Candidate Experience Survey: Sample Questions and Candidate NPS

By Sparsh Goyal, Founder at The Cognitive. Published 2026-10-30 · Last updated 2026-11-04

• A candidate experience survey is 5 to 10 questions, opening with a 0 to 10 recommend question, sent to hired and rejected candidates within days of a decision.
• Candidate experience survey questions change by stage, and a recruitment process evaluation questionnaire rates agree or disagree statements on clarity, communication and fairness.
• Candidate NPS is the percentage of promoters (9 or 10) minus the percentage of detractors (0 to 6), and rejected candidates score far lower than average (Survale 2025, North America: -28 against -4).

A candidate experience survey is a short questionnaire you send to people who went through your hiring, hired or not, asking how each stage felt. Keep each one to 5 to 10 questions. Open with a 0 to 10 "would you recommend" question, add agree or disagree statements about the stage and close with one open question. Send it within a few days of a decision, to rejected candidates too. Candidate NPS (cNPS) is the percentage of promoters (scores of 9 or 10) minus the percentage of detractors (0 to 6). The candidate feedback on recruitment process sample below is ready to copy.

Most employers ask too late. In Survale's 2025 Candidate Experience (CandE) Benchmark research, 75% of North American employers asked for feedback after a hire was made, but only 42% asked after application. Candidates invited to give feedback after the interview stage were 106% more likely to refer others. The research covers more than 66,000 completed candidate surveys and was published on 21 July 2026.

What is a candidate experience survey?

A candidate experience survey asks job candidates to rate how your hiring process treated them. It covers the application, the interviews, the communication, the decision and, for hires, whether the job matched what they were told. It measures candidate experience by asking the people who lived it.

It comes in three common shapes:

• Stage pulse surveys: two to five questions sent right after one stage, such as applying or a first interview.
• An end-to-end survey: about ten questions sent after the final decision.
• A recruitment process evaluation questionnaire: agree or disagree statements grouped by topic, such as clarity, communication and fairness. It suits teams that compare scores across roles or quarters.

It is not the same as interview feedback, which runs the other way: what you tell candidates about their performance. For that, see these interview feedback examples.

A survey works best next to the numbers you already track. Drop-off by stage, time to first response and offer acceptance rate show where candidates leave. The survey tells you why. If you are still mapping the stages, start with the recruitment process and these hiring process steps.

Candidate feedback on recruitment process: a sample survey

This is the end-to-end version. Send it once the candidate has a final answer, offer or rejection. Replace [Company] with your name.

Sample survey: your experience applying to [Company]

1. How likely are you to recommend applying to [Company] to a friend or colleague? (0 = not at all likely, 10 = extremely likely)
2. How easy was it to apply? (1 = very hard, 5 = very easy)
3. The job description matched what was discussed in my interviews. (Strongly disagree to strongly agree)
4. I knew what each stage was for and how long it would take.
5. [Company] replied within the time it said it would.
6. My interviewers were prepared and had read my application.
7. I had a fair chance to show what I can do.
8. I was treated with respect throughout the process.
9. What is one thing we should change about our hiring process? (Open text)
10. What is one thing we should keep? (Open text)

Keep the survey anonymous by default, with an optional last item: "May we contact you about your answers? If yes, leave your email." Make only the first question required, so a busy candidate can still submit a score.

The recommend question goes first so the detailed questions do not color the score. The statements follow the process in order. The open questions sit last, when the candidate knows what they want to say.

Recruitment process evaluation questionnaire version

Some teams prefer statements only, each rated on one five-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. They are easier to average and compare. Pick two statements per topic, not all of them.

Report each statement as the share of candidates who answered 4 or 5. "68% knew what would happen next" is easier to act on than "average 3.7".

Candidate experience survey questions by stage

Stage surveys are shorter and more specific than the end-to-end version. Send each one soon after the stage it covers. The timings below are recommendations, not published benchmarks, so adjust them to your own pace.

Two rules stop this turning into survey spam:

1. One survey per candidate per week. If a finalist is rejected two days after the final interview, skip the interview survey and send only the rejected-candidate version.
2. Only ask where you will act. If nobody will read application feedback this quarter, do not ask for it.

