A 150-person logistics software company in Rotterdam has five hires to make in one quarter: an account executive, a financial controller, two backend engineers and a warehouse operations manager. Each hiring manager interviews in their own way. The sales director asks candidates to “sell me this pen”. The engineering lead asks trivia about a framework the team stopped using last year. The finance head mostly chats.
Three months later the account executive who sold the pen beautifully has closed nothing, a strong engineer has withdrawn after a two-hour puzzle session, and an operations candidate has complained that an interviewer asked, over coffee, whether she was planning a family. The interviewers were experienced and well-meaning. What they lacked was a shared, job-specific question set and an agreed picture of a good answer.
Most interview problems are caused not by bad interviewers but by improvisation: questions invented on the walk to the meeting room, different questions for different candidates, and judgments formed in five minutes and defended for fifty. The fix is unglamorous and proven — a structured question bank per role family, with a clear picture of a strong answer.
This guide, part of the Finding the Right Person hub, gives you five ready-to-adapt banks of ten questions each — sales, finance and accounting, software engineering, operations and supply chain, and people leaders and executives — plus the questions no interviewer should ask in any of the main hiring markets. Use it with the scoring method in our guide to structured interviews and scorecards.
In short
Structured interviews are among the best-supported predictors of job performance; unstructured ones score far lower in the research.
Mix three question types: behavioural (what you did), situational (what you would do) and technical or work-based (show me).
Each bank below has ten questions and a note on what a strong answer contains — pick six to eight per interview and anchor the scores.
Give each interviewer different competencies so the loop covers the scorecard without repeating itself.
Some questions are unlawful almost everywhere — family plans, pregnancy, religion, health before an offer, and in many places pay history.
Why a question bank beats a good conversation
The evidence is unusually clear. In the 2022 re-analysis of selection research led by Paul Sackett, structured interviews showed the highest average validity of the methods studied, at about 0.42, against roughly 0.19 for unstructured interviews. Those are correlations, not percentages, but the gap is large: asking every candidate the same job-related questions and scoring the answers against anchors roughly doubles the predictive value of the hour you spend.
Structure does not mean robotic. The questions come from the role scorecard, every candidate hears the same core questions, and each answer is scored against anchors agreed in advance. Follow-ups are encouraged — they get you past rehearsed answers — as long as they probe the same competency.
Question type
What it tests
Example opener
Watch for
Behavioural
What the candidate has actually done
“Tell me about a time when…”
“We” stories with no personal role; rehearsed STAR scripts — probe with “what did you do next?”
Situational
Judgment in a realistic scenario from your business
“Imagine that on your second week…”
Textbook answers; ask what they would do first, and what they would trade off
Technical / work-based
Skill shown live: role-play, case, code review, data exercise
“Here is a short brief. Walk me through it.”
Puzzles and trivia unrelated to the job; tasks that take hours (see work samples)
Use all three in each interview loop; the right balance depends on the role family (see the chart below).
How to use these banks without turning them into a script
Treat each bank as a menu. Per interview, pick six to eight questions mapped to the competencies that interviewer owns, and write one-line anchors for a 1, 3 and 5 before the first candidate arrives. In a four-interview loop, give each interviewer two or three competencies so the candidate meets four angles, not one question four times.
Replace the bracketed placeholders with real details: a situational question about your carrier or your codebase is far harder to answer from a script. Leave five minutes for the candidate’s questions — they are evidence too — and score before talking to anyone.
Behavioural questions dominate for leaders; technical and work-based ones dominate for engineers. Proportions are an editorial guide, not a rule.
Sales: questions that separate closers from talkers
Sales candidates interview well for a living, so fluency is not a signal. Look for a repeatable process — pipeline, qualification, forecasting, recovery from a bad quarter — and for numbers they know without hesitating.
● Sales interview question set · 10 questions
1Walk me through a deal you won that you were expected to lose. What changed it?Strong: named stakeholders, the moment they reframed value, deal size and timeline; credit shared honestly.
