awesome-interview-questions

Table of context

• Analytical skills
• Behavioral
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking
• Cultural fit
• Emotional Intelligence
• Exit
• Leadership skills
• Manager
• Personality
• Phone
• Phone screen
• Problem-solving
• Reference check
• Team player
• Technical

Analytical skills

• Describe a project or situation where you successfully demonstrated your analytical abilities.
• When you are faced with a problem, what do you do? Describe the steps in your problem-solving approach.
• Give me an example of a situation when you took a risk to achieve a goal. What was the outcome?
• In your experience, would you say that developing and using a detailed procedure was always necessary for your job?
• Imagine a situation in which your one of your colleagues wants to solve a problem in a certain way, but the other colleague has a totally different approach in mind. They come to you asking for a help in deciding on the right approach. What do you do?
• How do you compare and weigh pros and cons before making a decision?

Behavioral

• Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult client. How did you handle that situation?
• Give me an example of a time when you did not meet your supervisor’s expectation. What happened and how did you react?
• Tell me about a time when you were faced with extremely tight deadlines. How did you handle that?
• Give me an example of a time when you showed initiative and took the lead.
• Give me an example of a major mistake you made. How did that happen? How did you proceed with it?
• Have you ever had a subordinate whose work was usually insufficient? How did you handle that situation? What happened? What was the outcome?
• We all make mistakes. Tell me about a situation at work you wish you’d handled differently.
• Give me an example of a situation when you had to work on multiple projects simultaneously. How did you prioritize?

Communication skills

• How would you explain a complex technical problem to someone without technical expertise, who doesn't understand technical terminology? Use the term [insert appropriate term] as an example.
• Please name five things about the communication within an organization that must be present so you can give your best and work most effectively?
• If you had to choose between being a good listener or a good communicator, what would be your choice? Please explain your answer.
• Tell me about the time you had to give a presentation to a group of people with no preparation? What was the main difficulty you experienced? How did you handle that?
• Describe a situation when team members on a project you were working on disagreed with your ideas. What did you do?
• Describe a situation where you needed to work with a client or customer who was very different from you. How was that for you? How did you approach that situation?
• What is a constructive criticism for you? What kind of critique would help you improve and do a better job next time?
• How do you prefer to communicate? In person? Over the phone? Via email or messages? Please explain your preferred choice.
• What would you do if you there was a breakdown in communication at work?
• Have you ever faced some obstacles or difficulties in communicating your ideas to a manager? What happened? How did you handle that?
• Who do you have the best communication with?
• Imagine having a colleague you don’t get along with, but you need his/her help on a project you are responsible for. How would you handle this situation? Would you approach this colleague and ask for help? How would you do it? Would you try to get help in some other way?

Critical thinking

• How quickly do you make decisions? How do you do it? Do you prefer thinking things through carefully before making a decision?
• What was the most difficult decision you had to make at work? What was it about? What was the outcome?
• Give me an example of a situation when your colleague presented you a new idea that was odd or unusual. What did you do?
• Give me an example of a time you discovered that your boss made a mistake. What did you do? What was the outcome?
• Please describe a situation in which you had to make a critical choice based on incomplete data. How did you do it?

