67 questions to ask interviewees (and questions to avoid)

As a hiring manager, the questions you ask in an interview shape every people decision that follows. Ask the wrong ones, and you risk a costly mis-hire — the cost of turnover can be as high as 150% of an employee’s annual salary. But the impact goes beyond the bottom line. When a team is constantly in flux, members can’t build the rapport they need to work well together, and effectiveness suffers across the board.

The right interview questions change that.

In this post, we break down the types of questions employers should ask candidates (with 67 examples) to get a clearer picture of their skills, character, and cultural fit. Use these to approach your next interview with more confidence and hire the right person the first time.

Key takeaways

• The questions you ask in an interview directly shape the quality of your hiring decisions.
• Different question types serve different purposes: behavioral questions reveal past patterns, skills-based questions test capability, and cultural fit questions assess whether someone will thrive in your environment.
• Understanding a candidate’s career goals and motivations helps you identify long-term fit, not just immediate ability.
• Asking consistent questions across every candidate reduces bias and makes it easier to compare responses objectively.
• Knowing which questions to avoid is just as important as knowing which ones to ask — some can expose your organization to legal risk.
• Behavioral data can tell you what to listen for before the interview even starts. When you understand a candidate’s natural drives and tendencies, you can tailor your questions to probe the areas most likely to predict success in the role.

67 interview questions to ask

So, what are some good questions for an interviewee to ask? The following 60 questions are separated into various types of interview questions, including behavioral, situational, and skill-based.

Behavioral questions

Behavioral questions, such as those generated by the Interview Builder in PI Hire, dig into what specific situations and problems the interviewee has dealt with in their previous professional positions. They’re designed to reveal a candidate’s soft skills. How do they handle stress, professional growth, and team building? 

This is key information, as how a prospective employee behaved in the past is indicative of how they’ll behave at your organization. What do they choose to share with you? Do they share qualities or temperament with other team members? Do they sound like someone who would communicate effectively and diplomatically, and balance the team? 

Sample behavioral questions for interviewees

1. Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult colleague. What did you do to resolve the situation? 
2. Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult client. How did you resolve the situation?
3. Have you ever delivered an assignment late? What steps did you take to ensure it didn’t happen again?
4. How do you handle criticism from supervisors or coworkers? 
5. What’s your opinion on one-on-one meetings? How often should they occur? 
6. Have you ever been given an assignment you didn’t understand? Give me an example of how you resolved the situation. Would you do anything differently? 
7. Tell me about a time you helped your team or organization overcome a challenge. How did you find a solution that worked for everyone? 
8. Tell me about a time a client or manager surprised you with an assignment you weren’t expecting. What steps did you take to move forward? 
9. Do you have any habits you’re working to improve? 
10. Tell me about a time you set a personal goal for yourself. What steps did you take to achieve it? 
11. Describe a challenge you faced in a previous role. How did you overcome that challenge, and what did you learn? 
12. Have you ever led a team or taken on a leadership role? 

Situational interview questions

Situational questions put the interviewee in hypothetical scenarios, and then ask how they would act. These are especially good questions for employees who need to be able to think on their feet and make quick decisions, such as in sales, customer service, and management. 

These questions provide insight into how the prospective employee is likely to respond to the challenges they’ll one day face on the job. 

Sample situational questions for employees 

1. If you were leading a project, how would you approach delegating tasks to your team? 
2. If you found out your manager was violating the company’s values, how would you respond?
3. How would you handle a situation where you disagreed with a manager’s decision?
4. How would you deal with a team member who wasn’t pulling their weight on a project?
5. If it were up to you, would you rather follow an established procedure or innovate a process yourself?
6. How would you handle a situation where an employee asks for a significant salary raise?
7. If you had a team member who was resistant to change, how would you help them adapt to new technologies? 
8. What would your first steps be for dealing with technical problems, whether it be your hardware or software? 
9. How would you handle a conflict between two members of your team? 
10. How would you communicate with team members who have a different communication style than you?
11. How would you approach your first 30, 60, and 90 days in this role? 
12. What would you do if a manager continually asked you to work on evenings and weekends, hindering your work-life balance?

Skill-based questions

Skill-based questions assess a candidate’s personality, experience, and expertise, which means they’re designed to gauge both the applicant’s hard and soft skills. 

Pinpointing the prospective employee’s unique skillset will help you determine how they will perform in their role and fit into the organization at large. 

