Sample Interview Structure
Inside a Structured Tech Interview
Intro. Questions. Challenge. Zero guesswork.
This is the exact structure behind every AssessDev technical assessment — the same one our CTOs use to evaluate your candidates, from the opening ice-breaker to the final report.
The structure
Every assessment follows the same three steps
The Introduction
The Questions
The Challenge
Step 1
The Introduction
Every interview begins with a brief introduction from both sides. The interviewer helps the candidate relax during this ice-breaker, establishing an atmosphere between colleagues — so clarifying questions or asking for help during the assessment feels natural, as if two colleagues are sitting next to each other solving a challenge at work.
This part doesn't just set a relaxed tone; it also gives the candidate a chance to communicate other strengths, such as traction or experience at their current or previous jobs. The interviewer also sets the agenda for the meeting while providing useful pointers.
Step 2
The Questions
Each interview is tailored to the candidate and the position. To keep evaluation fair, all questions and coding tasks are standardized for a role and don't change once the first candidate has been interviewed.
We begin with flash questions — quick checks of basic framework or stack knowledge, like listing Ruby runtime frameworks or naming specific culprits on a Node stack.
Flash question: Name the Ruby application servers you know and the biggest differences between them.
An experienced Ruby developer would list MRI, JRuby, and mruby as runtimes, and unicorn, puma, and passenger as servers — explaining how threads and processes are handled and outlining specific culprits, like zero-downtime deployments.
A question like this tests whether the developer understands Ruby's inner workings and has real experience scaling Rails applications. Once we've established that baseline, we move to in-depth hard-skill questions tailored to the role.
Step 3
The Challenge
The final part of the assessment is a hands-on skills check in a screen-sharing session — a ~30-minute coding challenge, solved without AI tools.
Sometimes wrongly called Pair Programming, the candidate can ask questions and google resources but can't search for the specific solution. The solution carries the most weight, but we also note:
Big O
What is the complexity of this solution?
How did the candidate approach the problem?
Code Quality
Did the candidate test the solution?
What IDE was used?
Logical Thinking
What corner cases were discussed?
What sort of help did the candidate need?
What makes a good question
Characteristics of great interview questions
Tests hard skills in depth
Standardized questions and grading
Holistic, yet concrete
Which are the right questions for your role?
We can help you tailor the questions for each technical interview based on the position and requirements.
Going deeper
Why We Ask Holistic Questions
Holistic question: In a standard Rails app with users, how do you ensure that a user and their data are permanently deleted? Think of the whole organization.
We love questions like this because they test more than hard skills — they mirror a real use case many developers have already faced. Does the candidate just think of database associations? What about backups and external services? Have they ever dealt with GDPR, and what was their attitude toward data privacy?
Grading in practice
Here's How We Grade That Question
OK
Accounts for associations and dependencies — deletes avatars, executes after-triggers, and shows basic ActiveRecord knowledge.
Great
Also ensures backups expire, uses background jobs to clean up third-party data, and adds documentation and tests for future changes.
Exceptional
Loops in legal for GDPR, works with product on the Right To Be Forgotten, sets company-wide data policy, and anonymizes stats used for KPIs.
A note on fit
You don't always need a candidate with exceptional skills
If you're hiring a CTO, Tech Lead, or Software Architect, you need exceptional organizational and structural thinking. But if you're hiring a mid-level backend developer to integrate into your team, the requirements — and the grading scheme — look very different.
It takes a CTO to hire a CTO
If you're hiring your next CTO or tech lead, their skills need to be on par. An external CTO can effectively identify and assess the right candidate for the job.
What you get
A Full Tech Interview Report
After each interview we compile a detailed PDF report you can attach to the candidate's file and reuse for future positions they may apply to. Here's what's inside:
- Where the candidate did great, and their biggest strengths based on knowledge and experience
- Concrete skills that lack or need improvement for the position
- Detailed assessment on each technical question, with grades
- General gut feeling from the interviewer, including red flags, prior experience and culture fit
- Recommendations on how to help the candidate get better
- Personalized candidate feedback, ready to send
- Overall candidate score and a hire / don't hire recommendation
Who's behind AssessDev
Interviews Run by People Who Have Hired as CTOs
Meet your direct contacts for every step, from the first call and the job description to the final report and your hiring decision. We guide you through the whole process and treat your candidates as colleagues.
Do you need to evaluate a developer?
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