Candidates
How to design an interview candidates finish.
The choices that decide whether candidates finish an interview they take on their own, and how to find out where they give up.
7 min read · Updated September 24, 2026 · The LessRounds team
An asynchronous (async) interview is one candidates take on their own, whenever they choose, instead of at a booked time with a person. It removes what candidates dislike most about early interviews: waiting for a time slot. They can take it tonight, without taking time off work. But there’s no interviewer to put them at ease, explain what’s happening or notice when they’re confused. The interview itself has to do those things. This guide covers the choices that matter most, and how to check whether they’re working.
Length: keep it short
Every question you add makes some candidates give up, and they’re often the ones with the most job options. Base the length on the job, not on how much you’d like to know.
| Role | Suggested length | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Frontline and hourly roles | 10 to 15 minutes | 4 to 6 |
| Graduate and early-career roles | 15 to 20 minutes | 5 to 7 |
| Experienced professional roles | 20 to 30 minutes | 6 to 8 |
Each question should test a skill you’ve decided matters. If two questions test the same thing, cut one. Save “tell me about yourself” for a later interview.
Say how long it takes up front, and keep to it. A candidate who was told 15 minutes and is still going at 25 will feel misled, even if the questions were good.
Devices: make it work on a phone
Many candidates, especially for hourly roles, will take your interview on a phone. Design for that.
- Choose audio-only when video adds nothing. For phone-based and customer-facing roles, talking to people is the job. Audio-only needs just a microphone, works on any phone, and copes better with weak internet connections.
- Use video when seeing the person matters for the role, and tell candidates in advance that they’ll need a camera and somewhere they’re comfortable being seen.
- Check devices before the interview starts. A camera or microphone problem should show up at the start, not in the middle of question three.
- Don’t ask candidates to download an app. Every extra install step makes people give up.
Instructions: tell candidates everything up front
A nervous candidate with nobody to ask will worry about anything you leave unclear. Before they start, tell them:
- Who they’ll be talking to, including that it’s AI if it is.
- How many questions, and roughly how long.
- Whether they can pause, restart or re-record. If they can’t, say so clearly.
- That it’s recorded, and who reviews it.
- What to do if something goes wrong, with a real contact address.
Write questions the way you’d say them out loud. Ask one question at a time, with one idea per question, and don’t pack several questions into one. “Tell me about a customer you helped who was upset. What did you do?” is clear. “Describe your approach to customer satisfaction, including examples, metrics and lessons learned” isn’t.
Replies: say when you’ll reply, then do it
Candidates can accept a no. What they rarely forgive is hearing nothing. Tell them before they start when you’ll reply (“We reply to everyone within a week”), and keep to it, even if the answer is “we’re still reviewing.”
A simple standard that works for most teams:
- A thank-you screen straight after the interview that says what happens next.
- A reply to everyone within a stated number of working days.
- A clear, kind message to candidates who aren’t moving forward. The rejection email template is a starting point.
Accessibility: plan for it before anyone asks
Some candidates need adjustments, and an async interview should make that easy.
- Offer a way to ask for an adjustment, such as extra time or a different format, and tell candidates how in the invitation.
- Offer the interview in the language the job is done in. If the job is done in Hindi, interviewing in English tests the wrong thing.
- Keep instructions easy to read. Short sentences, plain words, and no instructions hidden in small print.
- Give enough time. A deadline several days away lets candidates choose a quiet moment. A 24-hour deadline is unfair to anyone who works shifts or cares for family.
Measuring drop-off: where candidates give up
To fix drop-off, you first need to see where it happens. For every link, count how many people reach each of these five stages:
Opened → Started → Completed → Passed → Shortlisted
The gap between each pair of stages tells you something different.
| Gap | What it usually means | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Opened but didn’t start | The first screen, or what you asked of them, put people off | Shorten the intro, state the length clearly, and mention the AI in the job ad so it isn’t a surprise |
| Started but didn’t finish | Too long, a confusing question, or technical trouble | Cut questions, reword the hardest one, offer audio-only |
| Completed but few passed | The expected level or the questions don’t match the people who apply | Check the expected level, and who the ad is reaching |
| Passed but few shortlisted | Reviewers disagree with the scoring | Go over the skills, and how much each one counts, with the hiring manager |
Here is an example with made-up numbers. Say 400 people open a link, 240 start and 150 finish. That means 160 people leave between opening the link and starting, before they’ve answered a single question. So the intro is the first thing to fix, not the questions. If you then shorten the intro and 300 of the 400 start, you’ve gained 60 candidates without spending anything more on the ad.
Change one thing at a time and give it a few days, so you know what made the difference.
How LessRounds handles this
In LessRounds, candidates open one link, confirm their email with a code, and take the interview in the browser, with no app or password. Interviews have a 30- or 60-minute time limit and 3 to 15 questions, in video or audio-only, in English or Hindi. Before they begin, candidates are told it’s AI and recorded. They never see scores. Every link shows the five stage counts described above, from opened to shortlisted.