When hiring a new employee, it’s important to ask the right questions.

But how do you really dig into what makes someone tick as an employee, and how do you determine if they’ll be a good fit for your business — not only in terms of their skills, but also their personality, and as a part of your company culture?

To help you come up with the perfect list of interview questions to ask potential employees, we’ve come up with 44, divided this list into five categories; basic interview questions, behavioral interview questions, salary & career development questions and getting started questions. Pick and choose a handful that feel most applicable from each list.

Happy interviewing! 🚀🚀🚀

Basic interview questions:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What are your strengths?
3. What are your weaknesses?
4. Why do you want this job?
5. Where would you like to be in your career five years from now?
6. What’s your ideal company?
7. What attracted you to this company?
8. Why should we hire you?
9. What did you like least about your last job?
10. When were you most satisfied in your job?
11. What can you do for us that other candidates can’t?
12. What were the responsibilities of your last position?
13. Why are you leaving your present job?
14. What do you know about this industry?
15. What do you know about our company?
16. Are you willing to relocate?
17. Do you have any questions for me?

Behavioral interview questions:

1. What was the last project you led, and what was its outcome?
2. Give me an example of a time that you felt you went above and beyond the call of duty at work.
3. Can you describe a time when your work was criticized?
4. Have you ever been on a team where someone was not pulling their own weight? How did you handle it?
5. Tell me about a time when you had to give someone difficult feedback. How did you handle it?
6. What is your greatest failure, and what did you learn from it?
7. How do you handle working with people who annoy you?
8. If I were your supervisor and asked you to do something that you disagreed with, what would you do?
9. What was the most difficult period in your life, and how did you deal with it?
10. Give me an example of a time you did something wrong. How did you handle it?
11. Tell me about a time where you had to deal with conflict on the job.
12. If you were at a business lunch and you ordered a rare steak and they brought it to you well done, what would you do?
13. If you found out your company was doing something against the law, like fraud, what would you do?
14. What assignment was too difficult for you, and how did you resolve the issue?
15. What’s the most difficult decision you’ve made in the last two years and how did you come to that decision?
16. Describe how you would handle a situation if you were required to finish multiple tasks by the end of the day, and there was no conceivable way that you could finish them.

Salary questions:

1. What salary are you seeking?
2. What’s your salary history?
3. If I were to give you this salary you requested but let you write your job description for the next year, what would it say?

Career development questions:

1. What are you looking for in terms of career development?
2. How do you want to improve yourself in the next year?
3. What kind of goals would you have in mind if you got this job?
4. If I were to ask your last supervisor to provide you additional training or exposure, what would she suggest?

Getting started questions:

1. How would you go about establishing your credibility quickly with the team?
2. How long will it take for you to make a significant contribution?
3. What do you see yourself doing within the first 30 days of this job?
4. If selected for this position, can you describe your strategy for the first 90 days?