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The ingredients

Interview questions to ask candidates

A question library for the person running the interview: 109 vetted, competency-based interview questions to ask candidates, organized by the competency each one tests. Every question is a full recipe card: why it works, the follow-up probes to ask next, what a good answer looks like, and the red flags to listen for. All of it is free to read, no account required.

Search and filter below, or start from the competency pages if you already know what the role needs. Not sure yet? Plan the interview and it will work out what the role needs.

Below the library: how to use it, what is in a card, and answers to common questions.

109 of 109 questions

How to use this library

Start from the competency, not the question

A good interview is not a collection of favorite questions. It covers four to six competencies, chosen for what the job actually turns on, with each question written to test exactly one of them. That is what competency-based interview questions are: requests for evidence of one specific capability, usually a real example from the candidate's past work. Because each answer maps to a defined competency, the answers add up to a picture you can compare and score, not a pile of impressions.

This library is organized the same way: ten competencies, every question filed under the one it tests. If you know what the role needs, filter above or browse the competency pages. If you are not sure yet, plan the interview first: three short steps, no account, and you leave with a competency list for the role.

Ask every candidate the same questions

The most strategic interview questions to ask candidates are the ones you ask all of them. Comparability is what turns answers into evidence: when every candidate faces the same questions, the differences between answers tell you about the candidates. When every interview is improvised, the differences mostly tell you which conversation happened.

The research here is unusually clear. In the most recent large re-analysis of selection methods, structured interviews came out as the single best predictor of job performance, roughly twice as predictive as unstructured ones (.42 versus .19). Fix your question set before the first interview, keep it identical across candidates, and score every answer the same way. Why structured interviews win makes the full case.

Decide what a good answer sounds like before you ask

An interview question bank saves you writing time, but a bank of questions cannot score anybody. The moment that decides an interview is not when the question gets asked, it is when the answer gets judged. A judgment made in the room, against no criteria, drifts toward confidence, fluency, and likability, which is how the best talker gets hired instead of the best candidate.

So every card in this library commits to criteria in advance: what a good answer looks like, and the red flags that sound impressive but are not. Read them before the interview, not after it. The follow-up probes are pre-written for the same reason: first answers are usually the rehearsed ones, and the probe is where the evidence lives.

What is in a question card

Every question here ships as a full card with four fixed parts. Why this works is the design reasoning: what the question actually tests, and why it is hard to answer with a script. Follow-up probes are the questions to ask after the first answer, where the rehearsed material runs out. What good looks like and red flags are the scoring anchors, decided before the interview so the judgment is not invented in the room.

A question without those parts is just a sentence with a question mark at the end. The parts are what make it an ingredient you can build an interview from. Here is one card from the library, exactly as you will find it on its own page:

communication

Tell me about a mistake you made because you didn't really listen to what someone was telling you. What did you miss?

Why this works

Listening is the half of communication candidates never expect to be asked about, so there's no script. The honest version shows what makes them stop hearing — being the expert, being in a hurry, disliking the messenger — and whether they've built any defense against it since.

Follow-up probes

  • What was the person actually trying to tell you?
  • Why didn't it get through — what were you doing instead?
  • What tells you today that you're not really listening?

What good looks like

The missed message stated in the other person's terms, a named cause rather than "it was a busy week", real consequences owned, and a concrete habit — repeating back, slowing down — in place since.

Red flags

The miss is pinned on how badly the other person explained it, the consequence is glossed over, or "it taught me to listen" arrives with nothing specific to show for it.

Card page · add to recipe

Common questions from hiring managers

What interview questions should I ask candidates?
Ask behavioral and situational questions mapped to the four to six competencies the role depends on, and ask the same set of every candidate. Start from what the job turns on rather than from a list of favorites; this library is organized by competency to make that selection fast.
What are competency-based interview questions?
Questions written to gather evidence of one specific capability, such as leadership or problem solving, usually by asking for a real example from the candidate's past work. Because each question maps to a defined competency, answers can be scored against criteria instead of gut feel. All 109 questions here are competency-based.
How many questions should an interview include?
Plan for four to six competencies and one or two questions per competency; in a 45 to 60 minute interview that is deliberate, not thin. Fewer questions asked with good follow-up probes beat a long list asked shallowly, because depth is where the evidence is.
Can I use these questions for any role?
Yes. The library tests role-agnostic competencies, such as communication and adaptability, that matter across jobs, and most cards work at any seniority. Pick the competencies your role actually turns on; the interview planner works them out in three short steps, no account needed.
What makes a good interview question?
It tests one competency, asks for a specific real example rather than an opinion or a hypothetical, is hard to answer with a rehearsed script, and comes with scoring criteria decided in advance. Every card here adds follow-up probes, because the first answer is usually the rehearsed one.
Do I need an account to use these questions?
No. All 109 question cards are free to read in full, with no account and no paywall. An account is only needed to save questions into an interview template you can print, share, and reuse across candidates.

Ready to build the interview?

Plan the interview and three short steps will work out which competencies your role needs, no account required. Or subscribe and get new vetted questions and interview guides as we publish them.