This excellent post from the Posthog blog argues that engineers should ask much tougher questions during startup interviews instead of just letting the company interview them.

The main areas to probe are:

• Whether the company actually has product-market fit (real growth, users who stick around, clear problem they're solving)
• If they have enough money to survive until they're profitable
• What the biggest problems are that you could help solve, whether the team is actually strong or just filled with people from fancy companies
• If the culture is intentional or a mess, and what the founders' long-term vision really is.

TL;DR

Basically, don't just ask "what will I be working on?"

Ask the hard questions that will tell you if this startup is likely to succeed or crash and burn.