Tech Due Diligence Interview Questions - Easy

calendar Dec 13, 2025 · 6 min read · due-diligence interview easy assessment  ·
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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.

graph TB
    A[Technical Due<br/>Diligence] --> B[Technology<br/>Assessment]
    A --> C[Team<br/>Evaluation]
    A --> D[Infrastructure<br/>Review]
    A --> E[Risk<br/>Analysis]
    
    B --> F[Identify<br/>Strengths]
    C --> F
    D --> F
    E --> F
    
    F --> G[Inform<br/>Investment Decision]
    
    style A fill:#FFD700
    style G fill:#90EE90

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:

graph TB
    A[Tech DD<br/>Areas] --> B1[Product &<br/>Technology]
    A --> B2[Architecture &<br/>Infrastructure]
    A --> B3[Team &<br/>Organization]
    A --> B4[Security &<br/>Compliance]
    A --> B5[IP & Legal]
    A --> B6[Roadmap &<br/>Strategy]
    
    style A fill:#FFD700

Assessment Framework

graph LR
    A[Area] --> B[Questions]
    B --> C[Evidence]
    C --> D[Score]
    D --> E[Risk Level]
    
    style A fill:#FFE4B5
    style E fill:#90EE90

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:

graph TB
    A[Code Quality<br/>Assessment] --> B[Code Review]
    A --> C[Static Analysis]
    A --> D[Test Coverage]
    A --> E[Documentation]
    A --> F[Technical Debt]
    
    style A fill:#FFD700

Code Review Checklist

graph TB
    A[Code Review] --> B1[✓ Readability<br/>Clear, consistent]
    A --> B2[✓ Modularity<br/>Well-organized]
    A --> B3[✓ Error Handling<br/>Robust]
    A --> B4[✓ Comments<br/>Adequate]
    A --> B5[✓ Standards<br/>Follows conventions]
    
    B1 --> C{Quality<br/>Score}
    B2 --> C
    B3 --> C
    B4 --> C
    B5 --> C
    
    C --> D1[High: 80-100%]
    C --> D2[Medium: 50-79%]
    C --> D3[Low: <50%]
    
    style D1 fill:#90EE90
    style D2 fill:#FFD700
    style D3 fill:#FF6B6B

Red Flags:

  • No version control
  • No tests
  • Spaghetti code
  • Hardcoded secrets
  • No documentation

Q4: How do you evaluate technical debt?

Answer:

graph TB
    A[Technical Debt] --> B[Causes]
    
    B --> C1[Quick Fixes<br/>Shortcuts taken]
    B --> C2[Outdated Tech<br/>Legacy systems]
    B --> C3[Poor Design<br/>Architecture issues]
    B --> C4[Lack of Refactoring<br/>Accumulated cruft]
    
    C1 --> D[Impact]
    C2 --> D
    C3 --> D
    C4 --> D
    
    D --> E1[Slower Development]
    D --> E2[More Bugs]
    D --> E3[Higher Costs]
    
    style A fill:#FF6B6B
    style D fill:#FFD700

Assessment Matrix

graph TB
    A[Technical Debt] --> B{Severity}
    
    B --> C1[Critical<br/>Blocks progress]
    B --> C2[High<br/>Significant impact]
    B --> C3[Medium<br/>Manageable]
    B --> C4[Low<br/>Minor issues]
    
    C1 --> D1[Fix Immediately]
    C2 --> D2[Fix Soon]
    C3 --> D3[Schedule]
    C4 --> D4[Backlog]
    
    style C1 fill:#FF6B6B
    style C2 fill:#FFD700
    style C3 fill:#FFD700
    style C4 fill:#90EE90

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:

graph TB
    A[Security<br/>Review] --> B1[Authentication &<br/>Authorization]
    A --> B2[Data Protection<br/>Encryption]
    A --> B3[Vulnerability<br/>Management]
    A --> B4[Access Control<br/>Permissions]
    A --> B5[Compliance<br/>GDPR, SOC2]
    
    style A fill:#FFD700

Security Checklist

graph LR
    A[Security Item] --> B{Implemented?}
    
    B -->|Yes| C[✓ Pass]
    B -->|No| D[✗ Risk]
    
    style C fill:#90EE90
    style D fill:#FF6B6B

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:

graph TB
    A[Scalability<br/>Assessment] --> B[Current Load]
    A --> C[Growth Projections]
    A --> D[Architecture]
    A --> E[Bottlenecks]
    