Sample skill-based questions for employees

1. How do you approach your own professional development? 
2. How do you build and maintain strong relationships with clients, customers, or team members? 
3. How do you stay informed about industry trends and best practices in management? 
4. How do you stay current on the latest cybersecurity threats? What do you do to prevent cyberattacks that could derail the organization? 
5. How would you approach working remotely on a project with team members in different time zones? How would you ensure reliable communication and collaboration?
6. What’s your approach to prioritizing tasks and managing your time? 
7. How do you keep track of large projects that have multiple moving components and deadlines? 
8. How do you work harmoniously with people, including colleagues, management, and clients, who share different views, opinions, or worldviews than your own?
9. How well do you adapt to change? What steps do you take when a major change, such as new technology or a change in team members or management, is introduced?
10. How do you handle interruptions, breaks in routine, and last-minute changes?
11. What strategies have you found work best when convincing someone of your point of view?
12. In previous roles, how have you prioritized balance and wellness for yourself?

Cultural fit questions

Of course, it’s helpful to learn more about the actual person you’re hiring beyond their skills and experience. Do they have a life outside of work? How passionately do they speak about other aspects of their life? 

Are they able to think on the spot and craft an answer to a question they may not have been planning for or expecting? Do they have a sense of humor that gels with the rest of the team? Can you see them fitting in with the rest of the organization? 

Sample cultural fit questions

1. What’s your preferred or most natural communication style?
2. In any of your previous roles, did you use personality tests in the workplace to better understand yourself and your teammates?
3. What is a professional accomplishment you are most proud of, and why?
4. What long-term goals do you have for your professional development?
5. Do you know your Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, DiSC, or Predictive Index Reference Profile?
6. What’s the latest book you read? Did you enjoy it?
7. What’s your favorite book to recommend to people?
8. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned lately?
9. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? 
10. As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? 
11. What are your favorite hobbies outside of work?
12. If you could acquire any new skill on the spot right now, what would it be?

Career goals & motivation questions

Understanding what drives a candidate and where they want to go tells you a lot about whether this role is genuinely the right fit for them right now. A candidate who’s overqualified and looking for a stepping stone will disengage quickly. One whose ambitions align with what this role can realistically offer is far more likely to grow into it and stay.

These questions help you gauge long-term fit, not just immediate capability.

Sample career goals & motivation questions

1. What drew you to apply for this role specifically?
2. Where do you see your career in the next three to five years, and how does this position fit into that path?
3. What kind of work environment brings out your best performance?
4. What does professional growth look like to you, and what have you done in the past to pursue it?
5. What motivates you most in your day-to-day work?
6. Is there a type of work you find consistently draining? How do you manage it?
7. What would make you feel like this role was a success twelve months from now?

Questions to avoid

Of course, there are some questions interviewers should avoid, such as anything personal, discriminatory, or illegal. 

Sample interview questions hiring managers should avoid

1. How old are you? 
2. Where are you from originally? 
3. Where is that accent from?
4. What religion do you practice?
5. Are you planning on getting pregnant soon?
6. Is English your first or second language?
7. Do you go to church?
8. Are you single?
9. Do you plan on getting married?
10. Do you plan on having kids?
11. What’s your sexual orientation?
12. Do you have any disabilities? 

How to quickly assess interviewees’ responses

Assessing an interviewee’s response can be difficult on the spot, so here are a few things to watch out for. 

Does the candidate ramble on and talk around questions rather than answer them directly? The more they go off-topic, the less likely they are to be qualified for the position. Always look for clear, precise, and concise answers. 

Also, pay attention to whether or not the candidate actively listens to your questions. Misunderstanding your questions, becoming easily distracted, or interrupting you are signs that the candidate isn’t listening, and if they don’t listen to you, they won’t listen to their manager, team members, or clients either. 

Be mindful of any attitude problems, such as if the candidate becomes defensive or answers questions in an arrogant, condescending manner. Even if the answer itself is a good one, attitude and tone matter. The way the candidate answers a question can be as important as the content of their answer. 

You can also utilize the STAR method, especially when it comes to behavioral questions. 

STAR stands for: 

• Situation: What’s the context of the situation?
• Task: What were the interviewee’s duties and expectations?
• Action: How did the interviewee fulfill their duties? Did they go above and beyond?
• Result: Did the interviewee’s actions yield positive results? What did they learn?

The STAR method gives you a foundation for evaluating the interviewee’s answer while also providing them with a reliable structure to build their answer on. 

Supercharge your hiring process with Predictive Index

PI Hire provides actionable, objective data integrated into your hiring process that increases the likelihood of hiring and retaining new hires, decreases the chance of turnover, and harnesses the power of your entire team to determine the behaviors needed to excel in the role. 

Our software rallies everyone around the behavioral traits needed in a candidate through Job Targeting, easily allowing input from the people who know the role best. Align early in the process to make better data-driven decisions further down the hiring funnel and get to the root of what makes for a star performer for each unique role.

Leave the guessing games for Jeopardy. Before the interview even begins, send our six-minute, scientifically validated Behavioral Assessment to your candidates, and we’ll identify their Reference Profile and specific behavioral pattern to determine the best match for the role you need to fill.