Top 9 types of interview questions to assess candidates’ skills in depth (+ 54 examples)

Interviewing applicants is hard, even for the most experienced recruiters and hiring managers. To gain accurate insights into candidates’ skills, you need to make sure that your interviewing process is well-structured and that you’re asking the right interview questions. 

So, to help you with this, we’ve compiled a list of the nine types of interview questions you can use to evaluate applicants’ skills, along with examples and information about what to look for.

But before we dive in, we have an important question for you: How do you decide whom to invite to an interview? 

If you’re still using resume screening, you might be inadvertently adding a layer of bias to your recruitment process and disqualifying applicants who might be a perfect addition to your team. 

Pre-employment skills testing is a much better way to cut through the noise and decide whom to invite to an interview. It also enables you to reduce your cost per hire and employee turnover, as is the case for 74% and 89% of the employers we surveyed for our latest report on the state of skills-based hiring. 

Then, you can interview applicants using the nine types of different types of interview questions below – and make the right hiring decisions confidently each time.

Top 9 types of interview questions you can use to assess applicants’ skills

Job interview questions will vary depending on the position, industry, and your company. However, they generally fall into a few broad categories, each enabling you to assess different aspects of candidates’ skill set, behavior, and performance potential.

Here are the main types of interview questions you can use in recruitment. In the next section, you’ll find examples of each type of question.

1. Behavioral questions: Use these questions to get an idea of candidates’ future performance based on their past behavior. Ask candidates how they handled difficult situations, achieved specific results, or helped their teams meet targets.

2. Situational questions: With situational questions, you ask candidates to imagine how they would handle hypothetical situations they might encounter in the job. These questions help assess applicants’ problem-solving skills, decision-making ability, and their overall preparedness.

3. Technical questions: These questions are specific to the role. Use them to gauge candidates’ technical skills and knowledge.

4. Background and experience questions: With those questions, you focus on candidates’ previous work experience, educational background, and qualifications. 

5. Competency questions: Use competency questions to evaluate soft skills and abilities that are critical to the role. Examples include questions about leadership, communication, time management, and adaptability.

6. Analytical questions: You can ask candidates to solve a business problem or analyze a situation and make recommendations based on available data.

7. Personal questions: Although these questions help you understand applicants’ personality, interests, and values, they’re not truly “personal” – you’re still discussing all this in a business context. Examples include questions about career goals, motivation, and interests.

8. Culture-related questions: With those questions, you evaluate whether candidates’ values and working style align with your company culture. Examples include questions about candidates’ preferred work environment, how they handle feedback, and their thoughts on teamwork and collaboration.

9. Brain teaser questions: You might decide to use brain teaser questions to assess candidates’ thought process. Examples include logical puzzles or complex problems with no evident solution.

You don’t need to use all those nine types of questions in each interview, but we’d advise you to use a mix of at least a few types for each role, to gain an in-depth understanding of each candidate’s skills, knowledge, and experience.

This approach enables you to evaluate candidates’ strengths and weaknesses holistically, identify areas where they might need additional support, and also evaluate job-specific skills they need to be successful in the role you’re interviewing them for. 

1. Behavioral questions

Below, you’ll find six behavioral questions (also known as performance-based questions) you can use to assess candidates’ past experience and performance. Adapt them to the role you’re hiring for to make them more specific.

1. Describe a time when you faced a significant obstacle at work. How did you overcome it?

2. Can you give me an example of an ambitious goal you achieved thanks to a new or innovative approach you used?

3. Tell me about a time when you made a significant mistake that impacted your team. How did you handle it?

4. Have you had to juggle several important projects under tight time constraints in the past? How did you organize your work?

5. Share an example of how you were able to motivate a coworker and help them improve their performance.

6. Tell me about a time when you had to use your negotiation skills to get everyone on the same page. How did you approach the situation and what results did you achieve?

For more ideas, check out our behavioral-based interview questions and our top behavioral interview questions.

2. Situational questions

Below, you’ll find six examples of situational questions you can use to see whether candidates are able to think quickly on their feet and come up with solutions to situations they might encounter at the workplace.

1. How would you handle a situation where your manager gives you a project with an unrealistic deadline?

2. Imagine that a coworker gives inaccurate information to a client. What would you do?

3. How would you approach a situation where you need to introduce a major change to the existing workflows of your team?

4. How would you lead or influence a team if you were not given formal authority over them, especially in a situation where quick coordination and action were necessary?

5. If you realized late in a project that a fundamental assumption was wrong, how would you proceed?

6. What would you do if you were not able to complete your portion of a project on time due to unforeseen circumstances?

We’ve compiled a list of the best situational questions and answers to help you prepare for interviews.

3. Technical questions

Use those questions to assess applicants’ skills for more technical roles, such as a full-stack developer, data analyst, product manager, and more. 

The actual questions you should ask will depend on the role; the examples below are relatively generic, so feel free to adapt them to your recruitment needs.

1. Explain the process you would use to troubleshoot a [network/performance/reporting] issue.

2. How would you optimize a piece of code that is running slowly?

3. Explain how you would approach a project that requires a new technology you are not familiar with.

4. Describe a technical challenge you faced and how you overcame it.

5. What factors do you consider when deciding on what software tools to use in a new project?

6. Can you describe your experience with cloud computing and the platforms you've used?

For specific roles or technologies, check out the following articles: 

• 51 software engineer interview questions

• 67 data analyst interview questions

• 50 programming skills interview questions

• 100+ Java coding interview questions

…Or simply search our blog to find more question ideas for different roles.

