There are essentially two parts to an interview - the reactive parts (them asking you questions) and the proactive parts (you asking the interviewer questions). Both are equally important, and both can be prepared for.

On the reactive side, you should be prepared to speak to any part of your resume in further depth and ready to answer the most common interview questions.

For example, there are 14 common questions that nearly every job asks at some point in an interview process:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why do you want this job, and why at this company?
3. Tell me about your current job.
4. Why do you want to leave your current job?
5. Why do you think you're a good fit for the role?
6. What is your greatest weakness?
7. What is your greatest strength?
8. Share a time that you've failed?
9. Give me a time that you have succeeded?
10. Tell me a challenge that you've overcome?
11. In this job-relevant situation, what would you do?
12. What questions do you have for me?
13. What salary do you want?
14. When can you start?

These (and all) questions should always be answered through the prism of "Why are you a good fit for this job?" Always reinforce your fit for the role. Never assume a question is just a random question; they're judging you on every word. For example, when they ask you to tell them about yourself, they don't really care about your life story – they care about your background in the context of why you're a great fit for this job.

Your answers should always be 30-60 seconds, so keep an eye on the clock. Always lead the interviewer back into a natural conversation so they can easily move on to the next question without awkwardness. (I.e., don't leave them hanging on a non-sequitur.) Avoid rambling, try to sound confident, and remember: nobody knows if you make a mistake but you, so never stop and never awkwardly apologize for making a mistake.

And counterintuitively, the more you prepare and practice these answers, the more natural you will sound when asked (and you'll never be caught off guard). So practice in the shower, in the car – rehearse your answers until they sound totally natural and off the cuff.

We also recently launched our new AI Mock Interview tool which can help you practice and hone your skills on common job interview questions. Please try it out and let us know what you think!

For company-specific questions, you can check out glassdoor.com to see if people have put some other questions you can prepare for.

Now, on to the proactive side of the interview (where you get to ask questions). From our experience as interviewers, this can be one of the parts of the conversation that really makes or breaks it in terms of the candidate moving forward in the process. It's the most open-ended portion (powerful but also scary) and it's where we've seen candidates really separate themselves from others.

First off, you should always have questions for the interviewer. If someone has zero questions that's almost always an immediate no. I mean, how thoughtful can this person be if they've brought nothing to the table?

"Bad" interview questions are questions that are answerable from the job description, from Googling, or naturally solicit one word answers from the interviewer. Asking about career trajectory is okay if done right but be careful - many candidates get dinged for appearing more interested in future/higher roles than the current role in question.

Take some time to learn as much as you can about the company and your interviewer and jot down a list of questions you might want to ask so that you're ready when the time comes. Also, you can take note of anything interesting the intervewer mentions about the role/company as the interview progresses and revisit that at the end ("you mentioned PROJECT earlier - can you tell me a little bit more about that?).

What do "good" interview questions look like? Here are some examples and why they are good questions:

Is this position a net-new position or backfilling for someone who left?

Gives you insight into the team and how they're thinking about this role. If it's a replacement, you might gain valuable details on why that person left or how they weren't right for the role. There's also probably a lot more of a clear vision of the "right fit" because the role has a history. If it's net-new, chances are there are specific initiatives or reasons that they want to hire for the position.

How big is the team and what does the structure look like? What's a regular day look like for the team?

Gives you a glimpse into "a day in the life" and more context about how the team is structured and works together.

What are your favorite parts about working at COMPANY?

What work are you most proud of at COMPANY?

What are your least favorite parts about COMPANY, or something you wish could be improved?

If I could snap my fingers right now and magically change anything about your job or the company, what would it be and why?

Always good questions to learn more about your interviewer's personal experience at the company. Hopefully they have good, thoughful and real answers that make you want to work there more; if they don't or stumble around it, perhaps that's a red flag for you in your evaluation process.

What are the company's (or department's) current top priorities or initiatives? What are you struggling with?

This kind of question often gives you a better lens into what's currently top of mind than the job description itself. You can get a better sense of what the company/department is currently focused on and better understand how your role would support that.

I've read that the launch of FEATURE has run into a little trouble and adoption isn't what the company/department had hoped for. What is the general sentiment on it, and what are you pursuing now to improve adoption?

I noticed that COMPANY had a layoff a few months ago. Has that affected general morale? Is the company intentioanlly doing anything to hopefully avoid another layoff in the future?

This kind of question is great because it 1) shows you have done your research and 2) is likely to have an interesting answer. Companies (and people) want to hire people who come prepared.

If I were hired for this role, what does success look like at a month in? 3 months in? A year in?

What are the challenges facing the person who fills this position?

What is one thing you'd like to see this new hire prioritize or do better?

What is the biggest problem I could solve for the company/team in the first 6 months if I were hired?

These are great questions because they show the interviewer you're really thinking about yourself in the role and want to ensure you are "succeeding", which can be measured in vastly different ways. Once again you'll likely gain valuable insight into what's really important for the role and what will be expected of you as you onboard and get comfortable.

Note: this type of question is likely not appropriate to ask a first-screen recruiter or even peer interviewer. I would use it when interviewing with the hiring manager/team lead or more senior team member even.

A few questions specific to inteviewing with your potential future manager:

What is your management style like?

What type of person is your favorite to manage?

What traits and/or behaviors do you like to see in your direct reports? What separates good from great?

Again these only fit if you're interviewing with your would-be manager, but they both show you're thinking about it from their perspective and you will likely learn some really helpful things about how to successfully work with (and for) them, which is really important!

A final question which you can use in any interview at the end of the question asking portion if you're feeling daring (which you should be! interviewing is exciting/anxiety-provoking):

Based on our interview today, what if any concerns do you have about my potential fit for the role?

We love this question. It's direct, takes some proverbial balls, and gives you the candidate a chance to (if they answer truthfully - many will) learn if there are any nagging doubts or concerns about your candidacy. If so, often you can address them right then and there (sometimes they may just not have realized that you do in fact have significant experience with THING) and it can help highlight for you what you should make a stronger point of conveying in future interviews.