What are the best interview questions to ask candidates?
The best interview questions to ask candidates are open-ended, tied to 1 competency the job needs, and answerable only with a real example or a worked decision. Pick 4 to 6 competencies, ask 1 or 2 questions on each, follow up on thin answers, and score every answer against a rating scale written before the first interview.
Interview questions to ask candidates, the short version
- Tie every question to 1 competency the job actually needs. A question with no criterion behind it cannot be scored.
- Past-behaviour questions give you evidence. Situational questions test judgment on problems the person has not met yet.
- OPM's guide puts a structured interview at 4 to 6 competencies, unless the job is unique or at a high level.
- The follow-up is where the evidence is. First answers are rehearsed, second answers rarely are.
- Write the rating scale before the first interview, not after the last one.
Top 10 interview questions to ask candidates for any role
Great interview questions to ask candidates travel between roles. These 10 work for almost any job: use them as the spine of the interview, then swap in role questions from the sets below.
Walk me through the piece of work you are proudest of. What made it hard?
The constraints, the trade-offs they made, and their own contribution stated separately from the team's.
Which part of that would not have happened without you?
Tell me about a decision you got wrong. What did you change afterwards?
A real mistake rather than a disguised success, their own part in it, and a behaviour that is different now.
How would I see that change in your work today?
What is the most important thing you have deprioritised recently, and why?
A method for ranking work, and a conversation with whoever was affected rather than a quiet drop.
Who disagreed, and what did you tell them?
Tell me about a time you had to decide with incomplete information.
How they bounded the risk, what they checked first, and the point at which they would have reversed the decision.
What would have made you change course?
Describe a disagreement with your manager. How did it resolve?
The other view stated fairly, a direct conversation, and a working relationship that survived it. No villain in the story.
What did they get right that you had missed?
Teach me something you know well in 2 minutes.
Structure, plain words instead of jargon, and a check that you actually followed the explanation.
Now explain the hardest part to someone outside the field.
Give me a problem you solved where the obvious answer was wrong.
How they found out it was wrong, the options they weighed, and the evidence behind the final choice.
What did you rule out, and why?
What are you looking for that you cannot get where you are now?
Specific reasons this role could actually satisfy, rather than a complaint about the last employer.
What would make you leave this job in a year?
What does "done" mean to you on a piece of work?
A concrete standard, who signs off on it, and what they still own after hand-over.
Tell me about a time you shipped below that bar.
Walk me through how you would approach your first month here.
Preparation, the questions they would ask before acting, and a plan with a first concrete step in it.
What would you need from us to do that?
Strategic interview questions to ask candidates, by type
A question is strategic when you chose it because it tests something the job needs and you already know what a good answer sounds like. Five types cover most interviews.
| Type | What it tells you | Use it when | Example stem |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behavioral | What the person has actually done, under conditions like the ones in this job. | The competency is one they have had real chances to practise. | "Tell me about a time you ..." |
| Situational | How they reason about a problem they have not met yet, and what they would do first. | The role is a step up, or the situation is specific to your company. | "A client says ... How would you handle it?" |
| Skills and work sample | Whether the craft on the resume survives a real task discussed out loud. | You need proof of depth rather than exposure. | "Here is a small, real problem from this job." |
| Motivation and career | Whether what they want is something this role can actually give them. | Always. It is the cheapest predictor of an early exit. | "What are you looking for that you cannot get now?" |
| Values and working style | How they behave when speed, quality and other people pull in different directions. | The team has explicit norms you can score against. | "When is it right to push back on a decision?" |
The behavioral and situational definitions follow the US Office of Personnel Management's guide to structured interviews.
Good interview questions to ask applicants about skills and experience
Basic interview questions to ask candidates do not have to be generic. These general interview questions to ask candidates check whether the resume matches the work, in specifics.
What does your current role involve day to day?
A match between the resume and the actual work, described in specifics rather than job-description language.
Which part takes most of your week?
Which parts of this work have you owned end to end, and which have you worked alongside?
An honest split between ownership and proximity. Most applicants have more of the second than their resume suggests.
Walk me through the last one you owned.
Take me through a recent project from the first step to the last.
Sequence, the decisions taken along the way, and tools chosen for a reason rather than by habit.
Where did it nearly go wrong?
What separates good work from great work in your field?
A real standard, with an example of each side of the line rather than an abstract principle.
Show me where your own work crossed that line.
Here is a small, real problem from this job. Talk me through how you would start.
