> That's a very strange question; why do you think that matters, or that it's reasonable to ask? It's just to find out more about who I might be working with.

> That's a very strange question; why do you think that matters, or that it's reasonable to ask? It's just to find out more about who I might be working with. It didn't feel weird to ask - but perhaps you're right. Often it's been explained before as part of the "how sociable is the team" question. ("Well, we're all family people, so...", or "Most of the team are in their early 20s so often out on a Friday night" etc.) > As much as I think this is a very critical item for a good work environment, do you think an interviewer is likely to answer that question any differently whether they do or not? This question is generally one I would ask someone who I would be working with as part of the team, and while you might not get a direct answer, you can tell a lot from how they answer. If it's a bit vague, then they probably don't have anything specific in place. But I've also had very enthusiastic replies along the lines of "Yes we do! In fact that's very important to us!" This can make a difference if there's multiple offers on the table and you're trying to figure out which offer to take. The other questions are, yes, obvious, but they're basically leading questions. Asking about the company history can often give you some insights into recent events that might not be obvious from their website (and other sources), and replies to the question about open source are useful to see whether they're aware of open source practices inside the company (depending on the size of the company, there might be different things going on).