Tech Due Diligence Interview Questions - Easy
Easy-level technical due diligence interview questions covering fundamental assessment areas.
Q1: What is technical due diligence and why is it important?
Answer:
Definition: Systematic evaluation of a company's technology assets, infrastructure, and capabilities.
Why Important:
- Identify technical risks
- Validate claims
- Assess scalability
- Evaluate team capability
- Inform valuation
When Conducted:
- M&A transactions
- Investment rounds
- Partnership decisions
- Vendor selection
Q2: What are the key areas to assess in tech due diligence?
Answer:
Assessment Framework
Product & Technology:
- What does it do?
- How mature is it?
- What's the tech stack?
- How scalable?
Team:
- Size and structure?
- Key person dependencies?
- Skill gaps?
- Turnover rate?
Q3: How do you assess code quality?
Answer:
Code Review Checklist
Red Flags:
- No version control
- No tests
- Spaghetti code
- Hardcoded secrets
- No documentation
Q4: How do you evaluate technical debt?
Answer:
Assessment Matrix
Questions to Ask:
- How old is the codebase?
- When was last major refactor?
- What's the bug backlog?
- How long for new features?
Q5: What security aspects should be reviewed?
Answer:
Security Checklist
Key Questions:
- How is data encrypted (at rest/in transit)?
- How are secrets managed?
- What's the incident response plan?
- When was last security audit?
- Any past breaches?
Red Flags:
- Passwords in code
- No encryption
- Admin access for all
- No audit logs
- No security updates
Q6: How do you assess scalability?
Answer:
Load Testing
Questions:
- Current user count?
- Peak load handled?
- Database sharding strategy?
- Caching implemented?
- Load balancing in place?
Q7: How do you evaluate the development team?
Answer:
Team Structure
Key Metrics:
- Team size vs. product complexity
- Senior/junior ratio
- Turnover rate
- Key person dependencies
- Hiring pipeline
Red Flags:
- Single developer knows everything
- High turnover
- No senior engineers
- Skill gaps in critical areas
Q8: What documentation should exist?
Answer:
Documentation Quality
Essential Documents:
- System architecture
- API specifications
- Database schema
- Deployment procedures
- Incident response
- Onboarding guide
Assessment:
- Can new developer onboard easily?
- Can ops team deploy without help?
- Are APIs documented?
- Is architecture clear?
Q9: How do you assess infrastructure and DevOps?
Answer:
CI/CD Maturity
Questions:
- Where is it hosted? (AWS, GCP, Azure, on-prem)
- How is it deployed? (Manual vs. automated)
- What's the deployment frequency?
- How long to rollback?
- What monitoring is in place?
- Backup strategy?
Red Flags:
- Manual deployments
- No monitoring
- No backups
- Single region
- No disaster recovery plan
Q10: What are common red flags in tech due diligence?
Answer:
Risk Assessment
Critical Issues:
- No IP ownership
- Major security breach
- Unsalvageable codebase
- Key team leaving
- Regulatory violations
Manageable Issues:
- Technical debt (can be fixed)
- Missing documentation (can be created)
- Scalability concerns (can be addressed)
- Process gaps (can be implemented)
Summary
Key tech due diligence areas:
- Purpose: Assess technology before investment/acquisition
- Key Areas: Product, architecture, team, security, IP
- Code Quality: Review, tests, documentation
- Technical Debt: Identify and quantify
- Security: Authentication, encryption, compliance
- Scalability: Load testing, architecture review
- Team: Size, skills, processes, retention
- Documentation: Architecture, APIs, operations
- Infrastructure: Hosting, CI/CD, monitoring
- Red Flags: Critical issues that affect deal
These fundamentals enable thorough technical assessment.
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