How to Write Interview Questions

Co-authored by Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM

Last Updated: December 5, 2024 Fact Checked

If you're in charge of hiring new employees, writing an article or just want to learn more about a person you admire, you'll probably find yourself in a position where you will be tasked with interviewing people. Being prepared for the interview with several well-crafted questions is important and will help you get what you need out of the interview. To write interview questions, understand or discover the purpose of the interview, who you are interviewing, and what you need from this person.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Writing Job Interview Questions

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1
Start with an open-ended question. An open-ended question cannot be answered by “yes" or "no" and it usually does not have right or wrong answers.^{[1]
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- An open ended question is a good way to put the candidate at ease. You want your candidates to feel comfortable. And if a candidate feels comfortable that person is more likely to engage.^{[2]
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  Expert Interview. 25 May 2021.}
- Open-ended questions are also a good way for you to find out some basic qualifications of the candidate, and to get some cues as to what to ask next.
- Try for questions like: “Tell me about the relationships you’ve had with the people you’ve worked with. How would you describe the best ones? The worst?” This question will immediately give you a good idea of well the candidate might fit on a team in your workplace. Candidates typically don’t like to speak badly about coworkers or bosses, especially in an interview. This question lets you see how this person navigates those waters.
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Formulate questions that force your interviewee to express a knowledge of your company. You want to make sure that your interviewee did homework and learned about your company. And you should want to find out if this person just learned facts, or really understands you.^{[3]
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- Questions that ask the candidate to visualize being in the role of an existing employee will quickly show you how well this person knows your company.
- You might ask “Pitch [name of your company] to me as if I were buying your product or service.” This question will immediately show you how well this candidate knows what you do and if this person has the ability to speak with the company’s voice.^{[4]
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- Depending on the position you’re hiring for, be lenient on how well the candidate pitches your company. If you’re hiring for an internal, non sales position, all you want to know is if your candidate did the homework.
- You could also ask “If we were to sit down a year from now, reflecting on your year with the company, what would you like to have achieved?” A question like this will allow you to gauge how well the candidate sees the bigger picture of the work you do, and that this person has not only done the homework, but is committed to being a part of the company. A question like this will help weed out candidates who just read the job description.
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3
Prepare to summarize a candidate’s answers and transition to the next question. Repeating what the candidate just said will give you a second to digest the information and can allow you to press this person with your next question.
- You want to find out of the interviewee is actually knowledgable on the subject at hand. For instance, if a candidate said “I managed a large system implementation project when I was with my last company.” You could repeat the answer and move on to your next question which will both follow up and get more information about how this candidate would perform in your company.
- After you repeat the answer (you shouldn’t just repeat it word for word, paraphrase it) you could as ask “Could you tell me some of the key activities you were engaged in when you managed that project? And how do you think that experience would relate to this job?”
4
Write questions that allow you to obtain basic qualifications. During your interview, you’ll want to gauge how well a person’s resume translates to real life. Have a list of questions that will give you an idea of the candidate’s basic skill level for the job.
- Ask the candidate to describe some basic responsibilities and functions of the job. Ask what the candidate might find challenging about the job. You want to have a list of basic questions that have a correct answer.
- For example, if your candidate listed Adobe Photoshop as a skill, you may ask how long this person has been using Photoshop. Or, if you know Photoshop and know that using it is part of the job, you may ask a specific question related to using the program. You might ask “If I needed to create a banner and wanted to place a picture of someone’s body from another photo onto the banner, how would I do that?” If the candidate can clearly explain the process and use the right terms, you know this person possess a certain skill level.
5
Write questions that challenge your candidates. You want to formulate questions that will allow you to see how the candidate performs under pressure and give you information on this person’s ability in the role.
- You may want to ask something simple yet potentially challenging at first like “Is it better to be perfect and late, or good and on time?” The candidate’s answer will show you what kind of employee this person is. It will also show you how well the candidate knows your company, depending on your answer to the question. ^{[5]
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- Ask the candidate about a time this person screwed up, and how the candidate fixed the problem. This is an old and good interview question. You’ll get to see how self-aware the candidate is and this person's problem-solving skills.
6
Ask conversational and open ended questions. Test soft skills. You’ll want to know about a candidate’s personality, dedication, loyalty, communication skills, etc. These are the so called “soft skills” for the job.
- When writing interview questions, you’ll want to create your questions so that there’s an ebb and flow to the interview. Your first questions are meant to ease the candidate into the interview and allow you to gain knowledge on this person’s history. Then you want to have questions that tell you about a candidate’s actual skill level for the job. Now you’ll want to ease back up. write down a few questions to pick from during the interview that allows you to see this person’s personality.
- Feel free to have a list of questions to pick from that don’t even have much to do with the actual job. You could ask “Who is the smartest person you know personally? Why?” A question like this will test the candidate’s values and aspirations. Having the candidate explain why the person is so smart will give you an idea of how this person perceives others.
- Ask the candidate “What is something you’d be happy doing every day for the rest of your career?” This will let you find out what makes this person happy at work. If the answer is boilerplate you know that this person isn’t going to be very happy. If the answer is thought out and applies to the job, you know you could have someone who would be loyal to you.
- Consider asking “If you worked with us, were paid the salary you wanted, and loved everything about your job, what kind of offer from another company would you consider?” This question will give you insight into what the candidate values. Depending on the answer you’ll know if the candidate can be bought. Or if this person values loving the work and the company.
7
Prepare a few experience-based questions. Depending on the answers to previous questions, you may have good knowledge of the candidate’s past experiences. But it’s a good idea to write a few questions you can throw in to find out a little more.
- You may ask the candidate to “Discuss a specific accomplishment you’ve achieved in a previous position that indicates you’ll thrive in this position.” Someone’s past performance will be a good indicator of future success with you.
- Ask the candidate about a time when this person succeeded professionally but didn’t like the experience and wouldn’t want to do it again. This kind of question will let you know how the candidate will act when getting the job done isn’t always fun. And it will let you see if this person understands the value of certain roles or functions.
8
Conclude the interview. When writing interview questions, plan to leave time at the end to let the interviewee ask questions.
- The questions a candidate asks will be very valuable. These questions will show you how much this person has prepared and how this person views the role of the job.
- During the actual interview always make sure to thank the interviewee. Then explain your next steps and when you’ll be in touch.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Interviewing Someone for an Article