Clarifying questions before solutions, and a sensible first step they can justify.
What would you check before going further?
Which tool or method did you most recently choose over another, and why?
A reasoned choice with the trade-off named, not a list of product names.
What did the alternative do better?
What is the largest thing you have been accountable for?
Scale in their own terms: people, budget, users or risk, with what accountability meant in practice.
What did you delegate, and what did you keep?
What skill did you have to pick up quickly to get something done?
A plan for learning it, help from other people, and proof the skill was applied rather than only studied.
What did you get wrong at first?
What did you actually do in your first 90 days in your last role?
Named actions in order, what they learned before acting, and one early result. Specifics here tend to predict specifics in this job.
What would you do differently in those 90 days now?
What trade-off did you make on a recent project that you would still defend today?
A choice between 2 real options, the cost they accepted, and why it still holds. Weak answers describe a decision with no downside.
Which trade-off would you change if you did it again?
The principle
Fix the rubric, not the script. Score every candidate for a role on the same criteria with the same weights, and let the questions and follow-ups adapt to what each person actually says.
Great interview questions to ask the interviewee about past behaviour
Each of these asks for one real incident. They are good questions to ask interviewees at any level, and the STAR method page has a structure for the answers.
Tell me about a time something was failing and nobody asked you to fix it.
A moment of choice, the cost of stepping in, and what happened to the problem afterwards.
What would have happened if you had left it?
Describe the hardest stakeholder you have worked with. How did you make it work?
Their view stated fairly, a deliberate approach rather than endurance, and a result that held.
What would they say about working with you?
Tell me about the last deadline you were going to miss.
Early warning to the people affected, and a trade-off made openly instead of quiet overtime.
Who did you tell, and when?
What is the most useful critical feedback you have received?
The feedback in plain words, not softened, and a change in their work that someone else would notice.
Who would confirm the change?
When did you last change your mind about something important at work?
The evidence that moved them, and a willingness to say what they had believed before.
What had you believed before?
What is the longest you have persisted with something that was not working? Was it right to?
Judgment about when to stop, rather than grit alone. The best answers include a stopping rule.
What signal would make you stop earlier next time?
What would your last team say is your weakness, and would they be right?
A real flaw named in the team's words, an honest view on whether it is fair, and something they now do about it.
Who on that team would put it most bluntly?
Tell me about a time you convinced someone senior to change course.
Evidence gathered before the conversation, and an understanding of what the senior person cared about.
What was their strongest objection?
Describe a situation in which you dealt with someone who was hostile or distressed. What did you do, and what was the result?
Listening before fixing, a specific action they took themselves, and a follow-up after the issue was closed.
How did you know it was resolved?
Tell me about a mistake of yours that affected other people.
Ownership without blame, what they did first to limit the damage, who they told, and what changed in how they work afterwards.
What did you tell people before anyone asked?
Good questions to ask an interviewee start with the follow-up
An example of an AI interviewer following up on a thin answer before moving on.
First answers are rehearsed. Second answers rarely are. OPM calls these probes, and says to tailor them to each response while keeping their meaning constant. The best questions to ask an interviewee during an interview are the unscripted ones. On The Cognitive, a live AI interview asks follow-ups based on what each candidate just said.
Interview questions to ask candidates to determine culture fit
Write down the behaviours you actually reward before you ask any of these. Then score the behaviour, not the resemblance. OPM names "Similar to Me" as a rating error for a reason.
Describe the team where you did your best work. What made it work?
Conditions you can compare honestly with your own team, rather than a description of a perfect employer.
Which of those could you not do without?
Tell me about a time you had to choose between speed and doing it properly.
A reasoned trade-off, and a sense of which way your kind of team would want them to lean.
Would you make the same call again?
When is it right to push back on a decision that has already been made?
A view on escalation that you can compare with your own norms, with a line they would not cross.
Give me the last time you did.
How much direction do you like, and how do you ask for it?
Self-knowledge and a working habit, rather than the slogan that they are fine either way.
What does too little direction look like for you?
Tell me about a time you gave a colleague feedback they did not want.
Directness with care, and enough detail that you can tell the conversation really happened.
How did they respond a month later?
What would you change about how your last team worked?
A constructive idea they tried to act on, rather than a complaint or a diplomatic non-answer.
What happened when you raised it?
What manager style helps you do your best work, and what style makes it harder?
Specific behaviours on both sides, compared honestly with how this team is run. Score the self-awareness, not the preference.
How do you like to receive feedback?