Cultural fit

• At your previous job - who did you have the most difficult time communicating with and why? What did you do to improve the relationship?
• Tell me about the time you were given less than favorable feedback. How did you handle it?
• What’s the biggest challenge you faced working in a team environment? How did you handle it?
• How do you motivate others to do their best work?
• How would you describe the culture at previous companies you’ve worked at? DEEPER: Did you enjoy working in that company culture? What does a healthy work culture mean to you?
• What kind of situation can create stress for you and, when that happens, what do you do to cope?
• What role are you are most likely to play in a team? Give an example.
• What gets you excited about coming to work?
• How would you describe our company culture?
• Which of our company’s core values do you most/least identify with?
• Tell me about a time you solved a problem at work. What was the issue, and how did you approach it?
• How do you like to be managed? DEEPER: Tell me about a disagreement you had with your last manager. What was the issue, and how did you approach the situation?
• How would you describe the culture at previous companies you’ve worked at?
• How do you feel when someone interrupts you while you are in the middle of an important task?
• Tell me about the time you felt you were misunderstood at work in trying to convey something. What happened? How did you handle it?
• When was the last time you asked for help at your job? Describe the situation. How did you feel about asking for help?
• When was a time you “stopped and helped out” even though it wasn’t your responsibility?
• What makes you lose your cool/sets you off? Tell me about the last time it happened.
• Describe the type of work environment in which you can really give your best and be most productive.
• Did you become a really good friend with any of your colleagues at your previous (or current) workplace? What do you think about having close relationships with your coworkers? Is this a good or a bad practice?
• Describe a situation where your colleagues disagreed with your ideas. What did you do?
• Do you prefer working alone or as part of a team? Please explain your answer.
• What is your opinion about taking work home with you? Do you usually take your work home? Is it good practice in your opinion?
• Name three things that you like the most about our company.
• Describe a challenging situation you have faced recently at work, and how you tackled it.
• What are you passionate about?
• What does your ideal work day look like?
• What are, in your opinion, the key ingredients in maintaining successful business relationships?
• Tell me about the most stressful situation you faced at work. What happened? How did you handle it?

Emotional Intelligence

• Give a specific example of a time when you had to address an angry customer. What was the problem and what was the outcome?
• Describe a situation when you were leading a team on a project. What did you do to motivate your colleagues to give their best?
• Give an example of a time when you made a mistake because you did not listen carefully to what your colleague had to say.
• What motivates you to do your work? What makes you happy at work?
• People react differently when job demands keep changing repeatedly. Have you ever been in a similar situation? How did you react?
• Tell me about a time you received negative feedback from your boss. How did that make you feel?
• Is it more important to focus on results and tasks or people and emotions? Explain your answer.
• Tell me about a time you made a mistake at work. What happened? How did you handle it?

Exit

• What prompted you to start looking for another job?
• What was the biggest factor that led you to accept this new job?
• How does your role at our company compare to the new job role you’ve accepted?
• What did you like most about your job?
• What did you dislike the most about your job?
• Did you have the tools and resources you needed to effectively do your job?
• Were you happy with your benefits, perks and other incentives?
• Do you think our company offers competitive compensation for your position?
• Do you believe your work was adequately recognized and appreciated?
• What was your relationship with your manager like?
• How enjoyable was to work with your team members?
• How would you describe your working relationship with your colleagues?
• Do you think you had enough opportunities for skill development and promotion in this company?
• How would you describe our company culture?
• What could be done to make this company a better place to work?
• Would you recommend our company to your friend as a great place to work? Why?
• Would you consider working with us again in the future?
• On a scale 1 to 10, how would you rate your employee experience in our company?

Exit interview tips

• Choose a final set of exit interviews questions you will ask all your exiting employees.
• Print this final list of exit interview questions and take it with you to the interview.
• Conduct one-on-one interviews with your exiting employees in a private setting.
• Create a relaxed atmosphere and provide confidentiality reassurance to the leaving employee.
• Ask follow up questions when needed and take notes of the leaving employee’s responses.

Leadership skills

• According to your experience, what is the best and most effective way to motivate the members of a team you lead?
• What is the best part of being a team leader? And the worst? Please explain your answers.
• Have you ever had difficulty getting your team members to accept your lead? What was your approach? Did it work?
• What is more important to you, that your team members like you or that they get the job done?
• How do you measure your success as a leader?
• What motivates you to be a leader?
• Tell me about a time you had to deliver bad news to your team. How did you do it?
• Tell me about a time where there has been a disagreement within your team. What did you do?
• Name five characteristics you value the most in your team members.
• Give me an example of a time when you were leading a team and something went wrong. What happened? What did you learn?

