How to write first-round interview questions (with 20 examples)
A first round has one job: find out who is worth a longer conversation. Here is a simple framework for writing first-round interview questions, 20 examples you can use today, and how to turn the best ones into a set your whole team reuses.
Most first-round interview questions are written five minutes before the call, from memory, by whoever is free. Then every candidate gets a slightly different interview, and the team ends up comparing notes that were never about the same things.
It does not have to be that way. A first round has one job: to find out who is worth a longer conversation. This guide gives you a simple framework for writing questions that do that job, 20 examples you can use today, and a way to make the best ones reusable for every role you hire for.
What a first round should find out (and what it should not)
The first round is a filter, not a final decision. You are trying to answer four questions about each person:
Do they actually want this job, or any job?
Have they done work that is close enough to this to be credible?
Can they think through a problem out loud?
Can they explain themselves clearly?
That is enough. You are not trying to test deep technical skill, negotiate salary or decide culture fit from one answer. Those belong in later rounds, with the people who will actually work with the candidate.
Keep this list in front of you when you write questions. If a question does not help answer one of the four, cut it.
A simple framework: motivation, experience, problem-solving, communication
Write one or two questions for each of the four areas. For a first round, three to five questions in total is the sweet spot. Fewer and you learn too little; more and completion rates drop without telling you much more.
Motivation questions tell you whether the person has thought about this role and this company, or is sending the same application everywhere.
Experience questions ask for a real example from their past. The word "specific" does a lot of work here.
Problem-solving questions put a small, realistic situation in front of them and ask what they would do.
Communication is not usually a separate question. Every answer shows it. But one question that asks them to explain something does make it easier to compare people.
Below are 20 examples grouped by that framework. Pick the ones that fit the role, then edit the wording so it sounds like your company.
20 first-round interview questions
Motivation
What made you apply for this role in particular?
What do you know about what we do, and what interests you about it?
Describe the kind of work that makes a day feel well spent for you.
What are you hoping to do in this role that you cannot do where you are now?
Where do you want to be in two years, and how does this job help you get there?
Experience
Tell us about a piece of work you are proud of. What was your part in it?
Describe a time you had to learn something quickly to get a job done.
Tell us about a time something went wrong at work. What did you do, and what would you do differently now?
Which tools or processes have you used that you think would be relevant here?
Give an example of feedback you received that changed how you work.
Problem-solving
A customer is upset about something that was not your fault. Walk us through your first ten minutes.
You have two urgent tasks from two different people and time for one. How do you decide?
You notice a mistake in work that has already gone out. What do you do?
Describe how you would get up to speed in your first month here.
Tell us about a time you disagreed with a decision. What did you do about it?
Communication
Explain something you know well to someone who has never heard of it.
Describe a time you had to deliver bad news. How did you approach it?
How do you keep people informed when you are working on something that takes a while?
Tell us about a time a message you sent was misunderstood. What did you change?
Is there anything about you that a CV does not show, and that you would like us to know?
A good first-round question can be answered in two minutes by someone with the right experience, and cannot be answered well by someone without it.
How many questions, and how long for each answer
Three to five questions. For each one, decide how long a good answer takes and set the time limit a little above that:
Motivation questions: 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Anyone who needs longer is padding.
Experience and problem-solving questions: 2 to 3 minutes. Enough to set the scene, say what they did and say what happened.
Explain-something questions: 2 minutes. Part of the test is being concise.
In an async video interview, each question has its own time limit and recording stops when it runs out. Candidates see the timer and get a warning at 30 seconds and 10 seconds, so a fair limit is also a kind one. We go deeper on this in how long should each interview answer be.
Five mistakes that make first-round questions useless
Asking what you could have read. "Tell me about your experience" invites a recital of the CV. Ask for one example instead.
Yes-or-no questions. "Are you comfortable with deadlines?" Everyone says yes. "Tell us about a deadline you nearly missed" gets you something.
Trick questions and riddles. They measure how many interview blogs someone has read, not how they will do the job.
Different questions for different people. The moment you change the questions, you can no longer compare the answers.
Too many questions. A 45-minute first round feels like a test, and your best candidates have other options.
Turn your best questions into a reusable question set
Once you have questions that work, the worst thing you can do is lose them in a document somewhere. Save them as a question set: a named group of questions, each with its own time limit, that anyone on your team can import into a new interview and then adjust for the role.
In AsyncView, question sets are shared across the whole company. Build a "First round: core" set with your four or five best general questions, then smaller sets per role, such as "Support: situational" or "Sales: motivation". When you create an interview you import one or more sets, reorder, duplicate or edit the questions, and you are done in a couple of minutes. Over time the sets get better, because every hiring manager is starting from the same place rather than from a blank page. You can see how this fits with the rest of the product on our features page.
A quick checklist before you send
Three to five questions, each tied to motivation, experience, problem-solving or communication.
Every question asks for a specific example or a specific plan.
Each one has a time limit a little above what a good answer needs.
You have written one line per question describing what a strong answer includes, so reviewers rate against the same bar.
The questions are saved as a set so the next role starts from them.
If you would like to see your own questions running as an async interview, book a short demo and we will set one up with you.
