50 Best Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

You found our list of the best interview questions to ask candidates.

Interview questions are questions that employers ask to determine the best fit for a position among a pool of candidates. Because interviewers have a limited amount of time to evaluate candidates, recruiters select questions that elicit informative and comprehensive answers. Examples of the most common interview questions include “tell me about yourself,” and “what is your greatest accomplishment?” but interviewers occasionally pose more strategic or unique questions to test applicants’ critical thinking skills and creativity.

These questions are similar to the most common interview questions and can also serve as icebreaker questions or team building questions.

This article contains:

• great interview questions
• most common interview questions
• unique interview questions
• strategic interview questions
• hard interview questions
• good interview questions to ask
• questions to ask an interviewee
• casual interview questions

So, here is the list!

Great interview questions

1. Why should we hire you?
2. What is most important to you in a role or work environment?
3. What are you hoping for in your next role?
4. What do you know about the company?
5. Who is the smartest person you know personally? Why?
6. Describe your relationship with your current colleagues.
7. What is the most recent thing you learned?
8. What are you most proud of in your professional life so far?
9. What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
10. How would your former managers and coworkers describe you?

Most common interview questions

11. Tell me about yourself.
12. Why do you want to work for this company?
13. What are your greatest strengths?
14. What is your biggest weakness?
15. Tell me about a challenge or conflict you overcame at work.
16. What is your most impressive work achievement?
17. Why do you want to work at this company?
18. Why do you want to leave your current role or company?
19. Where do you see yourself in five years?
20. What are your salary expectations?

Unique interview questions

21. If we hired you as CEO of this company tomorrow, what is the first change you would make?
22. If your exact opposite walked into this office after you, what kind of interview would they give?
23. Upon arriving home, you realize you are the winner of a multimillion dollar jackpot. What do you do next?
24. If you could work from any location on Earth, where would you choose?
25. What would be your strategy for surviving a zombie apocalypse?
26. What is one fact you refrain from adding to your resume, but would love to include?
27. If somebody asked you to give an impromptu presentation on any topic, what subject would you pick?
28. Which animal would you say that you are most like?
29. What nonprofessional skill would you most like to learn?
30. If I told you that the decision was down to you and one other candidate, what would you say to persuade me to hire you?

Strategic interview questions

31. Describe a time when you proactively identified and addressed an issue at your company.
32. Describe a time when you failed to achieve your goals and had to follow a different approach. What happened?
33. Describe a time when you had to measure the success of a workplace change or campaign. What were your steps and ultimate findings?
34. Imagine that you receive $50,000 and have one month to implement a major organizational change. What project do you choose and what approach do you employ?
35. You ask for $5,000 to solve a problem, but upper management only allocates $1,000 for your solution. What is your plan of attack?
36. Describe a time you failed and had to alter course and adopt a new approach. How did you know change was necessary? What actions did you take? What was the result?
37. Walk me through your time management system.
38. What do you think are the most important elements to consider when making a decision in our industry?
39. Imagine you need to implement a new system that you do not have much experience with. What steps do you take to gather information and ensure successful execution?
40. Share a time when you made a decision that involved great risk. What was the situation, the final verdict, and the result?

Hard interview questions

41. What is the most difficult lesson you have had to learn thus far?
42. What piece of critical feedback do you receive most often?
43. If you could redo your career, what would you change?
44. What have been your most positive and negative management experiences?
45. Walk me through your approach to workplace conflict.
46. Talk about a time when you had to work with someone whose personality was very different from yours.
47. What is the farthest out of your comfort zone you have been while on the job?
48. Give me an example of a time when you had to think or react quickly in response to a delicate situation.
49. How do you deal with failure?
50. Walk me through a time when you had to adapt to major change within your organization.

Final Thoughts

Interviews can be daunting processes, but asking great interview questions to candidates improves the experience for interviewers and interviewees alike. A company’s choice mix of strategic and the most common interview questions can reveal organizational priorities and company culture, helping candidates make informed decisions about offers.

Next, check out our list of tips for virtual interviews and this article on the best applicant tracking systems.