Pre-Screening Interview Questions: 50 Examples to Ask Candidates

Good pre-screening interview questions confirm the hard requirements, check that the experience on the résumé is real, find out why the candidate is looking and what they want, and settle logistics and pay, in the same order for every candidate. Below are 50 of them, grouped by purpose, each with a line on what the answer tells you and what to listen for.

You won't ask all 50. A 15-minute screen has room for ten to twelve questions with follow-ups, so pick the ones that fit the role and keep them in the same order for everyone. After the list: the order to ask them in, how to fit them into 15 minutes, and how to score the answers consistently. The full bank of 50 questions is also in the download at the top of this page, ready to adapt for your own roles.

What is a pre-screening interview?

A pre-screening interview is the short first conversation between an application and the hiring manager's interview. Recruiters call it the phone screen, the initial screening interview or the first round, and the job is the same: to answer one question for the hiring manager. Is this candidate worth an hour of their time?

That makes it narrower than a full interview. A screen confirms requirements and logistics, checks the résumé against reality, tests one or two core skills at a surface level, and finds out whether the candidate wants what the role offers. Technical assessments, case studies and the deeper conversation about the team belong in later rounds.

Phone screening candidates is the classic format, but the same questions work in any first-round format: a video call, a chat screen or an AI interview. Our comparison of AI screening interviews puts the formats side by side.

How should you use these questions?

• Pick ten to twelve. Two or three on logistics and hard requirements, two on background, two on role skills, one or two on motivation, one on pay, and two to close.
• Fill in the brackets. "[core task]" should become the real task: "reconciled the month-end accounts", "admitted a patient from the emergency department", "saved a renewal that was about to lapse". A question in the role's own words gets a specific answer.
• Ask everyone the same questions in the same order. That is what lets you compare candidates rather than conversations.
• Follow up on every vague answer. "What did you do?", "How many?", "What happened next?" The first answer is often the rehearsed one.
• Keep every question about the work. The job, the candidate's experience of doing it, and what they want from the next one.

For the role-skills section, our guide to turning a job description into interview questions shows how to write questions from the posting, and the free interview question generator drafts structured questions and follow-ups for the competencies you pick.

50 pre-screening interview questions to ask candidates

Availability and logistics

1. When could you start, and how much notice do you need to give?
   Whether your timelines fit. Listen for a specific date or notice period, not "as soon as possible".
2. This role is [on-site, hybrid or remote], based in [location]. How does that work for you?
   Location fit, settled early. Listen for a plain yes, or the conditions they would need, such as a relocation date.
3. The role involves [amount of travel]. Is that workable for you?
   Whether travel is a real fit or a stretch. Listen for a clear yes, or exactly how much they can commit to.
4. Are you interviewing elsewhere, and how far along are those processes?
   Your deadline. Final rounds and pending offers elsewhere set the pace for your process.
5. Are there any dates in the next few weeks when you can't interview?
   Lets you book the next round before the candidate goes quiet. Write the dates straight into your notes.
6. How did you hear about this role?
   Which sources bring candidates who get through the screen. Listen for a referrer's name to follow up with.
7. Have you applied or interviewed with us before, for this or another role?
   History you may already have. Check your notes from last time before the next round.

Background and experience

8. Walk me through your current role: what you own, who you work with, and what a normal week looks like.
   Scope and level. Listen for what they own versus what they help with: "I run" and "I was part of" describe different jobs.
9. What made you move from [previous role] to [current role]?
   How they make career decisions. Listen for the reasoning, and whether the same reasoning points toward this role.
10. Which part of your experience is most relevant to this role?
    Whether they have read the job. Listen for a direct match to the role's top requirement, in their own words.
11. Tell me about something you achieved in the last two years that you're proud of. What was your part in it?
    Impact and ownership. Listen for a result, ideally with a number, and what they did personally.
12. How big is what you handle today: the team, budget, caseload, territory or customer base?
    Scale. Compare the numbers with the role; a big gap in either direction deserves a follow-up.
13. Which tools or systems do you use every day, and how well do you know them?
    Ramp-up time. Listen for the systems named in your job description, and for depth: configuring a system is not the same as using it.
14. What does your current manager rely on you for?
    Their value in someone else's eyes. Listen for something specific that a manager would actually say.
15. Is there anything relevant to this role that isn't on your résumé?
    What the paper leaves out. Listen for projects, training or responsibilities that never made it onto the page.

