Technical Lead interview questions and answers
Use these sample Technical Lead interview questions to identify experienced and qualified candidates for your IT department. Modify these questions to meet your specific needs.
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Technical Lead Interview Questions
Technical Leads (or Tech Leads) are responsible for managing a team of engineers and providing support with programming issues. They also review code and take accountability for delivering high-quality technical projects.
Your ideal candidates should have a solid technical background, combining a degree in Computer Science with hands-on experience in the IT field. Technical Leads share job duties with Team Leaders, as they’re both responsible for delegating tasks, motivating their team members and managing projects end-to-end.
Tech Leads who put in the effort to deal with complex coding projects will add value to your company. Their role is to deliver successful technical solutions and they set an example for their team. These are knowledgeable individuals who are comfortable offering directions. It’s best to include a written assignment to your hiring process to evaluate candidates’ skills. Also, ask specific coding interview questions to test their knowledge of programming languages and frameworks that you use.
Operational and Situational questions
- What advice would you give to a new team member to make sure they onboard well?
- If you felt one developer on your team would be a better fit on another team, who would you discuss a potential transfer with first?
- The deadline on a big project was just moved up. How would you motivate your team to be more productive under the earlier deadline?
- Your team members suggest that new hardware would help them increase their performance. How do you respond, and how would assess their request? If necessary, how would you negotiate for new software/hardware with the IT Manager?
Role-specific questions
- What are the first things you do when reviewing someone else’s code? What tools do you use to test code quality?
- Are you familiar with IT help desk software? How are these types of software used to monitor and improve remote systems?
- What research methods do you use to design a new software system? What steps do you follow before deployment?
- How can you debug a program while it’s being used?
- What’s your favorite programming language and why? What features (if any) would you like to add to this language?
Behavioral questions
- Have you implemented significant improvements to an IT infrastructure? What were they?
- Describe a successful project you’ve recently worked on. Who was on the team, and what was your contribution?
- How do you manage conflicts on a team?
- In the past, what did you do to ensure you meet deadlines for challenging projects?
- How do you keep current with technology trends? Are you currently working on any side projects?