Several applicant tracking systems include a built-in candidate survey that sends when a candidate changes stage, and any form tool will do for a pilot. For dedicated software, compare these candidate experience platforms.

After application

1. How long did the application take? (Under 5 minutes, 5 to 15 minutes, 15 to 30 minutes, over 30 minutes)
2. The application asked only for information that seemed relevant.
3. Was anything confusing or broken while you applied? (Open text)

Keep this to three questions. The candidate has not heard back yet, and a long survey feels like a second application.

After a phone screen or first interview

1. Before the conversation, I knew what this stage was for and how long it would take.
2. The person I spoke with understood the role well.
3. I left knowing what happens next and when.
4. Is there anything you wished we had asked or told you? (Open text)

After the final interview

1. I had a fair chance to show what I can do.
2. The questions were relevant to the job.
3. My interviewers were prepared and did not repeat each other's questions.
4. I got a clear picture of the team and the work.
5. How many interviews did you have, and did that feel too few, right or too many? (Choice plus optional comment)

After an offer is accepted

1. What most influenced your decision to accept? (Choose up to two: the role, the team, pay, flexibility, growth, the hiring experience, other)
2. The offer arrived when you said it would.
3. The offer details matched what was discussed in interviews.
4. Was there a moment when you nearly withdrew? If yes, what happened? (Open text)

After an offer is declined

1. What most influenced your decision? (Choose up to two: pay, another offer, the role, the team, location or flexibility, the hiring experience, other)
2. Did anything in the process make you less keen on the role? (Open text)
3. How likely are you to consider [Company] for a future role? (0 to 10)

Decliners are the candidates you most wanted and did not get. They owe you nothing, so three questions is enough.

New hire at about 30 days

1. The job matches what the interviews described.
2. The interviews gave me an accurate picture of my manager and team.
3. Between accepting and my first day, I knew what to expect.
4. What did we tell you in hiring that turned out to be wrong or missing? (Open text)
5. How likely are you to recommend applying here to a friend? (0 to 10)

This stage is often skipped. In Survale's 2025 CandE research, only 30% of candidates said they were asked for feedback before their start date. Those who were asked showed a 130% increase in their relationship rating.

Should you survey rejected candidates? Questions and timing

Yes. Rejected candidates are the largest group in almost every hiring process, and the one most often ignored. Survale's 2025 CandE research found that 56% of candidates rejected during screening and interviewing received no feedback at all. Only 6% received feedback on assessment or test results. North American candidates who were not selected rated their experience at a cNPS of -28, against -4 for all candidates.

Timing matters most for rejected candidates. A 2025 study in the Journal of Management and Organization looked at two samples of mid-level candidates (264 and 259). Timely rejections, especially early ones, raised satisfaction, perceived fairness and intention to reapply and recommend. So the survey asks about timing directly.

Timing rules

• Never before the decision. A survey that arrives first reads as the rejection itself.
• Two to three days after. A same-day survey catches the sting, not the experience.
• In a separate message. Send the decision on its own first. For that message, use these candidate rejection email templates.
• Only after a real conversation. Candidates turned down on their application alone get, at most, the application survey.
• One reminder at most. A second chase to someone you turned down costs more goodwill than the answer is worth.

Rejected-candidate survey (five questions)

1. How likely are you to recommend applying to [Company] to a friend or colleague? (0 to 10)
2. The decision arrived when we said it would.
3. I understood why I was not selected, or knew how to ask.
4. Whatever the outcome, I was treated with respect.
5. What one thing would have made this process better for you? (Open text)

If most rejected candidates disagree with question 3, the fix is in your rejection message, not the survey. Specific feedback pays off: Survale's 2025 research found it increased candidates' willingness to refer by 69%.

How to calculate candidate NPS, with a worked example

Candidate NPS (cNPS) is the percentage of candidates who score 9 or 10 on "How likely are you to recommend applying to [Company]?" minus the percentage who score 0 to 6. It uses the Net Promoter System from Bain. Answers on the 0 to 10 scale fall into three bands:

• Promoters: 9 or 10
• Passives: 7 or 8
• Detractors: 0 to 6

Passives count toward the total but not toward either side. The score runs from -100 (everyone a detractor) to +100 (everyone a promoter).

