is - I’m not looking for the “correct” answer. I’ve heard the correct answer ten times already that day.

I’m looking for the most impressive answer.

What makes an answer impressive?

Some of the most impressive moments in interviews have come from candidates who didn’t know the exact answer. But instead of freezing, they:

The ability to apply expertise across boundaries is what signals real proficiency.

If you understand that you’re being evaluated across Preparedness, People Skills, and Proficiency, your strategy becomes simple. All you need to do are follow few simple rules.

Learn what the company does. Look at the company website/blog. I have had candidates ask me: “What does the company do?” This to me signals a lack of preparation. I would be more inclined towards somebody who asks instead: “I have gone through the company’s engineering blog and found X interesting. Can you tell me more about that?”. This signals that the candidate is serious about the opportunity.

Study the job description and role carefully and identify where your experience overlaps. These are your talking points. Prepare concrete narratives you can speak about confidently when the opportunity arises. When I am handed a candidate resume, I am doing the same. I am jotting down talking points. A prepared candidate can make use of these talking points to stand out.

Remember that Preparedness shows respect. Take the interview seriously!

Interviewing is a skill. You need to practice - a lot! Something that I have found helpful is to record yourself explaining technical concepts. Ask yourself:

When you’ve practiced enough, you don’t sound rehearsed you sound composed. The ability to break down complex technical concepts into it’s fundamentals with minimal jargon is a high value skill. Chase this during your practice sessions.

A lot of candidates during their preparation focus on volume. They are optimising for the wrong signal - How many questions can I answer correctly?

I have seen candidates trying to memorise hundreds of questions and answers. There are many repositories and questions banks that popularise this. Unfortunately, I (and many other senior engineers I know) have never once asked any question from these because they are too shallow.

The signal you should be aiming for is depth.

You pick topics that you are most comfortable with and go deep. When a question comes your way, answer it in a way that showcases your depth. This is what makes you stand-out. An impressive answer goes beyond the question. You cover tradeoffs, explain real-world scenarios, failure modes - packaged up as a coherent, polished answer.

If you can spark the interviewer’s curiosity. If your answer makes the interviewer want to dive into the topic than move on to the next - then the rest of the interview often becomes smoother.

So there you go. If you ever feel like asking, “How did I do?” after an interview, remember the framework.

That’s usually what’s being evaluated.

Strengthen the 3P’s, and you won’t need reassurance. All the best!