Motivation

16. Why are you looking now?
    The push. Listen for a concrete reason, then check whether this role fixes it. If it doesn't, the same reason may move them on again.
17. What made you apply for this role in particular?
    The pull. Listen for something specific to the posting or the company, not an answer that fits any job.
18. What do you want more of in your next role, and what do you want less of?
    What they are choosing for. Compare the answer with what the job actually involves day to day.
19. What would make this role a step forward for you?
    Whether the move makes sense for them. Listen for growth the role can genuinely offer.
20. What would make you turn down an offer from us?
    Deal-breakers, early. Listen for anything you already know is true of the role.
21. What do you need from a manager to do your best work?
    Management fit. Pass the answer to the hiring manager rather than judging it yourself.

Role skills

22. Tell me about a recent time you [core task of the role]. What was the situation, and what did you do?
    Evidence for the role's top requirement. Listen for a specific example, their own actions and the outcome.
23. How would you approach [a typical task from the first month]?
    Practical judgment. Listen for the questions they would ask first and a sensible order of work.
24. What's the hardest [type of problem] you've had to solve in this kind of role?
    Their ceiling. Listen for real complexity, and for how they knew it was solved.
25. How do you know when you're doing this job well?
    Whether they know what good looks like. Listen for the measures the hiring manager actually uses.
26. Tell me about a mistake you made in this kind of work, and what you changed afterwards.
    Self-awareness. Listen for a real mistake and a specific change, not a strength dressed up as a weakness.
27. Which part of this job would be newest to you?
    Honest gaps. Listen for candor, and for how they learned something similar before.
28. How have you kept your [field] skills current over the last year?
    Learning habits. Listen for something concrete and recent: a course, a certification, a project.
29. If we asked a colleague who has watched you work, what would they say you're best at?
    Self-perception. Listen for a strength that matters in this role, backed by an example.

How they work

30. Tell me about a time you had more work than time. What did you drop or push back on?
    Prioritization. Listen for a real trade-off and how they explained it to the people affected.
31. Tell me about a disagreement with a colleague or manager. How did it end?
    How they handle conflict. Listen for the other person's view, described fairly, and an actual resolution.
32. Give me an example of feedback that changed how you work.
    Coachability. Listen for specific feedback and a specific change.
33. Do you do your best work with close direction or with a lot of independence?
    Working style. There is no right answer; compare it with how the team actually works.
34. How do you keep your manager and teammates up to date on your work?
    Communication habits. Listen for a routine, not "I just keep everyone in the loop".
35. Tell me about a process you improved. What was wrong with it, and what changed?
    Initiative. Listen for a problem they noticed themselves and a result they can describe.
36. What do you do when you're stuck on a problem?
    Resourcefulness. Listen for what they try on their own first, and when they decide to ask for help.

Compensation

37. The range for this role is [pay range]. Does that work for you?
    Alignment before anyone invests more time. Listen for a clear yes, or how far apart you are.
38. What are you looking for in total compensation?
    Their expectation, in their words. Ask what they want rather than what they earn now: current pay describes their last employer, not this role.
39. Besides base pay, which parts of the package matter most to you?
    What to emphasize later: bonus, flexibility, time off, benefits or development. Listen for priorities you can meet.
40. Pay here is [structure, such as base plus commission or hourly plus shift differentials]. How does that structure sit with you?
    Comfort with how pay works, not just how much. Listen for experience with a similar structure.

