Questions to Ask in an Interview as an Employer

A question is only useful if the answer helps you decide. Most weak interviews are not short on questions; they are short on questions that separate a strong candidate from a weak one. Before you add a question to your list, check it against five tests.

• It is job-related: you can name the skill or behavior it checks, and that skill matters in the role.
• It is open: it cannot be answered with yes or no, and it invites a story or an explanation.
• It asks for evidence: what the candidate did, decided or learned, not what they believe in general.
• It is consistent: every candidate for the role gets the same question, so answers can be compared fairly.
• It is scorable: you know in advance what a strong, average and weak answer looks like.

Start with questions that check whether the candidate can do the core work. These are the questions to ask in an interview for almost any role, adjusted with the details of the job.

Behavioral questions ask about real past situations, usually starting with "Tell me about a time". They work because past behavior in a similar situation is a reasonable guide to future behavior. Push for specifics: what was the situation, what did they do themselves, and what happened as a result.

• Tell me about a time you had to deliver work with a deadline that moved earlier. What did you cut, and how did you decide?
• Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager. How did you raise it, and what was the outcome?
• Tell me about a mistake you made at work that affected someone else. What did you do next?
• Tell me about a time you had to learn something new quickly to get a job done.
• Tell me about a difficult customer, client or colleague you dealt with. What did you say?
• Tell me about a time you noticed a problem nobody had asked you to fix.

Situational questions describe a realistic problem from the job and ask what the candidate would do. They are useful for early-career candidates who have less experience to draw on, and for checking judgment in situations your team actually faces.

• What would you do if two senior people gave you conflicting instructions on the same task?
• What would you do if you realized, the day before a deadline, that you could not finish on time?
• What would you do if a customer asked for something that breaks a company policy?
• What would you do if you found a mistake in work a colleague had already sent out?
• What would you do in your first two weeks in this role?
• What would you do if you had three urgent requests and time for only one?

Write the situations from real events in the role. A scenario your team handled last month will separate candidates better than a generic one, and you already know what a good response looked like.

Unique interview questions get past rehearsed answers because candidates have not practiced them. The best ones are still tied to the job; they just come at it from an angle the candidate did not expect.

Fun questions to ask in an interview can relax a nervous candidate and show personality, especially in roles where rapport matters, such as sales, hospitality and customer service. Keep them light, keep them short, and do not score them the way you score the core questions.

• What is the best piece of advice you have been given at work?
• What is something you are learning outside work at the moment?
• If you could automate one task you do today, which one would it be?
• What is the most useful thing a customer or colleague ever taught you?
• What would your friends say you are surprisingly good at?
• What is a small thing that makes a workday good for you?

The hardest interview questions are the ones that make a candidate think in real time about real work. Hard does not mean tricky: a fair hard question has a reasonable answer that a strong candidate can reach.

• Here is a real problem we had last quarter. Talk me through how you would approach it.
• What is a decision you made that you would make differently now, and why?
• If we spoke to someone who did not enjoy working with you, what would they say?
• What is the weakest part of your application for this role?
• Pick a result you are proud of. How do you know it was your work that made the difference?

Give the candidate a moment to think and tell them that pausing is fine. You are testing reasoning, not speed of recall.

Some of the worst interview questions are not just weak, they can expose you to discrimination claims. In the United States, federal law enforced by the EEOC protects candidates on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, age (40 and over), disability and genetic information. Questions that touch on these, directly or indirectly, should stay out of the interview.

Also drop questions that produce little signal: brainteasers with no link to the work, "What is your greatest weakness?" in its standard form (it invites a rehearsed answer), and yes or no questions that the candidate can pass by guessing what you want to hear.

1. 1

   Pick 5 to 8 core questions per role

   Choose the questions that check the skills the job depends on, and ask them of every candidate in the same order.

2. 2

   Write what a good answer contains

   For each question, list two or three things a strong answer includes, such as a specific example, their own actions and a measurable result.

3. 3

   Score on a simple scale

   Use 1 to 5 for each question, with a short note on why. Score right after each answer, not at the end of the day.

4. 4

   Compare on the scores, then discuss

   Each interviewer scores independently before the team talks, so the loudest opinion does not set the result.

For the first round, many teams now ask the same questions in a one-way video interview, so every candidate answers identical prompts on their own time and each answer is scored against the same rubric. A screening tool such as springhire can run that step, score the answers with AI against the rubric you set, and rank candidates before anyone books a live interview.

Fewer, deeper questions beat a long list. A good follow-up such as "What did you do next?" or "How did you know it worked?" often tells you more than a new question.