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1
Do your research on the person. Before you can write out good questions to ask someone who you are interviewing for an article, podcast, or another medium, you need to gather all the information you can.
- Knowing who this person is, accomplishments, failures, and personality will allow you to formulate solid questions that can get you the best results.
- Search for your interviewee online and see if there are other articles about this person. Write down a bio about your interviewee. Highlight specific milestones that you want to talk about.
2
Write down your objective for the interview. Once you know who this person you’re interviewing is, it’s a good idea to write down what you want from the interview.
- Your objective will help you create questions before the interview that can steer the conversation in the right direction. Your objective will also help you stay on track if the conversation goes in a different direction than your questions.
- Your objective should be a declarative statement which is concise. It could be as simple as “I want [name of interviewee] to walk me through his process for writing his latest novel, and learn the challenges he faced.”
3
Lead with a “softball question”. When writing out your questions, you want to create ones that allow the conversation or interview to flow naturally. ^{[6]
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- A “softball question” will help the interviewee become relaxed and open up. This type of question should be simple and not controversial in any way. This question shouldn’t be challenging and let the person brag a little about the work.
- Throw it away. Your first question should be something that you can throw away and not have it affect the information you need from your interview.
4
Ask open-ended questions. You’re interviewing a person to gain knowledge on a subject. Whether you’re reporting or doing an informational interview with someone who works somewhere you want to. You want to create a dialogue, this means questions that don’t let the interviewee simply answer “yes” or “no” will help you.
- You can ask questions like “What was your favorite part of …” asking what this person person liked or didn’t like about the subject you’re interviewing for will give you insightful information to go on.
- Depending on the context of the interview, you may want to press this person a bit. You don’t have to be mean, but if you are interviewing for an article, you want to know all you can. When writing your questions, find a quote from the interviewee. Then create a question that lets you ask “You said [quote]. Why do you believe this to be true?”
5
Ask a reflection question. You’ll want to learn how this person thinks and what this person values. Parrot your subject and repeat phrases. Questions that make your interviewee look back and share a story or example are great to keep things going and give you useful information.
- When writing your questions, see if you can find any information on your interviewees career path. You can use what you find to steer the conversation during the interview and then ask “What were some of the unexpected hurdles? What about benefits?”
- You can also ask a question that has the person looking back. “Looking back at where you started this journey, where did you think you would end up?”
6
Write down questions you know the answer to. Write down a few questions you want your subject to answer, and that you know the answer to. Then answer these questions before your interview.
- You should know which questions you will need to gather the most information. If you know the answer to certain questions, you might not need to ask these specific ones during an interview.
- When writing your interview questions, consider forming a few that are similar to ones you can answer but might earn a different response based on the phrasing. You may then want to ask your subject one or two of these to compare answers.
7
Ask questions that elicit an emotional response. Just like open ended questions, you’ll want to come up with a few that will get you an emotional response.
- When writing your interview questions, see if you can find anything about your subject that you can use to get a feeling-based response. Did this person publish a book that didn’t sell well? Did your subject face constant rejection and setbacks before succeeding?
- If you can’t find anything, be prepared to formulate a question on the spot during the interview. Use what’s been discussed in the interview and write down this new question quickly so you don’t forget. Make sure to ask “why” and “how”.
- ”Why did you feel like you would never reach your goal?” “What motivated you to keep trying when you hit speed bumps?” “How do you feel about that experience now?”
8
Include a curve ball. Look at the questions you plan to ask. How many are the same or too similar? If you notice that you’re writing a lot of the same questions, you may want to search for one that’s different.
- Your curve ball question doesn’t have to be an attacking question on your subject. It can be as simple as a fun unrelated question like “What’s your favorite indulgence food to eat when you’ve had a bad day?”
9
Rephrase your questions. Look over all of your questions and rephrase ones that still need a little work, or that don’t help you reach your objective.
- During an actual interview rely on these questions to guide you, but don’t feel like you have to ask each one word for word. Let the flow of the conversation help you form your questions. Use the ones you’ve written as much as you can, but be prepared to ignore some that become irrelevant.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Interviewing a Peer or Role Model

