What Are the Best Interview Questions to Ask Candidates?

One of the skills of a recruiter is knowing the right interview questions to ask candidates. However, with AI-powered sourcing and shifting expectations from both candidates and clients, the hiring landscape is constantly evolving. It’s easy for interview templates or generic checklists to grow stale.

In this article, we’ll highlight our 12 best interview questions, broken down into key categories:

• Behavioral questions
• Technical questions
• Cultural fit questions
• Situational questions

We’ll also explore how the best candidate questions evolve from preparation, such as knowing the candidate's motivations and experience before conducting an interview.

Kalent can help you prepare better with pre-qualified candidates and context-driven candidate profiles that closely match the role you’re trying to fill – if you want to know how, you can book a demo here.

How to Determine the Best Interview Questions

Good recruiters know that the best interview questions are not random – they emerge from a sophisticated understanding of your candidate’s work history and their interest in the role.

This is why pre-interview preparation is so important. If you go into an interview with a new candidate knowing their career trajectory, motivations and concerns, you’ll have a much more productive and transparent conversation.

This is where AI-powered co-pilot tools like Kalent come in. Kalent provides pre-enriched profiles with visible candidate data, including career histories and verified contact information.

In terms of initial outreach, knowing your candidates from the outset leads to higher response rates and better communication with candidates from the very beginning.

Ultimately, this leads to better interviews, as candidates arrive already engaged in your offer, leaving time and space for deeper questions instead of the bland “why do you want to work here?”

A good interview should be a continuation of an already engaging and personalized conversation, not a generic Q&A. If you get this right, you'll land top talent faster and have more meaningful dialogues with candidates, leading to better placements and less time wasting.

12 Best Interview Questions By Category

Behavioral Questions (Past Experiences)

1. "Tell me about a time when you had to adapt to a significant change at work that you didn't initially agree with."

This is one of the best interview questions you can ask, because it allows you to assess a candidate’s adaptability to different environments, as well as their resilience to change and professional maturity.

2. "Describe a situation where you had to take ownership of a project that wasn't going well. What was your approach and what was the outcome?"

This helps you gauge a candidate’s leadership skills, accountability and problem-solving abilities. If you want to help candidates prepare, you can always send these kinds of interview questions in advance.

3. "Give me an example of a time when you had to collaborate with someone whose work style was very different from yours."

This is another great interview question for candidates because it assesses their teamwork, interpersonal and conflict resolution skills. Not everyone collaborates well with others, so if this is a key requirement for the role, you should ask this question early on.

Technical Questions (Role-Specific Skills)

4. "Walk me through how you would approach learning a new system or technology that's critical to this role but unfamiliar to you."

This is one of the best interview questions for technical roles because it allows you to assess the candidate’s learning agility, methodical thinking skills and adaptability to new technologies. Even in creative or strategic roles like marketing or sales, being able to adapt to new tools and ways of working is essential in 2025.

5. "Describe your process for ensuring quality and accuracy in your work, especially when working under tight deadlines."

Quality and accuracy are important in just about any project. This question gives you insight into the importance the candidate places on attention to detail, quality control and time management.

6. "How would you explain a complex technical process or decision to a non-technical stakeholder who needs to approve it?"

This is one of the best interview questions to ask candidates for leadership or executive positions because it assesses their communication skills, as well as their aptitude for knowledge translation and stakeholder management.

Cultural Fit Questions (Values and Work Style)

7. "What type of work environment brings out your best performance, and why?"

Finding someone who is a good culture fit will ensure positive working dynamics and successful outcomes. Asking this question allows you to assess the candidate’s self-awareness, cultural alignment with the team and working styles and preferences.

8. "Tell me about a time when you had to give or receive feedback that was difficult to hear. How did you handle it?"

Everyone has an example of this in their career. Your candidate’s answer will provide unique insight into their communication style and allow you to assess whether they’re emotionally intelligent and have a growth-focused mindset.

9. "Describe a situation where you went above and beyond what was expected in your role."

This question allows you to assess a candidate’s work ethic, initiative and drive, while also testing their values alignment with the team and wider business.

Situational Questions (Hypothetical Scenarios)

10. "Imagine you're given three high-priority projects with overlapping deadlines and limited resources. How would you prioritize and manage this situation?"

The best interview questions are often situational, because they show you how your candidate might perform under pressure or in conflict. Asking how they handle overlapping deadlines allows you to assess their priority management and decision-making skills.

11. "What would you do if you discovered that a team member was consistently missing deadlines, potentially affecting the entire project?"

It’s important during the interview stage to find out how a candidate handles conflict resolution and diplomatic communication. Asking this question will give you insight into their team management style – not just when things are working well, but also when there are misalignments and mistakes.

12. "How would you handle a situation where you realized you made a significant error that could impact the client or project, but no one else has noticed it yet?"

This might seem like a tough question to answer, but it's actually one of the best interview questions to ask candidates if you want to assess their integrity, accountability and ability to solve problems ethically. Chances are, they’ve probably faced an issue like this in their career and will be happy to tell you how they resolved it.

Try These 12 Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

At Kalent, we know that the best interview questions emerge from your understanding of your industry, the role you’re recruiting and your candidates.

Recruiters who rely on generic interview questions and checklists miss out on the opportunity to dig deeper. With insightful, context-led questions, you can have deeper, more engaging interview conversations and get one step closer to finding your dream candidate.

From intelligent talent sourcing to booking interviews, Kalent ensures that all of your candidate touchpoints are meaningful, not mechanical.

Ready to source better candidates faster and more efficiently? Kalent delivers 5x better reply rates with context-driven outreach, all in one platform.

Book a demo today, and we’ll share how recruiters like you are closing 30% more placements.

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