How to write good screening questions.

Most first-interview 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 interview.

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. Don’t list everything on the job description, only 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. Each question should test exactly one skill. If a question doesn’t test any of them, 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

1. Ask about something specific. “Tell me about a time a delivery went wrong” gets a story. “How do you handle problems?” gets a general opinion.
2. Ask one thing at a time. “Tell me about your experience with Excel, SQL and reporting” is three questions. Candidates answer the easiest one.
3. Don’t hint at the answer you want. “Would you be willing to stay late when needed?” has one acceptable reply. You learn nothing from it.
4. Keep it answerable in two or three minutes. A spoken answer that needs ten minutes of context turns into a long speech, and the useful part gets lost.
5. 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 in situations the candidate may not have faced yet. Make the scenario detailed enough that a vague, one-size-fits-all answer stands out.

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, so it rarely shows much difference between them.

Logistics questions

Availability, start date, location, how much notice they must give their current employer, 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 requirements a candidate must meet, see knockout questions.

Twelve weak questions, rewritten

A template for a 15-minute first interview

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):

1. Warm-up: “Walk me through your current or most recent role. What does a normal day involve?”
2. Behavioral, [skill 1]: “Tell me about a time you [situation that needs skill 1]. What did you do, and how did it turn out?”
3. Situational, [skill 2]: “Imagine [a realistic scenario from this job]. What do you do first, and why?”
4. Explain-it, [skill 3]: “Explain [a concept from the role] to someone who has never come across it.”
5. 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. Give it little or no weight when scoring.

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 doesn’t tell strong and weak candidates apart.
• Check that questions and skills match up. 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.