Asking Smart Questions the “Smart” Way
08 Sep 2025In life, people naturally question things. It’s not uncommon for people to wonder about things that they do not know. When they reach out and ask for help there is a smart way and a not so smart way to go about it. In a nut shell, smart questions are clear and specific, they include relevant details and are focused and answerable. Smart questions are most effective when asked respectfully and when they demonstrate that you have made a genuine effort to solve the problem first, reaching out only after exhausting the available resources
Why Smart Questions are important for Smart Software Engineers
For those in Software Engineering, smart questions are key to creating a successful journey in learning and growing. By asking questions the “smart” way you can save both time and energy. In software engineering time is valuable. In my ICS 314 SWE class we need to spend at least 2 hours a day dedicated to learning. Luckily, asking well-crafted questions gets you answers faster because they give all the info needed to help. This means less back-and-forth and you can move forward quicker. Additionally, smart questions also promote efficient collaboration and group work is inevitable not just in SWE but in life. In team environments, clear questions help colleagues quickly grasp your challenge and contribute effectively. This prevents wasted time on miscommunication and duplicated efforts.
Example and Non-Example of a Smart Question
Bad Example
Found on Stack Overflow, this user’s issue was encountered when working on a parenthesis checker problem while working in C++. They ran into a segmentation fault when submitting their code even though it was compiling and running correctly locally. Many users pointed out the issue with posting code as an image and emphasized the importance of providing code in text format for better assistance. One user suggested that the segmentation fault might be caused by popping from an empty stack. They recommended checking if the stack has elements before performing a pop operation. Although the person with this inquiry was still able to get an answer, I believe that if they asked a “smarter” question they would have gotten help sooner in the time that they received those critiques.
Components such as the title have made this question harder on others to answer. The title provided for this question is unhelpful as it is vague. The title, “Please help me to resolve my mistake in the following code. I used stack in it”, is generic and doesn’t provide specific information about the problem. This person’s query is not productive since they have left out key details to their issue, no code is provided. The question doesn’t include any code snippet, making it impossible for others to understand the issue. Although they include an image of their code, this is still an issue since other people cannot copy the code to debug or test it and some photos can be hard to read. They also failed to include an error message, since there’s no error message or description of the problem, solving the issue is complicated.
URL to the query: Click Here
Good Example
A “smart” question found on Stack Overflow involves a user who is encountering a TypeError when attempting to concatenate strings and integers in a Python program. In Python, the + operator is used for both string concatenation and numerical addition. When attempting to concatenate a string with an integer, Python raises a TypeError because it cannot implicitly convert the integer to a string. So the user was advised to explicitly convert the strings using the str() function before concatenation. By asking a “smart” question, this user was able to promptly receive multiple solutions from other users.
What makes this question an ideal “smart” way to go has to do with the minimal and reproducible code that has been provided. The question includes a short code snippet that reproduces the issue. I liked the way that this user’s title is clear and specific to their problem. The title, “Can only concatenate str (not ‘int’) to str [duplicate]” clearly states the problem and the error message. A major strength with this example is that the exact error message is provided, which can be paramount to fixing the issue. It is apparent that the beginner python user has tried to fix the issue by converting the integer to a string but wants to understand the underlying cause. A great thing to see is that the user thanks the community in advance, fostering a positive interaction.
URL to the query: Click Here
Final Statements
In conclusion, after learning about smart questions has taught me how valuable clear and thoughtful communication is. I have found ways that I can apply the criteria in my life both in and outside of software engineering. Gaining a deeper understanding of what a smart question can look like I find that it is easier to learn and grow through the “smart” way.