Interview design
Write questions that separate candidates.
A good screening question produces an answer you can judge. Here’s how to write them, with a dozen before-and-after examples and a template to copy.
7 min read · Updated September 24, 2026 · The LessRounds team
Most first-round questions fail in one of two ways. They’re so broad that every candidate gives the same answer (“Tell me about yourself”), or so narrow that they test something the job doesn’t need. A good pre-screening question does one job: it gets an answer that tells you whether this person has a skill you need, at the level you need it. This guide covers how to write questions like that, the types worth using, twelve weak questions rewritten, and a template for a 15-minute first round.
Start from the skills, not the questions
Before you write a single question, list the three to five skills the person will need in their first few months. Not everything on the job description. The things that decide whether they succeed.
For a customer support role that might be: staying calm with upset customers, explaining things simply, and following through on problems. For a junior data analyst: cleaning messy data, explaining findings to non-analysts, and checking their own work.
Then work through three steps for each skill:
- Write one or two questions that test it. Every question should map to exactly one skill. If a question doesn’t map to anything, cut it.
- Decide the level you expect. A graduate hire and a team lead can get the same question, but you should expect different answers.
- Write down what a strong answer sounds like. If you can’t describe a good answer before anyone gives one, the question isn’t ready.
That last step does most of the work. It forces you to notice when a question is really asking for opinions, or when any answer could be read as good.
Five principles for a good screening question
- Ask about something specific. “Tell me about a time a delivery went wrong” gets a story. “How do you handle problems?” gets a philosophy.
- Ask one thing at a time. “Tell me about your experience with Excel, SQL and reporting” is three questions. Candidates answer the easiest one.
- Don’t signal the answer you want. “Would you be willing to stay late when needed?” has one acceptable reply. You learn nothing from it.
- Keep it answerable in two or three minutes. A spoken answer that needs ten minutes of context turns into a monologue, and the useful part gets lost.
- Stay on the job. Ask only about what the work requires. Never ask about age, family plans, marital status, religion, health, nationality or anything else unrelated to doing the job.
Question types worth using
Behavioral questions
These ask about something the candidate has done: “Tell me about a time you…” They work because past behavior in a real situation is harder to invent than an opinion. They suit candidates with some work history. For people early in their careers, allow examples from study, volunteering or part-time work.
Situational questions
These describe a realistic scenario and ask what the candidate would do: “A customer emails for the third time about a late order…” They work well for graduates and career changers, and for testing judgment the candidate may not have needed yet. Make the scenario specific enough that a generic answer sounds generic.
Explain-it questions
“Explain what a refund window is to a customer who has never heard the term.” These test clarity, knowledge and how someone thinks, all in one answer. They’re also hard to prepare for in advance.
Motivation questions
“Why this role?” is fine as one question, but weight it lightly. Most candidates have a reasonable answer ready, and it rarely separates people.
Logistics questions
Availability, start date, location, notice period and similar facts belong in a short form before the interview, as yes/no, multiple-choice or short-text questions. Don’t spend spoken interview time on them. For hard requirements, see knockout questions.
Twelve weak questions, rewritten
| Weak question | Stronger version | Why it’s better |
|---|---|---|
| Tell me about yourself. | Walk me through a piece of work from your last role that you’re proud of. What was your part? | Gets a specific story and separates their work from the team’s. |
| Are you a team player? | Tell me about a time you disagreed with a colleague about how to do something. What happened? | Nobody answers “no” to a question about a virtue. |
| What’s your greatest weakness? | What’s one piece of feedback you got in the last year, and what did you change because of it? | Asks for a real event instead of a rehearsed line. |
| Do you have good communication skills? | Explain how our returns process works to a customer who’s annoyed and in a hurry. | Tests the skill directly instead of asking them to rate it. |
| How do you handle stress? | Tell me about the busiest week you’ve had at work. What did you drop, and how did you decide? | Shows priorities under pressure, not a coping slogan. |
| Would you go above and beyond for a customer? | Tell me about a customer problem you fixed that wasn’t strictly your job. | Removes the obvious right answer. |
| Where do you see yourself in five years? | What do you want to be better at a year from now, and how would this role help? | Easier to answer honestly, and tied to the job. |
| Tell me about your experience with Excel, SQL and reporting. | What’s the last report you built from scratch? Where did the data come from? | One question, one skill, one real example. |
| Are you detail-oriented? | Tell me about a mistake you caught before it went out. How did you spot it? | Evidence instead of a self-description. |
| What would you do if a customer was angry? | A customer has written three times about a late order, and it’s still delayed. What do you write back? | A specific scenario makes a generic answer easy to spot. |
| Do you have leadership experience? | Tell me about a time you got people to do something when you weren’t their manager. | Open to people without a title, and asks what they did. |
| Are you available weekends, when can you start, and do you drive? | Move these to three separate form questions. | Logistics are facts, not interview material. |
A template for a 15-minute first round
Adapt the wording in brackets. Keep the order the same for every candidate.
Before the interview (form questions, two to four):
- Which of these shifts can you work? (Multiple choice)
- When is the earliest you could start? (Short text)
- [One hard requirement, if the job has one] (Yes / No)
The interview (five questions, about two to three minutes each):
- Warm-up: “Walk me through your current or most recent role. What does a normal day involve?”
- Behavioral, [skill 1]: “Tell me about a time you [situation that needs skill 1]. What did you do, and how did it turn out?”
- Situational, [skill 2]: “Imagine [a realistic scenario from this job]. What do you do first, and why?”
- Explain-it, [skill 3]: “Explain [a concept from the role] to someone who has never come across it.”
- Behavioral, [the skill that matters most]: “Tell me about the hardest [relevant task] you’ve done. What made it hard?”
Close with “Is there anything about your experience we haven’t asked about that’s relevant to this role?” It gives quieter candidates a chance to add something. Don’t score it heavily.
Test your questions before candidates see them
- Answer them yourself, out loud, and time it. If you ramble or run past three minutes, candidates will too.
- Ask someone who does the job well to answer. Would their answer stand out from a weak one? If not, the question isn’t separating anyone.
- Check the mapping. Every question should test one skill, and every skill should have at least one question.
- Look for hidden assumptions. A question that assumes a degree, a particular tool or a big-company background may shut out people who could do the job.
- Review after the first 10 to 20 candidates. If everyone answered a question the same way, rewrite it.
For role-specific examples, browse the screening questions library. If you build the interview in LessRounds, the AI can suggest skills and draft questions from your job description, and you edit every word in the interview builder. Form answers are shown to you but not scored.