Screening questions that actually decide something
Screening questions are the short set a recruiter asks before a hiring manager spends time on a candidate: availability, pay, motivation, a few knockouts and a check on real experience. Below are 52 to copy, grouped by purpose and role, plus a phone screen script. The Cognitive can run the same screen as a live AI interview.
What are screening questions?
Screening questions The short set asked after the resume screen and before the hiring manager round, usually by a recruiter, to decide whether a candidate is worth more of the team's time.
Two kinds sit in that set. A knockout has one disqualifying answer and ends the conversation. Everything else is a graded judgement, which means it is worthless without a follow-up when the answer is thin.
Sample screening questions by purpose: 24 to copy
Recruiter screening questions that work for almost any role. Pick 2 or 3 rows for a 20 minute phone screen, swap the brackets for your own details, and keep the core set consistent per role.
| Purpose | Question 1 | Question 2 | Question 3 | A good answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Availability | If we made an offer this week, when could you start? | Which days and hours can you work, and which can you never work? | How many hours a week are you looking for? | A date, a notice period and any fixed commitments, said without hedging |
| Location and logistics | This role is [on site, hybrid or remote] in [city]. How does that work for you? | The shift starts at [time]. Can you reliably be there by then? | The role travels [days] a month. Does that work? | A yes or no tied to the real schedule, not a promise to make it work somehow |
| Motivation | What made you apply for this role now? | What do you want your next job to give you that this one does not? | What do you know about what we do? | One specific reason tied to the work or the company. Pay and commute count if said plainly |
| Experience check | Walk me through a normal week in your current role. | Which tools or systems do you use every day? | Tell me about a result from the last year you are proud of. What was your part? | Names, numbers, and their own part kept separate from the team's |
| Salary | What pay are you targeting for your next role? | Which benefits or terms matter as much as base pay? | Have you worked under a [base plus commission or hourly plus overtime] structure before? | A figure or range of their own. Ask about expectations, not current pay, where salary history bans apply |
| Knock-out | Do you hold [required licence], and is it current? | The role requires [a legally required check]. Are you willing to complete it after an offer? | Do you meet the minimum age the law sets for this role? | A plain yes or no. If you need a follow-up to judge it, it is not a knockout |
| Red flags | Why are you leaving your current job? | What would your last manager say you should work on? | What would make you turn down an offer from us? | A reason that does not blame everyone, and a weakness with what they did about it |
| Closing | Where else are you interviewing, and is there a deadline I should know about? | What would you like to know about the team or the role? | Is there anything we have not covered that I should know? | Questions about the work itself and an honest timeline for other offers |
These are prompts, not a script to read word for word. The follow-up is where the screen earns its time.
What a screening question has to earn its place doing
- Clear a hard requirement that the role genuinely cannot be done without
- Surface one piece of real evidence, named and specific enough to check later
- Confirm motivation for this role, not for any role that pays similarly
- Settle logistics before either side invests another hour in the process
Sample screening questions, and what a strong answer shows
Ten example screening questions, grouped by which of the 4 decisions each one makes. These are screener question examples you can lift as they are and adapt in the brackets.
This role needs [requirement] on day one. Walk me through the last time you used it in a job, not in training.
A named employer, a date range and a task they personally completed with it. They volunteer the version, the scale or the setting without being asked.
Who else was working on that with you, and what was your piece?
Pick one thing on your resume you would happily be questioned on for 20 minutes. Why that one?
They choose the hardest item rather than the safest. The reason is about the work itself, not about how the item looks to an employer.
What is the part of it you still would not defend?
What did you ship or deliver in the last 3 months?
A recent, concrete output with a date attached. Somebody who has been coasting or blocked usually reaches back further than 3 months to answer this.
What got in the way of the thing you wanted to finish?
You applied to this posting rather than the 10 others open this week. What was different about it?
A detail from the posting or the company that could not be pasted into another application. Honest answers about pay or location count if they are specific.
Which line of the description made you stop and read?
Most of this job is [the unglamorous 60 percent]. How much of your week looks like that now?
A realistic split of their current week, and a reaction to the unglamorous part that is neither enthusiasm nor surprise.
When did you last do a stretch of that work back to back?