2Tell me about a quarter you missed. What did you do in the last six weeks?Strong: owns the miss, separates pipeline from conversion problems, describes specific recovery actions.
3How did you build pipeline in your last role, and what share was self-sourced?Strong: knows the figure and describes a weekly prospecting rhythm, not just inbound luck.
4Describe your forecasting method. How accurate were you last year?Strong: stage criteria, evidence required to commit a deal, an honest accuracy figure.
5Tell me about a deal you chose to walk away from.Strong: clear qualification criteria — fit, margin, risk — applied without drama.
6Procurement asks for 25% off on the last day of the quarter. What do you do?Strong: trades rather than concedes, protects margin, asks what changed, involves the deal desk.
7You inherit a territory whose top account renews in 90 days and is unhappy. Your first two weeks?Strong: listens before pitching, maps stakeholders, sets up internal support early.
8Role-play: I am a CFO prospect. Run five minutes of discovery on [our product].Strong: questions before features, quantifies the pain, closes for a concrete next step.
9How do CRM data and AI tools fit into your week?Strong: specific habits and data hygiene; uses tools to prioritise, not to replace conversations.
10What were your typical cycle length and deal size, and how would ours differ?Strong: knows the numbers and is realistic about adapting from transactional to enterprise, or back.
Finance and accounting: judgment, control and the courage to say no
Test three things CVs rarely show: accuracy under time pressure, explaining numbers to non-accountants, and integrity when someone senior wants a different answer. The third deserves a question in every finance loop.
● Finance and accounting interview question set · 10 questions
1Walk me through the last month-end close you owned. Where did it slip, and why?Strong: timeline, owners, the bottleneck and the fix that stuck.
2Tell me about an error you found after numbers had been reported.Strong: escalated quickly, quantified the impact, fixed the root cause and the control.
3Describe a time a senior manager pushed you to book something you were uncomfortable with.Strong: held the standard, explained it in business terms, escalated appropriately.
4How have you improved the accuracy of a forecast?Strong: identified the drivers, set up variance reviews and can show the before and after.
5Tell me about a business decision your analysis changed.Strong: turned numbers into a recommendation a non-finance manager acted on.
6A major customer defaults and runway falls from nine months to five. What happens in week one?Strong: a 13-week cash forecast, working-capital levers, clear messages to the CEO, board and bank.
7Two weeks before audit fieldwork you find revenue recognised early on a large contract. What now?Strong: quantifies it, applies the standard (IFRS 15 or ASC 606), tells leadership and the auditor.
8Talk me through how a prepayment flows through the three financial statements.Strong: correct, concise and confident. A basic hygiene check for any level.
9Exercise: this trial balance has three planted errors. You have 20 minutes.Strong: finds them, ranks them by materiality and explains the impact.
10Which finance systems have you implemented or improved, and what would you automate first here?Strong: specific tools and results; aware of the control implications of automation.
Software engineering: how they think, not what they have memorised
Puzzles and whiteboard trivia test interview preparation more than the job. These questions favour the work engineers actually do — designing under constraints, debugging, reviewing code, working with product — and scale from mid-level to staff by raising the ambiguity.
● Software engineering interview question set · 10 questions
1Tell me about a system you designed that later had to change. What did you get wrong?Strong: explains the original trade-offs and reflects honestly on what they would do differently.
2Describe the hardest bug you fixed in the past year.Strong: hypothesis-driven debugging, the right tools, the root cause and how recurrence was prevented.
3Tell me about a time you disagreed with a technical decision.Strong: argued with evidence, then committed or escalated constructively.
4How do you decide that code is good enough to ship?Strong: risk-based testing, observability, feature flags and a rollback plan.
5Describe a time you made your team faster, not just yourself.Strong: tooling, documentation, reviews or mentoring with a visible effect.
