Build your questions from the skills you decided to look for, not from the job title. That difference decides whether you are testing the job or testing how well someone prepared for a familiar interview.
Start from the scorecard
Every question should trace back to something on your scorecard, and every skill you decided to test at interview needs at least two questions.
If a question does not match anything on the scorecard, it is there out of habit. Delete it, or add the skill it is really testing.
Two questions each matters. One question gives you a single answer that might have been rehearsed. The second is where the difference between practice and real experience shows up.
Three kinds of question
| Kind | Sounds like | Good for | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| About the past | "Tell me about a time you…" | Skills someone has a track record in | Heavily rehearsed. Rewards good storytellers |
| About a situation | "What would you do if…" | Judgement and priorities | Tells you what they say they would do |
| Doing the work | A small version of the real task | Whether they can actually do it | Costs time. Keep it under an hour |
The best interviews mix all three. Work samples predict best and cost the candidate most, so use one, keep it short, and make it look like the real job rather than a puzzle.
Using AI to build the list
This is a good use of AI, with two rules.
- Give it the skill and its score descriptions, not the job title. "Generate interview questions for a Senior Data Engineer" gives you the internet's average questions. Giving it your actual skill definition gives you questions about your job.
- Ask for follow-up questions too. Two or three per question, designed to tell apart someone who did the work from someone who was nearby when it happened. This is the most valuable part and the bit people forget to ask for.
Then edit. Generated questions lean generic, and occasionally include things you should not ask. Read every one before it goes in the list.
The follow-up questions are where interviews earn their keep
Good follow-ups ask for details only someone who was there would know:
- "What did you try first, and why did that not work?"
- "Who disagreed with you, and what was their argument?"
- "What would you do differently?"
- "What was the part you did personally, rather than the team?"
That last one is the most useful question in this kind of interviewing. Rehearsed answers are told in "we". The question forces a switch to "I", which is hard to fake convincingly.
Questions to drop
Some questions have been asked so often that the answer is a prepared performance. Greatest weakness. Where do you see yourself in five years. Why this company.
They mostly measure who had access to preparation — a mentor, a careers service, or time to practise.
Replace them with questions about the actual work, then follow up. "Walk me through the last thing you shipped that did not go to plan" cannot be prepared the same way, because the follow-ups depend on what they say.
Questions you must not ask
Anything about family plans, age, health, religion, nationality or relationships. In most countries these are unlawful, and everywhere they create problems you cannot defend.
This includes friendly small talk, which is almost always how these questions get asked. Tell every interviewer explicitly. Assuming it is obvious is why it keeps happening.
Download the question bank template · all templates
How many questions
Two questions and three follow-ups for each skill you test at interview. For five skills that is ten questions and thirty follow-ups — enough to vary between candidates without changing what you are measuring.