Best 75 Questions to Ask Job Candidates: Types of Questions, Which to Avoid, and How to Create Your Own

Finding the right person for the job starts long before anyone shows up for their first shift. It starts with the questions you ask. The best job interview questions do more than fill awkward silence. They help you figure out how a candidate actually thinks, how they handle pressure, how they get along with coworkers, and whether they'll show up and do the job well day after day. 

Whether you're hiring for a retail position, a customer service role, an office job, or anything in between, the quality of your interview questions directly determines the quality of the people you bring on board. There are several different types of interview questions employers use to get a full picture of a candidate. 

Behavioral interview questions reveal how someone has handled real situations in the past. And past behavior is one of the best predictors of future performance. Situational interview questions put candidates in hypothetical scenarios to see how they'd respond on the spot. Skills-based questions zero in on the specific tools, systems, or technical knowledge the job requires. Background and experience questions help you understand a candidate's work history and how it connects to your open role. And culture-fit questions help you figure out whether this person will mesh with your team and stick around. Used together, these different types of questions give you a well-rounded picture that no resume ever could.

The best hiring managers go into every interview with a clear set of questions designed to uncover the things that matter most: reliability, attitude, problem-solving ability, and how a person treats the people around them. The 75 questions below are organized by type to help you do exactly that.

Types of Questions for Candidates  

Not all interview questions are created equal and the best interviews use a mix of different question types. Each type of question serves a different purpose, and together they help you decide whether a candidate can do the job and will make your workplace better in the process.

Think of it this way: clerical questions make sure the basics line up before you go any further. Behavioral questions tell you how someone has actually shown up in the past. Situational questions show you how they think on their feet. Personality and culture fit questions reveal whether they'll gel with your team. And technical questions confirm they have the skills to get the work done. 

Skipping any one of these categories means you're walking into a hiring decision with blind spots and blind spots are expensive.

Clerical Questions are the practical, logistical questions that confirm a candidate's availability, compensation expectations, and basic eligibility for the role. These questions are important because misaligned expectations around pay or schedule are one of the most common reasons new hires don't work out. Getting these on the table early saves everyone time.

Behavioral Questions focus on past experiences and actions. The idea is simple: how someone behaved in the past is the best indicator of how they'll behave in the future. These questions reveal work ethic, communication style, and how someone handles conflict, stress, or adversity.

Situational Questions present hypothetical scenarios and ask candidates how they would respond. Unlike behavioral questions, these aren't about what someone has done. These are about how someone thinks. They're especially useful for evaluating problem-solving ability and judgment.

Personality & Culture Fit Questions go beyond skills and experience to explore who someone is and how they show up at work. A technically qualified candidate who clashes with your team or undermines your culture can do more damage than someone who needs a little training. These questions help you catch that early.

Technical & Skill-Based Questions are role-specific questions that assess whether a candidate actually has the knowledge and ability to do the job. These should be tailored to the position and used to separate candidates who talk the talk from those who can walk the walk.

Clerical Questions — Pay, Work Schedule, Benefits

Before you spend an hour getting to know a candidate, it's worth making sure the basics actually line up. If your job pays $18 an hour and a candidate needs $25, no amount of great chemistry is going to make that work. Same goes for schedules. If you need someone every Saturday and they can't work weekends, it's better to know that in the first five minutes than after you've invested time and energy in the process.

Clerical questions also give you a chance to surface any disqualifying factors early. These aren't exciting questions, but they're some of the most important ones you'll ask.

1. What hourly rate or salary range are you looking for?
2. Are you currently eligible to work in the United States?
3. What days of the week are you available to work?
4. Are you available to work weekends?
5. Are you available to work evenings or early mornings?
6. Are you looking for full-time or part-time work?
7. How many hours per week are you ideally looking for?
8. Are you available to work holidays?
9. How much notice do you need to give your current employer before starting a new role?
10. Do you have reliable transportation to get to work consistently?
11. Do you hold any licenses or certifications required for this role?
12. Are you comfortable with the benefits package as described or do you have questions about it?
13. Is there anything about our schedule or structure that might be a challenge for you?
14. Have you reviewed the job description and are there any requirements you feel you don't meet?
15. Is there anything logistically that might prevent you from being consistent and reliable in this role?

Behavioral Questions — Understanding Personalities and How They Fit Into Your Organization

Skills get someone in the door. Personality determines whether they stay and whether they make the rest of your team better or worse while they're there. Behavioral interview questions are designed to pull back the curtain on how a candidate actually operates when things get hard, when coworkers don't pull their weight, or when a customer is being unreasonable.

Working on a team is about more than knowing how to do your job. It's about communication, accountability, patience, and the willingness to pitch in even when it's not technically your problem. Certain personality traits such as a tendency to deflect blame, an inability to accept feedback, or a pattern of conflict with coworkers can create friction in a team. Behavioral questions help you spot those patterns before they become your problem.

16. Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult coworker. How did you handle it?
17. Describe a situation where you made a mistake at work. What happened and what did you do about it?
18. Tell me about a time you went above and beyond what was expected of you.
19. Give me an example of a time you had to deliver bad news to someone at work. How did you handle it?
20. Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager. How did you handle it?
21. Describe a time you had to adapt quickly to a change at work that you weren't expecting.
22. Tell me about a time you had to work with someone whose communication style was very different from yours.
23. Give me an example of a time you were under a lot of pressure at work. How did you manage it?
24. Tell me about a time you helped a coworker who was struggling.
25. Describe a situation where you had to take initiative without being asked.
26. Tell me about a time a customer or client was upset with you. How did you respond?
27. Give me an example of a time you had to prioritize multiple tasks at once. What did you do?
28. Tell me about a time you received feedback that was hard to hear. How did you respond?
29. Describe a time you had to follow a rule or policy you didn't agree with.
30. Tell me about a time you helped improve a process or made things run more smoothly at work.

Situational Questions — How Do Employees Solve Problems & Work With Others?

The difference between a good employee and a great one often comes down to what they do when things don't go according to plan. Situational interview questions help you find out exactly that. By presenting candidates with hypothetical workplace scenarios, you get a window into how they think, how they prioritize, and how they treat people when the pressure is on.

When evaluating responses to situational questions, consider using the STAR method as a guide, even for hypothetical scenarios. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Strong candidates will naturally walk you through what the situation is, what they'd need to do, how they'd approach it, and what outcome they'd be working toward. Vague or surface-level answers — "I'd just handle it" — are a red flag. Specific, thoughtful responses that show real reasoning are what you're looking for.

31. If a customer came in upset about something that wasn't your fault, how would you handle it?
32. If you realized mid-shift that you made an error that affected a coworker's work, what would you do?
33. If your manager gave you three urgent tasks at the same time, how would you decide what to tackle first?
34. If a coworker wasn't pulling their weight and it was affecting the team, what would you do?
35. If you weren't sure how to handle a situation and your manager wasn't available, what would you do?
36. Imagine a customer is being rude to you in front of other customers. How do you respond?
37. If you noticed something unsafe at work like a spill, a broken piece of equipment, what would you do?
38. If you were running behind on a task and realized you couldn't finish it by the deadline, what would you do?
39. If a new policy was introduced that you thought was ineffective, how would you handle that?
40. If a longtime customer complained that your company had changed and they weren't happy about it, how would you respond?
41. If you were asked to do something that felt wrong or unethical, what would you do?
42. If a coworker came to you venting about a manager, how would you handle that conversation?
43. If you had a great idea for improving something at work, how would you go about sharing it?
44. If you were new and made a mistake in front of the whole team, how would you handle it?
45. If a customer asked you something you didn't know the answer to, what would you do?

Personality & Culture Fit Questions

While behavioral and situational questions focus on actions and responses, personality and culture fit questions go a step further. They can help you understand who someone is at work, what they value, and how they're likely to show up every day. A candidate can have all the right experience and still be completely wrong for your team if their work style, values, or attitude clash with how your organization actually operates.

These questions might feel more conversational than other types of interview questions, and that's intentional. The goal is to get candidates talking naturally so you can get a sense of the real person and not just the interview version of them. Keep in mind that while the questions below are a solid starting point, they're most effective when tailored to your specific company culture and the values that actually matter in your workplace. What "culture fit" looks like at a fast-paced restaurant is very different from what it looks like at a quiet administrative office.

46. How would your closest friends describe you as a coworker?
47. What kind of work environment brings out your best?
48. What does a great day at work look like for you?
49. What does a terrible day at work look like and how do you handle it?
50. How do you like to receive feedback?
51. What motivates you to do a good job, even on days when things are hard?
52. How do you handle it when you're asked to do something that's not technically your job?
53. What's something you're genuinely proud of from your work history?
54. How do you typically build relationships with new coworkers?
55. What's the most important thing to you in a workplace?
56. How do you handle it when work gets repetitive or slow?
57. What kind of manager brings out your best work?
58. If you could change one thing about how most workplaces operate, what would it be?
59. How do you typically respond when a coworker is having a hard day?
60. What does "doing a good job" mean to you?

Technical and Skill-Based Questions

Technical and skill-based questions are designed to cut through the resume and get to the reality: can this person actually do the work? Anyone can say they're good with computers or experienced with customer service systems. These questions push candidates to demonstrate specific knowledge, walk you through their process, or explain how they've applied a skill in a real context.

The key to making these questions effective is tailoring them to the role. A generic "are you comfortable with technology?" tells you almost nothing. A specific "have you used a project management system before, and which ones?" tells you a lot. The more specific and role-relevant your technical questions are, the more useful the answers will be. Use the questions below and build on them based on what your particular position actually requires.

61. What tools or software have you used regularly in past jobs?
62. How comfortable are you learning new systems or software on the job?
63. Walk me through how you'd handle a cash transaction or process a return.
64. Have you ever trained a new employee? What did that look like?
65. How do you stay organized when managing multiple responsibilities at once?
66. Describe your experience with scheduling, inventory, or recordkeeping.
67. Have you worked with a customer relationship management (CRM) system before?
68. What's your experience with phone systems, multi-line phones, or headsets?
69. How do you handle data entry and what steps do you take to make sure things are accurate?
70. Describe any relevant certifications, licenses, or training you have that apply to this role.
71. How comfortable are you with basic math like calculating discounts and tracking hours?
72. Walk me through what you were typically responsible for in your last job.
73. Have you ever identified an error in a system or process? What did you do?
74. What's the most technically complex task you've had to learn on the job?
75. If we gave you access to our systems on day one, how would you go about getting up to speed?