Manager

• Please describe your management style in 3 words.
• What do you think is more important: Achieving your goals or being liked by your team?
• How long have you been a manager?
• How many people have you managed so far in your career?
• In your experience, what is the key to developing a good team?
• What would you do if a member of a team you lead would refuse to follow your instructions?
• Give me an example of a time when a person in your team was performing poorly. What did you do?
• What would you do if you have a project deadline set for tomorrow and your team informs you that they won’t be able to finish the job on time?
• What strategies do you use to motivate your team?
• As a manager, do you reward people for hard work or achieved results?
• Make a final list of a fixed set of interview questions for managers you will ask your candidates.
• Develop a rating system prior to interviewing your first candidate.
• Follow your list during the interview and ask all your managerial job candidates the same questions, preferably in the same order.
• Make sure you take notes of your candidates’ answers during the interview.
• After the interview, go through your notes and score each of your candidates’ answer.
• Finally, compare the top 3 candidates and select the best one.

Personality

• What was the best idea that you came up with in your career? How did you apply it?
• Are you the type of person who always looks at the "big picture" or are you more "detail oriented"?
• Describe a time when you came up with a creative solution to a challenging work-related situation?
• What was the most useful criticism you ever received?
• How do you handle stress and pressure at work?
• Give us three adjectives that describe you best.
• What do you dislike doing?
• How do you feel when someone interrupts you while you are in the middle of an important task?

Phone

• Reduced time to hire
• Reduced cost per hire
• Higher quality of candidates
• Testing candidates’ skills.
• Job position fit (qualifications, experience and work history)
• Motivation (desired career path and interests)
• Company culture fit (workplace preferences and knowledge about the company
• Salary preferences (expectations and current salary)
• Availability (face to face interview and start date if hired).
• How many years of experience do you have in [insert appropriate job position/industry]?
• Do you have a [insert appropriate must-have qualification, such as: certification, driver license, etc.]?
• Do you have experience using [X] software in any of your previous jobs?
• Are authorized/licensed to work in [X] area?
• What are you looking for in your next position?
• How did you find out about this job opening?
• What made you apply for this position?
• What excites you most about this position?
• Why are you leaving your current workplace?
• What motivated you to choose this career path?
• What type of workplace culture do you thrive in?
• Describe the type of work environment in which you can really give your best and be most productive.
• Describe your ideal working situation (work environment, hours, travel, and the like).
• What do you know about our company?
• Why do you want to work at our company instead of somewhere else?
• How much do you earn now?
• What are your salary expectations for this position?
• Are you willing to relocate for this job?
• The working schedule for this position is [insert appropriate days and hours]. Is that OK with you?
• If you were hired, how soon can you start?
• Are you willing to agree to have a drug test, a criminal and educational background check, references checks and other tests appropriate for this position?
• If we were to ask you in for a face to face interview, when would you be available?
• Would you like to ask me anything? / Do you have any questions?

Phone interview tips

• Choose up to 10 phone interview questions and adjust them to fit your hiring needs (job position and a company).
• Develop a rating system and create interview scorecards.
• Ask every candidate interviewing for a certain job position the same questions in the same order.
• Take notes of candidates answers!
• Score each of your candidates’ answers.
• Compare candidates’ scores to choose the top ones!

Phone screen

• How many years of experience do you have in [insert appropriate job position/industry]?
• Do you have a [insert appropriate must-have qualification, such as: certification, driver license, etc.]?
• Do you have experience using [X] software in any of your previous jobs?
• Are authorized/licensed to work in [X] area?
• What are you looking for in your next position?
• How did you find out about this job opening?
• What made you apply for this position?
• What excites you most about this position?
• Why are you leaving your current workplace?
• What motivated you to choose this career path?
• What type of workplace culture do you thrive in?
• Describe the type of work environment in which you can really give your best and be most productive.
• Describe your ideal working situation (work environment, hours, travel, and the like).
• What do you know about our company?
• Why do you want to work at our company instead of somewhere else?
• How much do you earn now?
• What are your salary expectations for this position?
• Are you willing to relocate for this job?
• The working schedule for this position is [insert appropriate days and hours]. Is that OK with you?
• If you were hired, how soon can you start?
• Are you willing to agree to have a drug test, a criminal and educational background check, references checks and other tests appropriate for this position?
• If we were to ask you in for a face to face interview, when would you be available?