What behaviour builds trust with you quickly, and what damages it?
Concrete behaviours from past teams rather than slogans, and the same standard applied to themselves.
Tell me about a time you had to rebuild trust after a miss.
How do you keep people updated when work is moving quickly, without flooding them?
A habit they actually use, such as a set update rhythm or a short written summary, with one example of it working.
What should never be a meeting?
This role has tight deadlines and shifting priorities. Tell me about a time you worked well in that kind of setting.
Evidence from a real stretch of pressure. It replaces "Can you handle our intense culture?", which invites a yes and rewards people who sound like the team.
What did you stop doing to keep up?
Questions to ask job candidates, and the ones to leave out
Some questions to ask job candidates in interviews cost an employer more than they are worth. The EEOC's guidance is that pre-employment questions stay on what makes an applicant qualified.
| Topic | Do not ask | Ask this instead | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age | "How old are you?" "What year did you graduate?" | Nothing. Age is irrelevant to whether an applicant is qualified for the job. | EEOC |
| Disability or health | "Do you have any medical conditions?" | "Can you perform these job duties, and how would you perform them?" | EEOC |
| Family | "Are you married?" "Do you plan to have children?" "Who looks after your kids?" | "The role needs these hours and this travel. Can you meet that?" Asked of everyone. | EEOC |
| Citizenship and origin | "Are you a US citizen?" "Where are you from originally?" | Tell all applicants that identity and work eligibility are verified after an offer. | EEOC |
| Religion | "Which holidays do you observe?" | State the schedule the job requires, and ask whether they are able to work it. | EEOC |
| Arrests | "Have you ever been arrested?" | Check state and local law first. Some states bar criminal-history questions until later in hiring. | EEOC |
| Pay history | "What are you paid now?" | "What range are you looking for?" Some states, California among them, bar pay-history questions. | California DIR |
| Clubs and photos | Memberships in clubs, societies or lodges. Asking for a photograph. | Ask about professional bodies only where the job genuinely requires one. | EEOC |
US federal guidance from the EEOC. State and non-US rules differ. General information, not legal advice.
Unique and casual interview questions to ask candidates
Warm-ups settle nerves and are not scored. A unique question earns its place only when it tests something the job needs. Keep both about work.
What has been the best part of your week at work?
An easy opener that settles nerves and gets them speaking in their own voice. Do not score it.
What made you say yes to this conversation?
A gentle start that also opens the motivation thread you will come back to later.
What nearly made you say no?
What are you working on right now that you enjoy?
Gets them talking about real work in the first 2 minutes, which makes the rest of the interview easier.
If you joined and could change 1 thing about how we work in month 1, how would you decide what?
How they gather evidence before acting, and whether they would talk to anyone first.
Who would you talk to first?
What do people most often misunderstand about your job?
Depth of understanding, and the ability to explain a specialism to someone outside it.
How do you explain it to them?
What have you learned recently that your job did not require?
Curiosity with substance behind it, rather than a list of courses started.
How did you use it?
What question do you wish more companies asked you?
What they are proud of and want to be judged on. Use it as a lead for one more competency question, not as a score.
Go on, answer it.
What would surprise us after working with you for 90 days?
A habit or strength that a resume hides, with an example a colleague could confirm.
Who would agree with that, and why?
How to turn this list of interview questions into an interview
Six steps, done once per role. A list of interview questions to ask candidates only works when the questions to ask a candidate during an interview are settled before it starts.
- Pick 4 to 6 competencies OPM puts a structured interview at 4 to 6 competencies, unless the job is unique or very senior. Take them from the work, not from a values poster. Ownership, problem solving, communication, collaboration.
- Choose 1 or 2 questions per competency Mix past-behaviour and situational questions. OPM's test of a good question: job-related, realistic, open-ended, clear, free of jargon. 1 behavioural question plus 1 situational per competency.
- Describe what a 1, a 3 and a 5 sound like Use one scale across every competency, with at least 3 labelled levels. Write the descriptions in the words you expect to hear. 1 unsatisfactory, 3 satisfactory, 5 superior.
- Plan your probes Write 2 or 3 follow-ups per question. Tailor the wording to each answer during the interview, but keep what each probe is asking for constant. "What factors led up to it?" "What is the first thing you did?"
- Take notes that justify a rating Capture quotes, not impressions. OPM's standard is notes good enough to document your reasoning for each rating and to support the decision later.
- Rate alone, then debrief Score each competency on your own before anyone talks. It is the cheapest defence against halo, contrast effects and first impressions.