How to Create Your Own Interview Questions

The 75 questions above that you read do cover a lot of ground but the truth is, the best interview questions for your business are the ones you create yourself. Every company is different. Every role is different. And a question that's perfect for a fast-food counter position might be completely irrelevant for a medical office receptionist. Here's how to build your own set of questions that actually work for you.

Start with the role's real requirements. Go beyond the job description. Think about what this person will actually be doing on a Tuesday afternoon when things get busy and a coworker calls out sick. What skills do they need? What decisions will they be making on their own? What problems will they run into regularly? Write those down before you write a single question.

Picture your model employee. Think about the best person you've ever had in this role. Or, if it's a new position, imagine what the ideal version of this employee looks like. How do they communicate? How do they handle conflict? What's their attitude toward routine tasks? What makes them someone the rest of the team genuinely wants to work with? That picture should drive your questions.

Reflect on what hasn't worked. Think about past hires who didn't pan out. Not to dwell on it but to learn from it. Was there a pattern? Did they struggle with accountability? Did they clash with the team? Did they overstate their skills? If you can identify what went wrong, you can build questions designed to surface those warning signs earlier.

Look at what's working right now. Think about your best current employees. What do they have in common? What traits, habits, or attitudes show up across all of them? Those are the things you want to screen for and questions can help you find more people who share those qualities.

Make a list of the attributes you're looking for beyond the job description. Things like reliability, warmth, a good sense of humor, the ability to stay calm under pressure, or a willingness to help without being asked. These aren't things you can put in a job posting but you can build questions that help you find them.

Check your questions for legality. Before you use any question in an interview, make sure it's legal. There are specific topics you cannot ask about including a candidate's age, religion, national origin, marital status, family plans, medical history, or disability status. If a question feels like it's getting into personal territory, run it by HR or a legal resource before using it. 

Bring it all together. Take everything you've gathered including the role requirements, the model employee profile, the lessons from past hires, the attributes you're looking for and use that to draft questions that get at what really matters. A good interview question has a clear purpose. If you can't answer "why am I asking this?" then the question probably isn't pulling its weight.

Questions NOT to Ask Candidates

Knowing what to ask in an interview is important. Knowing what NOT to ask is just as critical and the consequences of getting it wrong can be serious. There are a number of questions that are illegal to ask job candidates under federal and state employment laws, because they relate to protected characteristics that cannot legally factor into hiring decisions. Even asking these questions can expose your business to discrimination claims.

Here's a breakdown of the categories to avoid, along with examples of questions that cross the line:

Age You cannot ask a candidate how old they are or try to determine their age through indirect questions. This is protected under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).

• "How old are you?"
• "What year did you graduate high school?"
• "Are you planning to retire soon?"
• "How many years until you retire?"

Race, Ethnicity, or National Origin You cannot ask about a candidate's racial background, ethnicity, or where they or their family are from.

• "Where are you originally from?"
• "What's your ethnicity?"
• "Is English your first language?"
• "Where were your parents born?"

Religion You cannot ask about a candidate's religious beliefs or practices.

• "What religion do you practice?"
• "Do you go to church?"
• "Are there any religious holidays that would affect your schedule?"
• "Do you observe the Sabbath?"

Marital or Family Status You cannot ask about a candidate's marital status, whether they have children, or their plans to have children.

• "Are you married?"
• "Do you have kids?"
• "Are you planning to start a family?"
• "Who watches your children when you work?"

Disability or Medical History You cannot ask about a candidate's physical or mental health, disabilities, or medical history before making a job offer.

• "Do you have any health conditions we should know about?"
• "Have you ever filed a workers' compensation claim?"
• "Do you have any disabilities?"
• "How many sick days did you take last year?"

Pregnancy You cannot ask about a candidate's pregnancy status or plans.

• "Are you pregnant?"
• "Do you plan on having children?"
• "How does your spouse feel about you working full-time?"

Citizenship or Immigration Status You can ask if a candidate is authorized to work in the United States but you cannot ask about their citizenship status or how they obtained authorization.

• "Are you a U.S. citizen?"
• "Where were you born?"
• "What visa do you have?"

Financial or Credit History In many states, asking about a candidate's credit history or financial situation is restricted or prohibited unless it's directly relevant to the role.

• "Have you ever filed for bankruptcy?"
• "Do you have any debt?"
• "What's your credit score?"

Arrest Record In most cases, you cannot ask about arrests that did not result in a conviction.

• "Have you ever been arrested?"
• "Have you ever been in trouble with the law?"

A good rule of thumb: if a question isn't directly related to the candidate's ability to do the job, think twice before asking it. When in doubt, focus on skills, experience, availability, and work history and leave the personal stuff out of it. A little caution here goes a long way toward keeping your hiring process fair, legal, and focused on what actually matters.