Interview Questions to Ask Candidates: 40 Questions That Reveal How People Work

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Good interview questions to ask candidates ask for real examples of what someone has already done, tied to the work they will actually do in the role. Opinions, hypotheticals and trick questions tell you how well someone interviews. Past behaviour, probed properly, tells you how they work.

Why most interview questions don't tell you much

• Closed questions. "Are you a hard worker?" has one answer, and every candidate knows it.
• Fortune-teller questions. "What would you do if a client pushed back?" gets you a textbook answer, not evidence of what they actually do.
• Leading questions. "You're comfortable with remote work, right?" hands the candidate the answer you want to hear.
• Brain teasers. "How many golf balls fit in a plane?" makes the interviewer feel clever and predicts nothing about the job.
• Heroic-ending questions. "When have you exceeded expectations?" invites a polished success story with all the hard parts edited out.
• Personal questions. Age, nationality, religion, marital status and children are off limits. Check the legal limits in your own country.

How to write strategic interview questions

Behavioural interviewing rests on a simple idea: how someone handled real situations in the past is the best guide to how they will handle them in your team.

1. Start with the role, not a question bank. List the 3–5 outcomes this person must deliver in their first year. Every question should trace back to one of them.
2. Pick the competencies and traits. Choose 4–6, such as ownership, prioritisation, stakeholder management or coachability. More than that and you'll assess none of them well.
3. Use one formula. "Can you tell me about a time when you [a real challenge from this role]?" Don't name the competency. Let it emerge from the story.
4. Probe for the full story. Use STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result), a format widely credited to Development Dimensions International (DDI), or the shorter CAR (Context, Action, Result) for quick screens. If a part is missing, ask for it.
5. Split the questions across the panel. Give each interviewer different competencies, so you don't hear the same story four times.
6. Leave time, then score. Keep 5 minutes for their questions and sell the job only after you've qualified them. Then every interviewer uses the same scorecard and logs a score and rationale within a few minutes of finishing, before talking to anyone else.

12 strategic interview questions by competency

8 good questions about motivation and fit

1. "Tell me about a project where you felt fully engaged. What made it enjoyable?"
2. "If you had a free day at work to pursue any project, what would you choose?"
3. "What achievement are you most proud of, and why that one?"
4. "What kind of work drains you?"
5. "Where do you want to be in three years? What do you want to have achieved?"
6. "Tell me about the best manager you've had. What did they do?"
7. "Why this role, and why now?"
8. "What would make you leave a job within six months?"

Be honest about what the job offers. If they want to manage a team in three years and that isn't possible here, tell them now. Unselling a role to the wrong person saves you both a painful exit.

8 interview questions to ask candidates for manager roles

1. "Tell me about someone you hired who didn't work out. What did you learn?"
2. "Tell me about the last difficult conversation you had with someone in your team."
3. "Tell me about a time you helped someone in your team get promoted."
4. "Tell me about a decision you made that your team disagreed with."
5. "How did you find out what motivates each person in your last team?"
6. "Tell me about a time you had to deliver a message from above that you didn't agree with."
7. "Tell me about a task you delegated that went wrong."
8. "What do you do in your first month with a new team?"

6 second interview questions

Use the second round to fill gaps and test the stories from round one.

1. "Last time you mentioned [project]. Who else would describe it differently, and how?"
2. "What has stayed with you since our first conversation?"
3. "Here's a real problem we're facing. How would you start, and what would you ask first?"
4. "What would your first 90 days look like in this role?"
5. "What concerns do you have about this role or this team?"
6. "What would your last manager say you need to work on?"

6 probing follow-ups

The first answer opens the door. The truth is in the follow-up.

1. "Can you set the scene for me?"
2. "What was your role, specifically?"
3. "What did you do, rather than the team?"
4. "What happened in the end?"
5. "What was the hardest part?"
6. "What would you do differently now?"

Common mistakes

• Winging it. Without prepared questions, interviewers drift towards chat, and you end up hiring the most likeable candidate.
• Accepting "we" answers. "We launched the product" tells you about the team. Keep asking what they did.
• Selling too early. Pitching the job in the first ten minutes makes candidates tell you what you want to hear.
• Being swayed by one great story. Look for patterns across several questions, not one polished highlight.
• Comparing notes before scoring. The most senior voice in the room becomes everyone's opinion. Score independently first.

Tools that work well with this one

• Skills matrix templateFind the gaps in your team before you write the job spec.
• Ability vs WillSkills can be taught. Test for will in the interview.
• Interview scorecard templateScore every answer against the same criteria.
• Exit interview questionsLearn why people leave, and hire to fix it.

FAQs

What are good interview questions to ask candidates?

Questions that ask for a specific past example linked to the role, such as "Tell me about a time you had more work than time. How did you decide what to drop?" Follow up until you know the situation, what they personally did and the result.

What are strategic interview questions?

Questions chosen deliberately to test the few competencies that matter most for the role, with each one mapped to a line on your scorecard. They are planned before the interview, not improvised during it.

How many questions should you ask in an interview?

For a 45-minute interview, three or four behavioural questions with proper follow-up is usually enough. Depth beats coverage, and splitting competencies across a panel lets you cover more ground in total.

What is the STAR method in interviews?

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Interviewers use it to check that an answer is a complete, real example. If one part is missing, ask a short follow-up such as "What did you do?" or "What happened in the end?"

What questions should you avoid asking candidates?

Avoid personal questions about age, nationality, religion, marital status or children, anything that seeks a previous employer's confidential information, brain teasers, closed yes/no questions and leading questions. Check the employment law in your own country.