A simple 12-question interview plan you can copy
Simple interview questions to ask candidates, in the order they work best. Paste it, name your competencies, and fill the stems from the decks above.
ROLE: [title] COMPETENCIES (4 to 6): [list] OPEN 1. What made you say yes to this conversation? 2. What does your current role involve day to day? COMPETENCY 1: [name] 3. Behavioural: Tell me about a time you ... 4. Follow-up: What did you personally do? COMPETENCY 2: [name] 5. Behavioural: Describe the last time you ... 6. Situational: Here is a situation from this job. What would you do first? COMPETENCY 3: [name] 7. Walk me through a recent project from first step to last. 8. Follow-up: What did you decide against, and why? COMPETENCY 4: [name] 9. Tell me about a decision you got wrong. 10. Follow-up: What do you do differently now? CLOSE 11. What are you looking for that you cannot get where you are now? 12. What would you like to ask me? AFTER: rate each competency 1 to 5 from your notes before you talk to anyone.
Score the answers against criteria set before the interview
An example rubric: fixed criteria and weights for the role, with what a 1, a 3 and a 5 sound like.
A confident speaker can make a small contribution sound large, and a nervous one can bury a good answer. The rating scale is what keeps the two apart. On The Cognitive, the evaluation criteria and their weights are fixed per role, while the questions adapt live.
More interview questions to ask candidates, by competency
Extra prompts for the competencies the cards above do not reach. Pick 1 or 2 per competency, never the whole list.
Scope and seniority What is the largest piece of work you owned from start to finish? Which decisions were yours alone, and which needed approval? Where did you push back on leadership, and what happened? How do you decide what not to do? What have you delegated well, and what poorly? What does seniority mean beyond years? Stakeholder judgment How do you tell an urgent request from a loud one? When did customer feedback change your mind? How do you handle a stakeholder who keeps changing requirements? Which business number did your work move directly? Learning and judgment What did you do when you felt out of your depth? What signal told you a plan was not working? What risk did you accept on a recent decision, and why? Motivation Which part of this job do you want more of? What would make this job the wrong move for you? What work drains you even when you are good at it? What are you optimising for in your next role? Closing What would you need to know before accepting our offer? What concerns do you have about this role? What would you want finished in your first 90 days? Which other roles are you weighing this one against? What have we not covered that would help us judge fit?
Interviewer checklist for the day
Run down this list before you open the call. Your progress stays on this page only.
- 4 to 6 competencies agreed with the hiring manager
- Every question mapped to one of those competencies
- The rating scale written, with 1, 3 and 5 described
- 2 or 3 probes planned for each question
- Every question is about doing the job
- The same criteria and weights for every candidate
- Notes capture quotes rather than impressions
- Rate each competency before discussing with anyone
Where even the best interview questions fall short
A list cannot rescue an unstructured interview. OPM's guide is blunt about it: research consistently indicates unstructured interviews have little value in predicting job performance, and they show low agreement between interviewers. Structured interviews, by OPM's account, have demonstrated a high degree of reliability, validity and legal defensibility.
The other half is you. OPM names 6 rating errors, including halo, leniency, central tendency and "Similar to Me", giving higher ratings to candidates who resemble you. A good question scored on gut feel is still gut feel.
What a scored interview looks like
An example scorecard: each criterion out of 5, an overall score out of 100, and resume claims marked verified, refuted or unclear.
Question sets by role and free tools
Interview questions by role · STAR method · Interview question generator · Rubric generator · Interview kit · AI candidate sourcing
Frequently asked questions
What are good interview questions to ask a candidate?
Open-ended ones, tied to a single competency the job needs, that can only be answered with a real example. OPM's test is that a question is job-related, realistic, clear, concise and free of jargon. Good questions to ask candidates in an interview include "Walk me through the piece of work you are proudest of", "Tell me about a decision you got wrong" and "Give me a problem you solved where the obvious answer was wrong".
What are the best interview questions to ask a candidate?
The top 10 above cover ownership, learning, prioritisation, judgment, conflict, communication, problem solving, motivation, quality and role planning. But "best" depends entirely on the competencies your job needs. The best questions to ask a candidate in an interview are the ones you can score, and the best interview questions to ask applicants are no different.
What questions should I ask an interviewee?
Start with a warm-up, then 1 or 2 questions for each of 4 to 6 competencies, then a motivation question, then time for their questions to you. Mix past-behaviour and situational types. Good questions to ask the interviewee are always followed by a probe, because that is where the detail comes out.
