The Importance of Smart Questions
28 Jan 2026
What is a smart question?
According to Raymond, a smart question is one that demonstrates good research and is asked as clearly and precisely as possible. Conducting good research includes looking up and attempting solutions, but demonstrating this is done by inquiring in the right place and providing context on what has been attempted. As for asking questions in a clear and precise manner, this ensures there is an unambiguous goal the asker wants to accomplish. Formulating questions in this way accomplishes multiple things. Firstly, it establishes clear communication between the asker and the replier because the person answering can approach the problem with all the information they need without having to make any assumptions. Moreover, since there are distinct goals, the asker is left with fewer or no additional questions if a solution is found. Secondly, it demonstrates respect for other people’s time. The people answering are volunteering to do so. Therefore, the asker should put the effort into doing intensive research on their problem before resorting to asking others for help and communicating this effectively. Failing to do so can imply laziness, discouraging volunteers from helping.
A Smart Question
One smart question I discovered on Stack Overflow was about a TypeScript issue with converting a string to an ArrayBuffer. This individual demonstrated Raymond’s outline for asking smart questions by clearly stating the issue with the function, “I’ve recently come across an issue where certain spaces were being converted into forward-slashes when the file was generated.” The person then provided specific information they discovered stating, “the ‘problematic’ spaces have a different unicode value and are narrow no-break spaces.” Along with this were the exact Unicode values being stored for the problem characters as well as the value the person expected. The individual then clearly stated where they had a misunderstanding, which was the impact of a bit operator in the function.
This led to an efficient and detailed response answering this person’s question. The answerer explained the issue, provided a method for clearly seeing the issue for future reference, and gave a simple solution. To top it all off, the individual who asked the question upvoted this answer and marked it as the best answer for anyone else who may encounter a similar problem. Additionally, they updated their post to reflect what solution they decided to use.
Here is the link to this question.
A Not So Smart Question
One not smart question I found on Stack Overflow was about a Google OAuth error. This individual provided one picture along with a vague sentence about the specific error with a statement saying they “couldn’t find any info about it.” Additionally, the title seemed to contain more information about the error than the description. Due to this, the question received nine downvotes in under twelve hours and no answers. The very next day it was removed from Stack Overflow “for reasons of moderation.” This individual could have improved their question in many ways. Assuming they conducted thorough research on the issue, they could have stated what they tried researching even if their effort led to dead ends. This is because knowing what has not worked is just as important as knowing what did. Moreover, they could have provided additional information such as what they were doing when the error occurred and how to reproduce it.
After seeing these results on Stack Overflow, I understand the value of asking smart questions and how beneficial they can be for myself and the people helping. For any future questions I have, I will ensure that I follow Raymond’s guidelines.
Here is the link to where this question previously existed.
Works Cited
Raymond, Eric. How To Ask Questions The Smart Way, 2014, http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html.