Interview Question Generator for Recruiters

What this prompt does

Generic interview questions produce generic answers that don't predict job performance. This prompt generates questions that are specific to the role, the competencies that matter most, and the situations the candidate will actually face — plus scoring rubrics so every interviewer is evaluating against the same criteria.

Works for any role, any industry, any experience level.

The prompt

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How to use it

1. Name the failure mode explicitly — this produces the most useful question. If you've seen 3 people fail in this role for the same reason, build a question that surfaces whether a candidate has that same weakness.
2. Share the scoring rubrics with all interviewers — structured interviews only work if everyone uses the same criteria. Send the guide before the interviews happen, not after.
3. Use the behavioral questions — "tell me about a time you…" questions produce evidence from real experience. Hypotheticals are easier to answer well without actual experience.
4. Adjust the question count for your format — a 30-minute screening needs 4–5 questions; a 60-minute panel can go deeper with 8–10.

Example output (partial)

Role: Product Manager (mid-level)
Competencies: Prioritization under constraints, stakeholder communication, data-driven decisions, shipping in ambiguity
Failure mode: Goes too broad, tries to solve everything, ships nothing

Competency: Prioritization under constraints

Behavioral: "Tell me about a time you had more requests from stakeholders than your team could handle. How did you decide what made it into the sprint and how did you communicate the decisions to the people whose requests didn't?"

What strong looks like:

• Named a clear framework (impact/effort, user value, revenue, etc.)
• Stakeholders understood the reasoning even if disappointed
• Something shipped that was right-sized for the team's capacity

What weak looks like:

• "We tried to do everything" — usually followed by nothing shipping well
• Avoided the conversation with stakeholders entirely
• No evidence of a decision framework — just gut feeling

Situational: "You're 3 days from a sprint end. Engineering finds a bug that will take 2 days to fix, and you have a feature demo committed to a key customer on Day 3. What do you do?"

Failure mode probe question:

"Walk me through a product you worked on from initial idea to launch. At what point did you feel most out of control, and how did you handle it?"

What to listen for: Someone who's never felt out of control either has low self-awareness or hasn't shipped in a real environment. Someone who describes how they re-scoped and shipped something smaller is showing the behavior you want.

Variations

For a teaching position

"Generate interview questions for a [GRADE LEVEL] [SUBJECT] teacher position. Focus on: classroom management philosophy, differentiation for diverse learners, family communication, and handling a challenging behavior situation."

For a small business owner hiring a generalist

"I'm hiring an 'operations coordinator' who will do everything from bookkeeping to vendor calls to customer service. I need someone who can switch contexts fast and owns their work. Generate questions for that profile."

For a culture/values screen

"Generate 5 questions that help me understand whether a candidate's working style and values fit our culture. Our values: [LIST THEM]. Questions should be specific enough to get real answers, not just agreement."

Common pitfalls

• Don't: Ask the same generic behavioral questions you find on LinkedIn articles. Candidates have prepared answers for "tell me about a challenge you overcame."

• Try instead: Ask about specific situations relevant to your role's actual challenges.

• Don't: Use interview questions as the only signal. Structured interviews are better than unstructured ones, but they're still one input among several.

Who uses this prompt

• Hiring managers: Preparing for interviews for roles on their team
• Recruiters: Building question banks for screening calls
• Small business owners: Hiring their first employees without an HR team
• School principals/administrators: Teacher and staff interview processes