What are strategic interview questions?
A question is strategic when you chose it because it tests something the job actually needs, and you already know what a good answer sounds like. Most of them are behavioral questions about past experience, situational questions about hypothetical problems, or career and motivation questions. OPM defines the first 2 as behavioral description interviews and situational interviews. The third is our own grouping.
How many interview questions should I ask a candidate?
OPM puts a structured interview at 4 to 6 competencies, unless the job is unique or at a high level. At 1 or 2 job interview questions to ask candidates per competency, plus follow-ups, that is roughly 8 to 12 planned questions. Budget a 45 to 60 minute slot for that many, and leave room at the end for the candidate's own questions.
What questions should you not ask job candidates?
Under US federal law, avoid anything that goes to race, colour, religion, sex including pregnancy, national origin, age 40 or older, disability or genetic information. The EEOC's position is that pre-employment questions should stay on what makes someone qualified. State and local rules add more, such as pay history and criminal records, so check them. This is general information, not legal advice.
What are good casual or unique interview questions to ask candidates?
Casual interview questions to ask candidates work as warm-ups: "What has been the best part of your week at work?" or "What made you say yes to this conversation?". Do not score them. Unique interview questions to ask candidates should still be job-related, such as "What do people most often misunderstand about your job?". Keep warm-ups about work, away from family, age, health and religion.
How do I ask interview questions that determine culture fit?
Write your values down as observable behaviours first, then ask for past examples of those behaviours and score them on the same scale as everything else. Ask about the team where they did their best work, and about a time they chose between speed and doing it properly. Watch for "Similar to Me", which OPM lists as a rating error.
What is the difference between a phone screen and a full interview?
Depth, not subject. A phone screen is a short filter that decides who is worth an hour. Its pre-screening questions check what the role involves day to day, why they are looking, notice period, location or timezone, and the pay range they want, where local rules allow it. The full interview tests each competency with follow-ups. Score both against the same criteria, so the screen is a lighter pass of the interview, not an extra call.
How do you find candidates to interview in the first place?
You source them: search the market for people who match the role and contact them first, instead of waiting for applications. On The Cognitive you describe the role in plain English, it becomes filters you can edit, and ~900M public profiles are judged against your must-haves. Each result shows a "Why this match" line. A verified email or phone number is revealed only for the people you keep, and charged only when a value comes back.
Can an AI interviewer ask these questions for me?
The Cognitive runs a live two-way AI video interview that asks follow-up questions based on each answer. The evaluation criteria are fixed per role while the questions adapt. Afterwards you get a recording, a transcript and a scorecard: each criterion scored out of 5, an overall score out of 100, resume claims marked verified, refuted or unclear, and a recommendation. You can try a live interview yourself before inviting anyone.
What questions should I ask in a 30-minute interview?
Cover the role's biggest risks and nothing else: 1 recent piece of work, 1 hard problem, 1 trade-off, 1 ownership story, 1 collaboration story and 1 motivation question. That is 6 planned questions, which leaves time for the follow-ups where the detail comes out. Score each against criteria written before the call, so a short slot still produces comparable evidence.
What are the best interview questions to ask applicants for a senior role?
Senior questions test scope, judgment, trade-offs and influence without authority. Ask what they owned end to end, where they pushed back on leadership and what happened, which decision they would change now, and how they raised the quality bar for the people around them. The question bank above has more under scope and seniority.
What interview questions should I ask if the team has no rubric yet?
Ask plain evidence questions tied to the work: what did you own, what was hard, what changed, and what would you do differently? Then write the rubric straight after the first few interviews by describing what a 1, a 3 and a 5 answer sounded like. The rubric generator turns a job description into criteria, and our interview scorecard guide shows how to record the ratings.
Which interview questions create hidden bias even when they are legal?
Questions about hobbies, age of the team or how intense the culture is. "What do you do for fun after work?" and "Would you fit in with a young team?" reward people who share your background and pull the interview away from the job. Describe the real job condition instead, ask for an example of working in it, and score the answer on the same scale as everything else.
How do I know a remote candidate is answering from their own knowledge?
Make the evidence hard to fake rather than policing the call. Ask them to reason out loud, follow up on every answer, and ask about work they actually owned. The Cognitive's live AI interview asks follow-ups based on each answer and logs integrity flags for a person to review; flags are not scored and nothing is rejected automatically. Our cheating detection guide covers the signals in more depth.
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