6You are on call and production is down at 2am. Walk me through the first 30 minutes.Strong: stabilise first, communicate early, diagnose second, then a blameless review.
7Product wants a feature in two weeks; your estimate is six. What do you do?Strong: slices scope, makes trade-offs visible and offers options rather than a flat no.
8Design exercise: a rate limiter for our public API.Strong: clarifies requirements first, considers scale and failure modes, reasons aloud about trade-offs.
9Code review: here is an 80-line pull request. What would you comment on?Strong: finds correctness and security issues before style; comments are specific and kind.
10How do you use AI coding assistants, and where do you not trust them?Strong: a concrete workflow, verification habits and awareness of security and licensing risk.
Operations and supply chain: questions for people who keep things moving
Operations candidates should talk in numbers — on-time-in-full, cycle time, cost per unit — and in people, because most operational problems are solved on the floor. Ask at least one question on safety and one on frontline leadership.
● Operations and supply chain interview question set · 10 questions
1Tell me about a process you redesigned. What were the before and after numbers?Strong: a baseline, the intervention and a measured result such as OTIF, cycle time or cost.
2Describe a supply disruption you managed from start to finish.Strong: speed, options weighed, supplier and customer communication, lessons applied.
3Tell me about a time you enforced a safety rule under pressure to hit output.Strong: safety first, stopped work if needed and explained why to the team.
4How do you run your daily and weekly operating rhythm?Strong: a few clear KPIs, tiered meetings, visual management and fast escalation.
5Describe how you reduced inventory without hurting service levels.Strong: segmentation, safety-stock logic and data to prove service held.
6Your main carrier announces a 15% rate rise in 30 days. What do you do?Strong: quantifies the impact, benchmarks, re-tenders or negotiates, considers mode shifts.
7The night shift has missed its dispatch target three nights running. Your next step?Strong: goes to see, finds the root cause across people, process and equipment, avoids blame.
8Exercise: here is a week of warehouse data. What do you look at first?Strong: picks the right KPIs, spots outliers and questions data quality.
9Tell me about a WMS, ERP or planning-tool rollout you were part of. What went wrong?Strong: realistic about data migration, training and change management.
10How do you build trust with frontline teams and employee representatives?Strong: visible on the floor, consults early, keeps promises consistently.
People leaders and executives: evidence of leverage, not charisma
Senior candidates are the most practised interviewees and the most likely to be hired on presence. Anchor every answer in outcomes achieved through others — who they hired, developed and stopped — and, for executives, add a case built on your real numbers.
● People leaders and executives interview question set · 10 questions
1Tell me about the best team you built. How did you hire it, and where are those people now?Strong: deliberate hiring choices, people developed and promoted, some now leading elsewhere.
2Describe a time you had to move someone out of your team.Strong: acted early, ran a fair and documented process, treated the person with dignity.
3Tell me about a strategy of yours that did not work. When did you realise?Strong: watched leading indicators, pivoted decisively and owned the outcome.
4How do you split your time in a typical month?Strong: deliberate allocation aligned to priorities, not a diary run by others.
5Describe a serious disagreement with your CEO or board.Strong: candour backed by data, a resolution reached and the relationship intact.
6In your first 90 days you find the team under-resourced and the plan unrealistic. What do you do?Strong: diagnoses before acting, resets expectations with evidence, secures early wins.
7Two of your direct reports are in open conflict and delivery is suffering. Your move?Strong: separate conversations, facts first, shared goals and clear expectations.
8What do your team’s engagement and attrition numbers look like, and what did you change?Strong: knows the data and links specific actions to it.
9Tell me about a change you led that people resisted.Strong: a clear case for change, early involvement and sensible sequencing.
10Case: here is our summary P&L and organisation chart. What would worry you?Strong: reads the numbers commercially, prioritises and asks sharp questions before answering.