What was the largest [budget, team, caseload or system] you have owned, and what broke at that size?
A number they can defend and a specific failure mode they met at that scale. Scope claims without a failure story are usually borrowed from the team.
What would you do differently at twice that size?
The published range for this role is [range]. Does that work, and if not, what does?
A direct answer and a figure of their own. Nobody reaches the offer stage and discovers a gap that could have been named in minute 4.
What would make the lower half of that range workable?
What notice do you owe, and what is already in your diary that would move a start date?
A real notice period plus anything booked: a holiday, a house move, another process at final stage. Precision here predicts a clean close.
Where are you up to with anyone else right now?
Are you legally authorised to work in [country], and will you now or in future need sponsorship?
A clear yes or no to both parts. Ask every candidate this in exactly these words, and ask nothing about nationality, birthplace or ancestry.
None. Record the answer and move on.
What would have to be true here for you to be unhappy 6 months in?
A specific, adult answer about scope, management or travel. It tells you what to check with the hiring manager before an offer exists.
Has a version of that happened to you before?
Screening interview questions by role: 18 for 6 common hires
Role-specific candidate screening questions for the jobs recruiters screen most often. Each set checks the one thing that sinks a hire in that role if you miss it.
| Role | Question 1 | Question 2 | Question 3 | A good answer includes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales (SDR or AE) | What was your quota last year, and how much of it did you hit? | Walk me through how you take a cold lead to a booked meeting. | Tell me about a deal you lost. What would you do differently? | Numbers they can defend, a process they repeat, and a loss owned without blaming the product |
| Customer support | How many tickets or calls did you handle on a typical day, and in which tool? | Tell me about a customer who stayed angry after your first answer. What did you do? | How do you decide when to escalate? | Volume and tools named, a calm de-escalation story, and a clear rule for escalating |
| Software engineer | What have you built in [language] that is running in production now? | Describe a bug or outage you traced to its cause. How did you find it? | What does code review look like on your current team? | Their own decisions inside a team project, and specific steps in how they debugged |
| Nurse (RN) | Is your RN licence active in [state], or are you covered by a multistate compact licence? | Which units have you worked on, and what was your usual patient load? | Which shifts can you cover, including nights and weekends? | Licence status stated plainly, unit experience with numbers, and shift availability that matches the rota |
| Warehouse associate | The job means lifting up to [weight] and standing for a full shift. Can you do that, with or without accommodation? | Have you used RF scanners or a forklift, and are you certified? | Our shifts rotate across [pattern]. Which of them can you work? | A direct answer on the physical duties, named equipment, and shifts that fit the rota |
| Retail or hospitality | How would you handle a long queue when you are the only one on the till? | Can you work weekends and the [peak season] rush? | Tell me about a time you covered a shift at short notice. | Customers served first and calmly, peak availability stated, and an example of being reliable |
State the physical requirements before asking about them, as the EEOC's guidance does, and ask every candidate for the role the same way.
The knockout set, and why it should be short
Every knockout removes people before a human looks at them, so the legitimate set is usually 3 to 5. These are the categories that genuinely qualify.
- Work authorisation and whether sponsorship will be needed, asked of everyone
- A licence or certification the role cannot legally be performed without
- A location, shift pattern or travel requirement the role truly cannot flex
- A compliance requirement written into the contract or the regulator's rules
- A pay range gap the candidate confirms will not work for them
- Nothing else. Everything else belongs in a scored criterion
Knockout question or judgement call?
Most teams label too many questions as knockout questions. Run each one through this before it becomes a gate that rejects people automatically.
| The question | What it really is | Why | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do you hold a current RN licence in this state? | Knockout | The role cannot legally be performed without it, and the answer is a fact | A gate, before anyone reads the application |
| Are you legally authorised to work in this country? | Knockout | Binary, asked of everyone, and nothing about the person's origin | A gate, asked in the same words every time |
| How many years of Python do you have? | Judgement call | Years measure time served. Someone with 2 strong years can beat someone with 8 | A scored criterion with a follow-up about real work |
| Do you have a degree in this field? | Judgement call | A gate here removes capable people for a proxy rather than the skill itself | A scored criterion, unless a licence depends on the degree |
| Can you work the Tuesday to Saturday shift pattern? | Knockout | The pattern is fixed by the operation and cannot flex for this role | A gate, if the pattern genuinely cannot move |
| Are you comfortable in a fast-moving environment? | Neither | Nobody answers no. It gathers no evidence and decides nothing | Cut it, and ask what their last 3 months looked like |
The rule: if a strong candidate could answer no and still do the job well, it is not a knockout.
