“Well, you asked me a bunch of technical questions, and now, do you mind if I ask you some? If I am going to join your company, we will work closely together and I want to make sure my I respect the skills of my coworkers like they respect mine…”.

Doesn’t it sound arrogant?

Yes, it does. But there are other ways to get that information.

• Ask to look at the codebase. Say something like “I’d like to see the best and the worst part you can think of.”
• Engage them in conversation, use lots of terms that lesser developers wouldn’t understand.
• Mention bloggers and authors, see if you get a blank expression.
• Ask them about the technology stack and ask for reasons behind various decisions, compare the frameworks they use with the ones you’ve used.

Sometimes you can impress as much by the type of questions you ask as the type of questions you answer. I once had a junior developer come in with an A4 sheet full of questions. They were the right questions to ask. They showed a deep (for a junior) knowledge of the right and wrong ways to do things. He was offered the job.

I wouldn’t ask someone to code up a method to display the Fibonacci sequence. But then I also wouldn’t ask that as an interviewer. It’s a waste of time and teaches me nothing about the person.

If technical questions translates into “asking questions about specific ways you do things and stuff you use” then I’d be worried if a candidate did not ask that. I want people who care about using the good stuff and software craftsmanship on my team. YMMV.

Bear in mind that your interviewer may not be a technical person – and if they are a team manager, they may not even touch code on a day-to-day basis.

Assuming you were talking to a technical person however, I wouldn’t start questioning them, just question any ambiguity in the technical questions they may direct at you, which both shows that you may have a deeper understanding than they were looking for and their response will give you an indicator as to approximately their skill level.

As an interviewee, the questions I was asked, the way they were asked and the reactions to my answer or requests for clarification have been enough for me to get a idea about the technical level of my interlocutors, and what aspects they considered as important. My questions to technical interviewers were more about the working environment and management style.

When I give interviews, if you don’t ask questions I take it as a sign you aren’t interested. Asking a question isn’t inherantly arrogant. how you ask, however, can be construed as arrogance. The way you phrased it in your question comes across as arrogant “… like they respect mine.”.

Be open, honest, naturally curious, factual. Don’t ask loaded questions, and don’t ask them to prove their technical skills to you.

Do you really need to ask questions in such a straightforward fashion?
I wouldn’t say anything like “I want to be sure I respect the skills of my coworkers.” because, honestly, if I were an interviewer, I wouldn’t like it.

It’s always about compatibility. You can think something along the lines of “I don’t respect him because he didn’t give me the right answer”, but I don’t think you should put it that way. Even if you think there’s a right answer, even if there really is a right answer, it’s always nicer to think of things in terms of compatible or not compatible rather than right or wrong. Showing the latter attitude can be off-putting.

That’s why I agree with others who say that you should try to find out the information you need less directly. Ask about the way they do things, to see if their way of doing things and your way of doing things are compatible (even if what you really want is to see is their level of competence).
Also, you can search for the information online, maybe talk to some people who work in that company.

Having said that, you could ask your question if you can afford to do so (because you’re a programming superstar or whatever) and if you’re looking for an environment in which you don’t have to be tactful and in which people like questions like that. But, if all you really want to know is how much technical skills they have, there’s no reason to ask your questions in such a direct (and perhaps slightly impolite) manner.

I used not to ask such questions. I answers theirs, I asked one or two classic questions and I would be done.

That was not a good idea.

I’m leaving my current job soon (only two weeks left:) ) and from now I will ask. I might be won’t ask directly, but I’ll conduct my lesser Joel test (cvs, automating testing, ticket tracker).
If they find offending that I want to evaluate their methods/work: it’s not a place I want to work in. IMHO the employer should find it interesting that I want asked, if