Additionally, we offer dozens of role-specific tests, programming skills tests, and software skills tests you can use to evaluate your candidates’ technical skills.

4. Competency questions

Competency questions help you assess applicants’ competencies and soft skills like teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, and communication. Those are often just as important as technical skills for many roles.

1. How do you ensure that the quality of your work is always consistent, regardless of specific constraints or challenges?

2. Can you give an example of how you have demonstrated leadership skills when solving a conflict?

3. How do you approach making important decisions when you have incomplete data?

4. What do you do to ensure clear communication with stakeholders and clients?

5. How do you handle failure? Can you give me an example? 

6. Describe a situation where you identified a potential problem and took preventative measures to avoid it.

Use these questions in combination with cognitive ability tests, such as our Problem Solving or Critical Thinking tests to evaluate applicants’ ability to analyze available information and come up with the right solutions.

5. Analytical questions (case study questions)

You can ask candidates to analyze business problems, financial data, market trends, or operational challenges and come up with recommendations or insights. 

These questions depend heavily on the industry and the role; below, you’ll find a few examples of analytical questions that you can adapt to your hiring needs.

1. What would be your process for creating a marketing plan for the launch of a new product? 

2. Can you propose a solution to improve the operational efficiency of [a specific process]?

3. What trends and challenges do you recognize in [a data set you share with the candidate]?

4. What would be your approach to reducing friction for users who come to our online store?

5. Based on the data you see, what would be your strategy to increase [a specific metric you’re aiming to increase, f.e.  employee retention, customer loyalty, newsletter open rates, etc.]? 

6. What would be your approach to assessing risk in the following project: [Briefly describe project]?

Such questions enable you to evaluate candidates’ knowledge of your industry and sector and their ability to use their competencies to solve new challenges. 

6. Personal questions

Obviously, the below questions aren’t truly personal; the goal is to gain a better understanding of: 

• What motivates applicants to succeed

• What their professionals goals are

• Why they chose their particular field

• How they see their strengths and weaknesses

Here are six personal questions that you can ask during interviews: 

1. What are your long-term career goals?

2. How do you define and measure success in this role?

3. Which is more valuable to you: One-to-one positive feedback or group recognition?

4. What is a professional skill you're currently working on improving?

5. What professional achievement are you most proud of? Why?

6. What has been the most challenging aspect of your career, and how have you overcome it?

To go a step further, use our Motivation test to see whether candidates’ expectations align with what you can offer them, or our personality and culture tests to gain deeper insight into candidates’ behavior and personality traits.

7. Questions related to company culture

These questions will help you assess whether candidates’ culture and values align with those of your organization. Culture fit is not everything, though; instead, look for ’culture add’ potential.

1. How would you describe your ideal work environment?

2. Can you give an example of how you've contributed to a positive workplace culture in the past?

3. What are the most important factors for team success, according to you? 

4. What do you think about remote work versus in-office work?

5. Describe your ideal manager or supervisor.

6. What expectations do you have from your employer?

To go deeper, use our Culture Add test. You’ll need to fill out a survey before asking applicants to take it; our platform will then automatically rate candidates’ cultural alignment with your organization.

8. Background and experience questions

While experience is not everything, it’s worthwhile to ask candidates targeted questions around past roles to make sure they’ll be able to handle the challenges of the position you’re hiring for.

1. What skills have you acquired in the past year that are particularly relevant to this role? 

2. What was the toughest professional challenge you’ve faced in the past? How did you overcome it?

3. What do you consider your most significant professional achievement?

4. Have you ever needed to manage or coordinate a large cross-functional team? How did you do it and what was the outcome?

5. Can you tell me about a time when you took initiative to solve a problem, and, as a result, helped your team achieve better results?

6. What’s your experience with project management?

Don’t hesitate to adapt questions to the specific role or use follow up questions to dig deeper and gain more insights. 

Need more ideas? Check out these 35 informational interview questions.

9. Brain teaser questions

Companies sometimes use brain teaser questions to evaluate candidates’ thought processes and evaluate their logical thinking. However, these questions have become controversial in the past years; their effectiveness is questionable and some argue they don’t measure skills in any meaningful way. 

So, instead of brain teasers, we advise you to use skills assessments, which help you evaluate your candidates’ actual skills and preparedness for any given role. 

However, if you’re curious about what brain teasers might look like, here are some examples: 

1. How many times do a clock’s hands overlap in a day?

2. How many pens can fit in a large suitcase?

3. You’re in a race and you overtake the person in second place. What place are you in now?

4. How many windows are in this building?

5. If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

6. How would you improve traffic congestion in a large city?

For better results (and a better candidate experience), we advise you to use questions that are relevant to the role.

Use different types of questions for a comprehensive assessment of candidates’ skills

When trying to find the perfect fit for your team, it’s important to evaluate all candidates fairly, objectively, and in depth. The right mix of questions and skills tests will give you a 360-degree view of what each applicant brings to the table and how they can contribute to your team.

And, if you use skills assessments first, i.e. before interviewing candidates, you’ll be able to get a clear picture of their abilities and make sure you’re only interviewing those who have what it takes to be successful. 

Next, you just need to ask the right types of interview questions – ideally, in the form of a structured interview – and analyze all the data you’ll have available by then to make the right hiring decision.

Ready to start using skills tests today? Sign up for our free plan to try out the platform. Or, if you’d rather chat with one of our experts first, book a free 30-minute live demo to see whether TestGorilla is the right fit for your company.