Phone screen script: how to run the screen once the questions are written
Most screening tips are about the call. The decisions that matter were made before it. These 7 steps cover both, with a line to say at each stage of a 20 minute phone screen.
- Write the criteria before the role goes live Agree what you are scoring and what weight each criterion carries while the job description is still open in another tab. Criteria written after the first call describe that candidate. The free criteria builder at /screen-criteria turns a description into 3 tiers.
- Set 3 to 5 knockouts and no more Write them as yes or no questions with one disqualifying answer. If you cannot state the disqualifying answer in a single word, it is a scored criterion instead. Draft and edit a set at /knockout-questions, free and without an account.
- Minutes 0 to 2: tell them the shape of the call Say how long it will run, what you will cover and what happens after. Offer an adjustment to the format at the start, so nobody has to ask for one. "This is about 20 minutes: a few quick checks, your experience, then your questions. Tell me now if any part of the format does not work."
- Minutes 2 to 6: clear the knockouts and logistics Gates, pay range and start date come first. It respects the candidate's time when the answer is no, and it protects the rest of the call when the answer is yes. "Before we go further: are you authorised to work in [country]? The range is [range]. Does that work? When could you start?"
- Minutes 6 to 14: test one or two claims Pick the resume line that matters most for the role and ask for a specific example. Then ask the follow-up you wrote for a thin answer, and note their words rather than your impression. "You list [skill]. Walk me through the last time you used it at work. Which part was yours?"
- Minutes 14 to 18: motivation, then their questions Ask why this role and what would make them turn it down. Then hand the time over. Their questions show whether they read the posting. "What made you apply for this one? And what would you like to know about the team?"
- Minutes 18 to 20: close, score, then tell them Say when they will hear back. Fill the questionnaire in before the next call starts, with a quote against each criterion. Give every candidate a decision, including the rejections, inside 48 hours. "Thanks for your time. You will hear from me by [day], whichever way it goes."
A pre screening questionnaire you can copy
The gates and the scored criteria on one form. Send it ahead of the call or fill it in during, then keep it as the record of why the decision went the way it did.
ROLE: [title] REQ: [id] CANDIDATE REF: [id] DATE: [date]
SECTION A. GATES (any No ends the screen)
A1 Authorised to work in [country] Yes / No
A2 Will need sponsorship now or in future Yes / No
A3 Holds [licence or certification the role requires] Yes / No
A4 Can work [location, shift pattern or travel requirement] Yes / No
A5 Published range of [range] works for them Yes / No
SECTION B. SCORED (1, 3 or 5; weights total 100)
B1 Evidence of [core requirement] weight 35 score __
1 names it. 3 one worked example. 5 an example plus a decision owned.
B2 Scope at the level this role needs weight 25 score __
1 no overlap. 3 adjacent. 5 has run this size before and names what broke.
B3 Motivation for this role in particular weight 25 score __
1 generic. 3 tied to the work. 5 tied to this team or product.
B4 Delivery in the last 3 months weight 15 score __
1 nothing recent. 3 one output. 5 an output plus the blocker.
SECTION C. EVIDENCE (one quote in their words per scored line)
B1: "..." B2: "..." B3: "..." B4: "..."
SECTION D. DECISION
Advance / Hold / Reject Reason in one line: ______________________
Adjustment offered: Yes / No Candidate told on: [date]
Every screening question is a selection procedure
The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures define a selection procedure as any measure, combination of measures, or procedure used as a basis for any employment decision. The definition reaches the full range of assessment techniques, through informal or casual interviews and unscored application forms. So a knockout question is not an administrative convenience. It is a selection procedure.
Under those guidelines, a procedure with adverse impact is considered discriminatory unless it has been validated in accordance with them, or the guidelines' own section 6 is satisfied. The EEOC states that Title VII also prohibits neutral tests or selection procedures that disproportionately exclude people by race, colour, religion, sex or national origin where they are not job-related and consistent with business necessity.
