How do I screen Technical Lead candidates before interviewing?

Send every applicant one link that carries 4 skills tests (Software Engineering Management, Software Engineer, Algorithms for Software Engineering, DevOps), 2 personality inventories and 5 one-way video questions. springhire scores everything automatically and ranks the candidates, so you interview the top few. The free plan covers 10 candidates a month.

How long does the Technical Lead screening take a candidate?

About 40 minutes for the tests, plus 10 to 15 minutes for the video questions. Candidates complete it on their own time, on any device.

What should a Technical Lead job description include?

A short brief, key responsibilities, must-have and nice-to-have skills and the requirements. The JD generator writes one for this role in a minute.

Which interview questions work best for a Technical Lead?

Questions that ask for a specific past example and a walkthrough of how the candidate thinks. This page lists 8 with sample answers, and the full bank has more.

Yes. The free plan includes every screening tool with 10 candidate credits a month and no card. Paid plans start at $39 a month.

Engineering

How to hire a Technical Lead

What the role does, the job description, the interview questions, and the 40-minute screening pack that tells you who can do the job before you book a single interview.

Screen Technical Lead candidates free See the pack

The role

What a Technical Lead does

A Technical Lead sits in the Engineering function. The sections below give you the job description, the interview questions and the screening pack for the role.

Screen before you interview

The Technical Lead screening pack

Engineering leadership plus staying technical: code, algorithms and delivery. Every applicant gets one link. You get one ranked report.

Skills tests · 40 minutes total

IT & securitySoftware Engineering Management Test10 min · 20 questions · IntermediateThe Software Engineering Management Test helps hiring teams assess candidates for people and delivery leadership in engineering. It is suited to hiring for engineering manager and team lead roles where planning, code quality decisions and team development all affect results.IT & securitySoftware Engineer Test10 min · 20 questions · IntermediateThe Software Engineer Test is a 10-minute pre-employment assessment for hiring teams screening intermediate engineering candidates. It checks practical knowledge in programming fundamentals, data structures and debugging, helping you spot applicants who can reason through common development tasks.IT & securityAlgorithms for Software Engineering Test10 min · 20 questions · IntermediateThe Algorithms for Software Engineering Test is an intermediate screening for hiring teams who need to evaluate practical algorithm knowledge. It helps identify candidates who can reason about complexity, choose efficient search and sort approaches, and make sound implementation trade-offs.IT & securityDevOps Test10 min · 20 questions · IntermediateThe DevOps Test is a 10-minute screening assessment for hiring teams recruiting intermediate DevOps talent. It helps identify candidates who can reason through CI/CD, infrastructure as code and observability decisions before you move them into interviews.

Personality inventories

Big 5 (OCEAN) Personality TestThe Big 5 (OCEAN) Personality Test helps hiring teams understand how entry level candidates are likely to approach work, people and pressure. It measures five broad personality dimensions that can support decisions for roles where reliability, teamwork, adaptability and communication matter.DISC Personality TestThe DISC Personality Test helps hiring teams understand how candidates tend to communicate, respond to change and work with others. It is useful for entry level hiring when role success depends on pace, collaboration, follow-through and comfort with structure.

One-way video questions · answered on camera, scored by AI

1
How do you split your week between coding and leading?
2
Describe a technical decision you made that the team disagreed with.
3
How do you handle a strong engineer who is hard to work with?
4
Walk us through how you run code review.
5
How do you keep technical debt from swallowing the roadmap?

Send this pack to your applicantsFree plan, 10 candidates a month, no card.

Interview questions

Technical Lead interview questions

For the candidates who pass the pack. Each comes with a sample answer on the full page.

01
What made you move from senior engineer into a technical lead role?
02
Describe a team and project you led technically.
03
How do you balance hands-on coding with leadership responsibilities?
04
What kind of engineering culture do you try to build?
05
How do you run technical design reviews?
06
How do you manage technical debt on your team?
07
How do you ensure code quality across a team?
08
How do you estimate and plan delivery for your team?

All Technical Lead interview questions with answers

Frequently asked questions

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