    B --> F{Can Handle<br/>10x Growth?}
    C --> F
    D --> F
    E --> F
    
    F -->|Yes| G[Scalable]
    F -->|No| H[Needs Work]
    
    style A fill:#FFD700
    style G fill:#90EE90
    style H fill:#FF6B6B

Load Testing

graph LR
    A[Current:<br/>1K users] --> B[Test:<br/>10K users]
    B --> C[Test:<br/>100K users]
    C --> D{Performance<br/>Acceptable?}
    
    D -->|Yes| E[Scalable]
    D -->|No| F[Identify<br/>Bottleneck]
    
    style E fill:#90EE90
    style F fill:#FFD700

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:

graph TB
    A[Team<br/>Evaluation] --> B[Size &<br/>Structure]
    A --> C[Skills &<br/>Experience]
    A --> D[Processes &<br/>Practices]
    A --> E[Culture &<br/>Retention]
    
    style A fill:#FFD700

Team Structure

graph TB
    A[Engineering Team] --> B1[Frontend<br/>Developers]
    A --> B2[Backend<br/>Developers]
    A --> B3[DevOps/<br/>Infrastructure]
    A --> B4[QA/<br/>Testing]
    A --> B5[Security]
    
    B1 --> C{Balanced?}
    B2 --> C
    B3 --> C
    B4 --> C
    B5 --> C
    
    C -->|Yes| D[Good Coverage]
    C -->|No| E[Gaps Identified]
    
    style D fill:#90EE90
    style E fill:#FFD700

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:

graph TB
    A[Documentation<br/>Types] --> B1[Architecture<br/>Diagrams]
    A --> B2[API<br/>Documentation]
    A --> B3[Deployment<br/>Guides]
    A --> B4[Runbooks<br/>Operations]
    A --> B5[Code<br/>Comments]
    
    style A fill:#FFD700

Documentation Quality

graph LR
    A[Documentation] --> B{Up to Date?}
    B -->|Yes| C{Complete?}
    B -->|No| D[Outdated]
    
    C -->|Yes| E[✓ Good]
    C -->|No| F[Incomplete]
    
    style E fill:#90EE90
    style D fill:#FF6B6B
    style F fill:#FFD700

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:

graph TB
    A[Infrastructure<br/>Assessment] --> B[Hosting &<br/>Cloud]
    A --> C[CI/CD<br/>Pipeline]
    A --> D[Monitoring &<br/>Logging]
    A --> E[Backup &<br/>DR]
    
    style A fill:#FFD700

CI/CD Maturity

graph LR
    A[Code Commit] --> B[Automated<br/>Tests]
    B --> C[Automated<br/>Build]
    C --> D[Automated<br/>Deploy]
    D --> E[Monitoring]
    
    style A fill:#FFE4B5
    style E fill:#90EE90

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:

graph TB
    A[Red Flags] --> B1[🚩 No Version Control]
    A --> B2[🚩 No Tests]
    A --> B3[🚩 Single Developer<br/>Dependency]
    A --> B4[🚩 No Documentation]
    A --> B5[🚩 Security Issues]
    A --> B6[🚩 Scalability Problems]
    A --> B7[🚩 Technical Debt]
    A --> B8[🚩 IP Issues]
    
    style A fill:#FFD700
    style B1 fill:#FF6B6B
    style B2 fill:#FF6B6B
    style B3 fill:#FF6B6B
    style B4 fill:#FF6B6B
    style B5 fill:#FF6B6B
    style B6 fill:#FF6B6B
    style B7 fill:#FF6B6B
    style B8 fill:#FF6B6B

Risk Assessment

graph TB
    A[Risk Identified] --> B{Severity}
    
    B --> C1[Critical<br/>Deal Breaker]
    B --> C2[High<br/>Negotiate Price]
    B --> C3[Medium<br/>Remediation Plan]
    B --> C4[Low<br/>Monitor]
    
    C1 --> D1[Walk Away or<br/>Major Discount]
    C2 --> D2[Price Adjustment<br/>+ Fix Plan]
    C3 --> D3[Include in<br/>Post-Deal Plan]
    C4 --> D4[Accept Risk]
    
    style C1 fill:#FF6B6B
    style C2 fill:#FFD700
    style C3 fill:#FFD700
    style C4 fill:#90EE90

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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