Consultant’s noteAsk the same question of every candidate for the role, then ask “What did you do next?” until you reach the edge of the story. Rehearsed answers run out after two follow-ups; real experience keeps going, with names, numbers and mistakes.
Questions candidates must never be asked
Any of the banks above can be undone by one unlawful question, often asked as small talk on the way to the lift. The safe rule everywhere: ask only what you need to assess ability to do the job, and ask everyone the same. The table summarises the main traps by market.
Region
Do not ask about
Lawful alternative
United States
Age, religion, national origin, pregnancy, genetic information, disability or health before a conditional offer (see the EEOC guidance); pay history in 22 states; criminal history on applications in many states and cities
“Can you perform the essential functions of this job, with or without reasonable accommodation?” “Are you authorised to work in the US?”
United Kingdom
The nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 (including age, marriage, pregnancy, religion, sexual orientation); health questions before an offer, except the narrow cases in section 60
“Do you need any adjustments for the interview?” Questions about the job’s actual requirements
Germany and the EU
Pregnancy and family planning, religion, union or party membership, most health questions; in Germany candidates may lawfully give a false answer to an unlawful question
Questions with a direct link to the job; criminal records only where relevant to the role
France
Anything without a “direct and necessary link” to the job, under the Labour Code; family situation, origin, religion, health
Skills, experience and availability for the role as advertised
Türkiye
Marital status, pregnancy, religion, sect, political opinion, ethnicity; health beyond what the role strictly requires
Role-related questions; health checks only where the job lawfully requires them
UAE
Race, colour, sex, religion, national or social origin, disability (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021)
Qualifications, experience, notice period and visa or sponsorship status
Singapore
Age, race, religion, marital status, family responsibilities, disability, unless job-related (Tripartite Guidelines); the Workplace Fairness Act is expected to take effect at the end of 2027
Job-related questions applied equally to all candidates
Japan
Family background, birthplace, religion, political views, union membership, housing — discouraged under government fair-recruitment guidance
Aptitude and ability for the job
Australia
Protected attributes under the Fair Work Act and federal and state anti-discrimination laws (age, sex, pregnancy, family responsibilities, religion, disability and more)
Inherent requirements of the role, asked of everyone
Summary for interviewers, not a complete legal list. Local rules differ by state, province and emirate; see the job ad legal check by country for the advertising side.
Watch outThe riskiest questions are friendly ones. “Where are you from originally?”, “Do you have children?” and “When did you graduate?” feel like small talk but reveal protected characteristics, and the candidate cannot un-hear them. Brief every interviewer, including the CEO who drops in for ten minutes, and use the job ad legal check by country for the advertising side of the same rules.
From answers to a decision
Score each answer the moment the interview ends, against the anchors you wrote, and submit the scorecard before you read anyone else’s. If you used a work sample, review it with the same discipline — our guide to work samples and trial tasks covers design and scoring. Video platforms can help keep panels consistent across time zones; see our video interviewing software comparison, and remember that AI analysis of video interviews triggers notice and consent rules in Illinois and is restricted in the EU.
The banks only work if the questions upstream were right: a candidate who reached interview through a scored CV screen arrives with a list of claims to probe. Once every scorecard is in, the panel meets to decide; the debrief method in making the final hiring decision picks up from there, and the wider basics are in our guide to interviewing candidates.
Your next move
Pick the bank closest to your open role and choose six to eight questions per interviewer, mapped to the scorecard.
Replace every placeholder with a real detail from your business so answers cannot be rehearsed.
Write 1, 3 and 5 anchors for each question before the first interview and share them with the panel.
Split competencies across the loop so no two interviewers ask the same thing.
Brief every interviewer — including senior drop-ins — on the never-ask list for your country.
Require scorecards to be submitted before the debrief, with evidence written against each score.
Last Updated: November 2026 · Reviewed by the Kurums HR editorial team. This guide is general information, not legal advice; employment and advertising rules change, so confirm requirements with local counsel before you post.