The 80 percent rule: a selection rate for any race, sex or ethnic group below four-fifths of the rate for the highest group is generally regarded by federal enforcement agencies as evidence of adverse impact. The EEOC notes that establishing it ordinarily requires statistical analysis.
Screening questions not to ask in the US, and what to ask instead
The US basics from the EEOC's own guidance, read on 4 October 2026. This is not legal advice, and state and city laws add more.
| Do not ask | Why it is a risk | Ask this instead |
|---|---|---|
| How old are you? When did you finish school? | Federal age discrimination law protects people aged 40 or older | Only if the law sets a minimum age for the role: do you meet it? |
| Are you a US citizen? Where were you born? | The EEOC says most employers should not ask about citizenship before an offer | Are you legally authorised to work in the US, and will you need sponsorship? |
| Are you married? Do you have or plan to have children? | The EEOC lists pregnancy, marital status, children and childcare questions as possible evidence of intent to discriminate | This role works [schedule]. Can you meet it? |
| Which religion are you? Which holidays do you observe? | The EEOC tells employers to avoid questions about place of worship, days of worship and religious holidays | The role needs cover on [days]. Can you work those? |
| Do you have a disability or any health conditions? | The ADA bars disability and medical questions before a job offer | Can you perform these duties, with or without reasonable accommodation? |
| Does anyone in your family have health problems? | Family medical history is genetic information, and GINA bars employers from requesting it | Nothing. No version of this belongs in a screen |
| Have you ever been arrested? | The EEOC's position is that an arrest does not establish that criminal conduct occurred | Check your state and city rules before asking anything about convictions |
| What do you earn now? | Some states and cities ban salary history questions outright | What pay are you looking for in your next role? |
Race questions follow the same logic: the EEOC says not to request information that discloses race without a legitimate business need.
Good screening questions, and the ones that create risk
Do
- Can you perform the functions of this job, with or without reasonable accommodation?
- State the physical requirements of the role, then ask whether the candidate can meet them
- Ask about attendance requirements and how many days they were absent from their last job
- Keep what you ask limited to what is essential to decide whether they are qualified
Do not
- Anything likely to elicit information about a disability. That is the test a pre-offer question fails
- Pre-offer questions about disability, which the EEOC says are explicitly prohibited
- Asking on an application or in an interview whether they will need an accommodation
- Asking specifically about sick days, which reaches at impairment rather than attendance
What a follow-up looks like when a machine asks it
A two-way AI interview in the browser, probing the answer it just heard. You can sit through one at /try-interview.
A questionnaire collects an answer. It cannot notice that the answer skipped the decision and ask again. On The Cognitive the screen is a live, two-way AI video interview of 10 or 20 minutes. The invitation tells candidates the interview is run by AI, and each follow-up is chosen from what they just said.
Where the rules change: automated tools and local law
New York City's Local Law 144 prohibits employers and employment agencies from using an automated employment decision tool unless it has had a bias audit within one year of use, requires information about that audit to be publicly available, and requires candidates to be notified 10 business days before the tool is used. Other jurisdictions set their own rules, so check the one you are hiring in.
The Justice Department's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section enforces bans on citizenship status and national origin discrimination in hiring, and on unfair documentary practices during employment eligibility verification. Pay transparency and salary history rules differ by state and city and keep changing, so confirm the local rule before a pay question goes into a screen.
Asking the questions: 5 ways, and what each one cannot do
Screening questions for interview use are only as good as the second question. Cut the format choice on that axis and the picture changes.
| Format | Can it follow up? | Scales to hundreds? | Where it fails |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recruiter phone screen interview | Yes, if the recruiter hears the gap | No, one at a time | The follow-up depends on who ran the call and how many they had already run that day |
| Live video call | Yes, same as a call | No, one at a time | Scheduling becomes the bottleneck, and strong candidates take another offer while waiting |
| One-way recorded video | No, the prompts are fixed | Yes | A thin answer stays thin, and candidates drop out rather than talk to a countdown |
| Written questionnaire or chatbot | No, it collects what it asked for | Yes | Rewards whoever guesses the expected answer, and cannot test a single claim on the form |
| Live AI video interview | Yes, chosen from each answer | Yes | Needs criteria agreed in advance, and notice rules apply where automated tools are regulated |
Follow-up is the whole value of the stage. A format that cannot probe is a form.
