Screening questions that actually decide something

Screening questions are the short set a recruiter asks before a hiring manager spends time on a candidate. A few are knockouts with one disqualifying answer. The rest need judgement, so each one needs a follow-up ready for when the first answer comes back thin.

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.

Knockout question or judgement call?

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

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

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?

The knockout set, and why it should be short

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

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.

Good screening questions, and the ones that create risk

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 then ask again. On The Cognitive the interview is a live two-way video conversation, and the follow-up question is chosen from what the candidate actually said.

How to run the screen once the questions are written

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.
Open by telling 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. Tell me now if any part of the format does not work."
Clear the knockouts and logistics in the first third 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.
Score while it is fresh, then tell them 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.

A pre screening questionnaire you can copy

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]

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

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

The output is a scorecard, not a memory

Every criterion scored, with the evidence behind the rating kept next to it.

The questionnaire above is the paper version of this. After an interview on The Cognitive you get a recording, a transcript with speaker labels and timestamps, and a scorecard. A person still makes the decision, with the evidence in front of them.

Audit your own screening questions

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 scored record with a quote behind each rating
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

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 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?

A questionnaire or chatbot collects answers but cannot probe them. A live AI video interview holds a two-way conversation and picks its follow-up from what the candidate just said, while the rubric stays fixed for the role. Where automated hiring tools are regulated, such as under New York City's Local Law 144, notice and bias audit requirements apply, so check the jurisdiction first.

Explore: Pre-screening interview · What is a screening interview? · Interview questions to ask candidates · Phone screen interview