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1
Do your research on the person. Before you can write out good questions to ask, you need to gather all the information you can. Since you're interviewing a role model you will most likely already know a lot about this person. But more research won't hurt.
- Knowing who this person is, accomplishments, failures, and personality will allow you to formulate solid questions that can get you the best results. Write down a list of things you already know about your role model.
- Search for your role model online and see if there are other articles about this person. This will help you greatly if your role model is well known. Write a bio of your interviewee. Highlight specific milestones that you want to talk about.
2
Write down your objective for the interview. Becuase you're interviewing someone you look up to and admire it’s a good idea to write down what you want from the interview.
- Your objective will help you create questions before the interview that can steer the conversation in the right direction. Your objective will also help you stay on track if the conversation goes in a different direction than your questions.
- Your objective should be a declarative statement which is concise. It could be as simple as “I want [name of interviewee] to walk me through his process for writing his latest novel, and learn the challenges he faced.” Your objective should be a statement that identifies the reason why you want to interview your role model.
3
Lead with a “softball question”. When writing out your questions, you want to create ones that allow the conversation or interview to flow naturally. Since you're interviewing someone you look up to, you want to create a question that is easy to answer will set the tone for the interview.
- A “softball question” will help the interviewee become relaxed and open up. This type of question should be simple and not controversial in any way. This question shouldn’t be challenging and let your role model brag a little about the work.
4
Ask about strategies, process, methods for achieving goals. Write down a list of questions that pertain to what you've learned about this person, and what you want from your role model. You'll want to start with a list of questions that when answered by your role model can give you basic knowledge on the topic.
- For example, if your role model is a doctor, you may want to create a list of questions that ask about how many years of schooling it took to become a doctor. What subjects did your role model have to study? How did this person stay on track with the goal of becoming a doctor?
5
Use your knowledge to tailor specific questions. Since you know this person, you should write out some questions that are specific your role model's life, past experiences, goals, achievements, and even failures.
- When writing out your questions, think about what you know of this person. You can create questions that dig deep and aren't simply generic.
- You've already gotten the generic questions out of the way. Now you want questions that illicit an emotional response and give you insight.
6
Create open-ended questions. Go through the questions you've written down and make sure that you've created questions that can't be answered by a "yes" or "no".^{[7]
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- Ask open-ended questions. You’re interviewing a person to gain knowledge of a subject and to be more like this person. Have a conversation.
- You can ask questions like “What was your favorite part of …” asking what this person liked or didn’t like about the subject you’re interviewing for will give you much more insightful information to go on.
- When writing your questions, put yourself in your role model's shoes. Imagine yourself being interviewed by someone who looks up to you in the future. Think about what kinds of topics you would want to talk about. What would you want to share and what kinds of stories and advice would you provide?
- Once you've thought about how you would be in an interview as the role model and what you would say, write down some questions that you can ask to get similar answers and responses.

What Are The Dos And Don’ts Of a Journalistic Interview?

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What interview writing style should be used for school students?

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Make sure that the writing style is formal and proper when writing an interview. That way, you sound more professional, and would probably end up getting more serious/reliable answers for your interview.

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What interview questions can I ask when interviewing a teacher for research purposes?

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That depends on the specific topic you are researching. Ask about how the teacher's work relates to your topic.

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How should I answer when asked if I'd be a good fit for the position?

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To begin with, talk about your strengths and what you will bring to the company.

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Tips

An interview should really be between 30 to 45 minutes. So do not pile questions up on the candidate. 7-8 questions are usually the maximum number to try for.

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Be OK with silence. If you ask a question and the person is struggling with answers, sit tight and wait. We all tend to want to move on because silence is uncomfortable. As an interviewer, you need to get used to that.

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Try to let the interviewee talk instead of you talking too much, unless they ask you specific questions. Too many interviewers talk too much about what the organization is like, what the challenges are, etc.

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Warnings

In the United States, certain interview questions may violate Equal Employment Opportunity law. Always acquire the knowledge from your employer or your local agency as to what is not allowed. You do not want to get sued for asking the wrong questions. For instance, do not ask "Are you married?", "How many children do you have?". Instead, say "This job requires 50% travel, is that something you are willing to do?"

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