The output is a scorecard, not a memory
Every criterion scored 1 to 5, with overall written feedback, the transcript and the recording.
The questionnaire above is the paper version of this. After an interview on The Cognitive you get a recording, a transcript and a scorecard. A person still makes the decision, with the evidence in front of them.
Audit your own screening questions
Run this over the set you already use. It is the difference between a screen you can explain and one you cannot.
- Every knockout is job-related, and you can say why in one sentence
- No question touches disability, health or medical history before an offer
- An adjustment was offered up front, before anyone had to ask for one
- Work authorisation is asked in the same words of every candidate
- Each scored criterion has a follow-up written for the thin answer
- Every candidate has a record: 1 to 5 per criterion, overall written feedback, transcript and recording
- Everyone rejected at this stage was actually told
Build your screen, free
Knockout question generator · Screening criteria builder · Interview question generator · Rubric generator · Interview kit · AI resume screening software
Frequently asked questions
What are screening questions?
Screening questions are the short set asked after the resume screen and before the hiring manager round, usually by a recruiter. They settle 4 things: a hard requirement, one piece of real evidence, motivation for this role specifically, and logistics such as pay, notice and location. A few are knockouts with one disqualifying answer. The rest are graded judgements.
What are good screening questions?
Good screening questions are job-related, answerable only by someone who has actually done the work, and paired with a follow-up for when the first answer is vague. Avoid anything nobody answers no to, such as asking whether someone is comfortable in a fast-moving environment. The bank above gives 10 you can use directly.
What is the difference between a knockout question and a screening question?
A knockout question has one disqualifying answer and ends the process automatically. A screening question is scored on a scale and needs judgement. The decision rule is simple: if a strong candidate could answer no and still do the job well, it is not a knockout. Years of experience and degree questions usually fail that test.
How many knockout questions should you use?
As few as are genuinely binary, which in practice is usually 3 to 5. Each one rejects people before a human ever looks at them, so each one has to be a requirement the role legally or operationally cannot do without. Work authorisation, a required licence and a fixed shift pattern qualify. Most other things do not.
What questions are asked in a pre-screening interview?
Pre screening questions fall into 4 groups: the hard requirements, one piece of evidence that a core skill is real, motivation for this role rather than any role, and logistics such as pay range, notice period and location. The bank on this page covers all 4. For how the stage itself is run, see our pre-screening interview guide.
What questions do recruiters ask in a phone screen?
Recruiters ask about availability and start date, location or shift fit, pay expectations, why the candidate applied, and one or two checks on the experience the role depends on. Most also run 3 to 5 knockout questions, such as work authorisation or a required licence. The phone screen script above puts them in order across 20 minutes.
How long should a phone screen be?
Twenty minutes is enough for most phone screens if the knockouts and pay come first. That leaves about 8 minutes to test one or two claims and a few for the candidate's own questions. A live AI screen on The Cognitive runs 10 or 20 minutes, set per role.
What is a pre-screening questionnaire?
A pre screening questionnaire is a written form covering the yes or no gates and the scored criteria for a role, completed before or during the screen. Some teams call it a prescreen questionnaire or an employee screening questionnaire. The template on this page has both sections plus a place for the quote behind each score.
What screening questions are illegal to ask?
The EEOC says pre-offer inquiries about disability are explicitly prohibited, and that an employer may not ask on an application or in an interview whether someone will need a reasonable accommodation. The test is whether a question is likely to elicit information about a disability. Information you request should be limited to what is essential to decide whether someone is qualified. Local rules add more.
Can AI ask screening questions?
Yes. The Cognitive runs the screen as a live, two-way AI video interview of 10 or 20 minutes, and the invitation tells candidates it is run by AI. The rubric stays fixed for the role while follow-ups come from each answer. Every criterion is scored 1 to 5 and nothing is rejected automatically. Where automated hiring tools are regulated, such as under New York City's Local Law 144, check the notice and audit rules first.
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