Worked example (illustrative numbers, not real data). Say 200 candidates answered the recommend question last quarter.

Now split the same 200 by outcome. Suppose the 40 hires scored +60 and the 160 rejected candidates scored +10. The blended +20 hides how much weaker most candidates' experience was. Report cNPS by outcome (hired, rejected after interview, declined offer) and by stage, not as one number.

Watch small samples. With 10 responses, one candidate moving from a 6 to a 9 shifts the score by 20 points. Show the response count next to every score.

What is a good candidate NPS?

Any positive score means more promoters than detractors. The most recent published reference point is Survale's CandE research:

Source: Survale 2025 CandE fact sheet, published 21 July 2026. These are averages for employers that chose to take part in the benchmark, not an industry average.

A score near zero across all candidates is normal, and a positive score for rejected candidates is unusual. Compare yourself first with your own last quarter. A rejected-candidate score that climbs from -30 to -10 is real progress.

What do candidates write back, and what should you do?

Open answers only help if you can tell what each one means and what to change. The answers below are illustrative examples written for this guide, not real candidate responses.

Tag each open answer with two labels: the stage (application, screen, interview, decision, offer, onboarding) and the theme (speed, clarity, fairness, respect, logistics). After a month, count the tags. The stage and theme with the most negative comments is your next fix. One furious comment is worth reading, but it is not a trend until it repeats.

How to act on candidate feedback

A survey nobody acts on tells candidates you were not listening. Communication is a common complaint. Criteria's 2026 Candidate Experience Report found that 53% of job seekers were ghosted by an employer in the last year, as reported by Fortune on 20 March 2026. That is up from 48% in 2025 and 38% in 2024.

A simple monthly loop works for most teams:

1. Read everything once a month. Put scores by stage and outcome on one page, with response counts.
2. Theme the open answers. Tag by stage and theme, then rank themes by negative comments.
3. Pick one change. For example, "every finalist gets a decision date". One change you can measure beats five you cannot.
4. Give it an owner and a date. A named recruiter or hiring manager, and the month you will check again.
5. Tell candidates what changed. One line in the confirmation email shows the survey is read.
6. Measure the same question next month. If the score rises, keep the change. If not, try the next fix.

The interview stage is the cheapest place to start. Survale's 2025 research found candidate resentment rose 70% among candidates who received no interview preparation or follow-up. Two small fixes cover both: an invite that says what the interview tests and how long it takes, and a promised decision date.

Two mistakes undo the rest. Do not treat comments as a verdict on one recruiter, because people stop answering honestly when they think a named person gets blamed. And do not ask for feedback nobody will read.

Where an AI interview helps the interview stage

Two common complaints, slow scheduling and vague feedback after an interview, can be fixed at the interview stage itself.

With The Cognitive's AI interview, candidates book their own time from a link, with no login, and get email reminders before it starts. They take a 10 or 20 minute live AI video interview, a two-way conversation, from a laptop or desktop browser. It asks about the role and follows up on what the candidate says.

You get a scored report for each candidate against the criteria you set, so when you send feedback, you have specific points to share instead of a generic "we went another way". AI Interviews plans start at $99 a month. The Cognitive is our product.

It is not a survey tool. Keep running the surveys above, and watch whether your interview and rejected-candidate scores move.

To start this week, pick one open role and add two surveys: the final-interview survey and the rejected-candidate survey. Read the answers at the end of the month, change one thing and measure again. If you want the first interview round to run on candidates' own schedule, start free with The Cognitive.

Sources

• Survale, Kevin Grossman, 2025 Candidate Experience (CandE) Benchmark Research: Fact Sheet and Key Statistics (data collected 31 January to 31 August 2025, more than 66,000 completed candidate surveys, 110 registered organizations), published 21 July 2026.
• Barattucci, M., Russo, V., Grobelny, J., Santisi, G. and Ramaci, T., Candidates' reactions to job application rejections at different phases of the recruitment process, Journal of Management and Organization, 2025, vol. 31, issue 5, pp. 2341 to 2359.
• Fortune, Emma Burleigh, reporting on Criteria's 2026 Candidate Experience Report, 20 March 2026.
• Bain and Company, Net Promoter System, Measuring your Net Promoter Score.

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