Phone screen tips

• Make a list of the phone screen interview questions you want to ask your candidates.
• Develop a rating system for each question and create interview scorecards.
• Ask every candidate interviewing for a certain job position the same questions in the same order.
• Take notes of candidates answers!
• Score each of your candidates’ answers.
• Compare candidates’ scores to choose the top ones!

Problem-solving

• What was the most stressful situation you faced at work? How did you handle it?
• Describe a situation at work when you were faced with a problem you could not solve. What did you do?
• Are you the type of person who will always try to solve the problem on your own before asking for help?
• Describe a time when you used a creative solution to tackle some job-related problem.
• How do you cope when you face a challenge you’ve never previously experienced?
• Give us an example of a situation when you realized that you won’t be able to meet the set deadline. What did you do?
• How do you build a troubleshooting process?
• In your opinion, what makes you a great problem solver?
• What do you do in a situation when you cannot seem to find the right solution to a problem?
• When you are faced with an urgent problem, how do you react? Are you the type of person who jumps right into solving problem, or do you first carefully assess the situation?

Reference Check

• What was your working relationship with the *[candidate’s name] at the [company’s name]?
• When did [candidate’s name] work at your company?
• What was the [candidate’s name] job title?
• Please state the [candidate’s name] main job responsibilities and duties?
• How would you rate [candidate’s name] overall performance from a scale of 1 to 10?
• Why did [candidate’s name] leave your company?
• Would you rehire [candidate’s name]? Why?
• How did [candidate’s name] handle stressful situations? Please give specific examples.
• Do you think [candidate’s name] is a good fit for [job position your are looking to fill]?
• What was [candidate’s name] biggest accomplishment while working for your company?
• What skills do you think [candidate’s name] needs to develop to reach his/her full potential?
• What type of workplace culture do you think [candidate’s name] would thrive in?
• Is [candidate’s name] more productive as a solo or a team player according to your experience?
• How did [candidate’s name] get along with other team members, clients, business partners and managers?

Reference Check tips

• Ask your candidates for referee details
• Always get you candidates’ permission to contact their references
• Prepare the list of reference check interview questions to ask your candidates’ references
• Feel free to ask follow up questions when needed
• Choose the right person to interview - try to get a contact of your candidates’ former supervisor, not their best work buddy
• Provide a brief description of a role you are looking to fill and your company culture
• Pay attention to the reference’s tone of voice and how, not just what they say about your candidate.

Team Player

• Do you prefer working alone or as part of a team? Please explain your answer.
• Are you more productive when you work on your own or as a part of the team?
• What makes you a good team player?
• How do you deal with difficult people? Please provide an example.
• Do you have experience of leading a team? Tell me about it.
• Tell me about your best and worst experience of working in a team.
• Did you become a really good friend with any of your colleagues at your previous (or current) workplace? What do you think about having close relationships with your coworkers? Is this a good or bad practice?
• Tell me about a time where there has been a disagreement within your team. What did you do?
• Have you ever had difficulty getting your team members to accept your suggestion or an idea? What happened?
• What are the three most important characteristics of people you like to work with?
• Tell me a few pros and cons of working in a team.

Technical

• How many years of experience do you have in [specific programming language]?
• What are your technical certifications?
• Do you have experience using [X] software in any of your previous jobs?
• How do you stay up to date with the latest technological trends?
• What online resources do you use to help you do your job?
• Tell me about the biggest IT challenge you have faced in your career so far? How did you handle it?
• What are you looking for in your next position?
• How did you find out about this job opening?
• What made you apply for this position?
• What excites you most about this position?
• Why are you leaving your current workplace?
• What kind of tech projects do you work on in your spare time?
• What type of workplace culture do you thrive in?
• Do you prefer to work alone or on a team?
• Describe the type of work environment in which you can really give your best and be most productive.
• Describe your ideal working situation (work environment, hours, travel, and the like).
• What do you know about our company?
• Why do you want to work at our company instead of somewhere else?

Technical interview tips

• Make a list of the technical interview questions you want to ask your candidates.
• Develop a rating system for each question and create interview scorecards.
• Ask every candidate interviewing for a certain job position the same questions in the same order.
• Take notes of candidates answers!
• Score each of your candidates’ answers.
• Compare candidates’ scores to choose the top ones!