Knockout questions

41. Do you hold [required license or certification], and is it current?
    A hard requirement. Note the type, the issuer and the expiry date, and verify them later rather than taking them on trust.
42. The role requires [nights, weekends or an on-call rotation]. Can you work that as described?
    A schedule requirement. Describe it exactly, so that a yes means yes.
43. This role needs hands-on experience with [must-have skill or system]. How much have you used it, and how recently?
    The real minimum, asked so that it can't be answered with a bare yes. Listen for how much and how recently.
44. The job involves driving to [sites]. Do you hold a valid driver's license?
    Ask it only when driving is part of the job. A yes-or-no with nothing to interpret.
45. Training runs full time from [start date] to [end date]. Can you attend all of it?
    A fixed commitment. Better to hear about a clash now than in the second week of training.

Knockout questions belong early in the screen, so neither side spends fifteen minutes on a role that can't work. Treat a "no" as something to check rather than an automatic rejection, especially in an automated screen: candidates misread questions, and a license or certification can go by a different name in another state or country. Our guide to knockout questions has more examples and how to word them.

Closing

46. What questions do you have about the role or the team?
    Engagement and preparation. Thoughtful questions about the work are a good sign.
47. Is there anything we haven't covered that the hiring manager should know?
    A last chance to add something relevant. Write it down in their words.
48. On a scale of 1 to 10, how interested are you in this role right now, and what would make it a 10?
    Interest, and the objection to work on. Listen for the gap, not the number.
49. The next steps are [steps and dates]. Does that timeline work for you?
    Expectations on both sides. Listen for clashes with their other processes.
50. Is there anything that would stop you from moving to the next round if we invited you?
    Last-minute blockers. Listen for anything that has changed since the start of the conversation.

In what order should you ask screening questions?

Put the questions that can end the process first, and the questions that need trust later. In practice that means logistics and hard requirements, then background, then role skills, then motivation and pay, then the candidate's questions and next steps. Our phone screen script writes that order out word for word, with a scorecard. Here is how it fits into a 15-minute screen:

That is twelve questions, which leaves room for the follow-ups that make a screen worth having. A few adjustments:

• If the pay range is tight, move question 37 up with the knockouts. Better to find a mismatch in minute two than minute twelve.
• For hourly and shift roles, spend longer on logistics (questions 1–5 and 42) and less on background.
• For specialist roles, give role skills five minutes and take the time from motivation; the hiring manager will cover motivation again.
• Don't skip the close. Telling the candidate what happens next, and when, helps keep a good candidate from going quiet.

How do you score screening answers consistently?

A screen is only useful if two recruiters would reach the same view of the same candidate. That takes three things: a few fixed categories, a description of what each level sounds like, and notes in the candidate's own words.

1. Choose three or four categories, and use them for every screen for the role. For most first rounds, skills and experience, motivation and interest, and communication cover it. Treat logistics and knockouts as pass or flag, not as scores.
2. Write anchors before the first screen. For each category, describe what a 1, a 3 and a 5 sound like. One line each is enough.
3. Take notes in the candidate's words. "Ran the night shift for a 30-bed unit" is evidence. "Strong background" is a conclusion.
4. Score straight after each screen, before the next one, against the anchors rather than against the last candidate.
5. Don't let one great answer lift every score. Score each category on its own evidence.
6. Calibrate. Every few weeks, have two recruiters score the same three to five screens and compare. Where you disagree, fix the anchor.

Here is an example of anchors for one category:

Our interview scorecard template has a ready-made layout and anchor examples for other categories.

Can an AI interview ask these questions for you?

Yes, if the format can follow up. A pre-screen is mostly a fixed set of questions in a fixed order, which is exactly what an AI interview does well. The value is in the follow-ups and the notes, and a good AI interviewer handles both: it asks "what happened next?" when an answer is thin, and hands you a transcript instead of your memory of the call.

DIO, the AI interviewer Dio makes, has a screening round that covers much of the same ground: background, what the candidate does, achievements, how they work, why they're moving, why this role, what they want, and compensation and logistics. It holds the interview by voice in the candidate's browser, follows up when an answer is thin or vague, and rates the answers on three constant categories: skills and experience, motivation and interest, and communication. Knockout questions flag an answer for your review and never end the interview, and a person on your team makes every decision.