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Hiring in 2025 is a race against the clock—especially for European companies competing for in-demand talent. Tellent Recruitee’s ‘The State of Hiring in 2025’ found that hiring speed is a direct factor in hiring success, with most companies locking down candidates in less than 30 days. In this climate, every minute you spend on the wrong applicant is a minute your competitors spend on the right one.
That’s why smart recruiters rely on well-crafted screening questions at the very first touchpoint. By zeroing in on essential skills, motivation, and logistical fit early, you swiftly separate high-potential candidates from mismatches—saving interview slots, shortening time-to-hire, and delivering the fast, transparent experience candidates now expect.
In this article, we’ll dive into the importance of screening questions, provide fifteen up-to-date examples you can use in your hiring process, and provide best-practice tips rooted in 2025 hiring data. You’ll see how thoughtful questioning not only speeds hiring but also strengthens candidate experience—helping you win the race for talent.
"Companies who use pre-screening tools and questions see a significant drop in time-to-hire, with one Tellent Recruitee customer, Livestorm, reducing theirs from 60 to 25 days." — The State of Hiring in 2025 report
What are screening questions (and why do they matter)?
Screening questions are the quick, job-relevant prompts recruiters put at the very start of a hiring process—whether in an application form, an emailed questionnaire, or a five-minute phone/video screen—to confirm that a candidate meets the must-have skills, availability, and cultural basics for the role.
They sit between a résumé scan and a full interview, acting as a fast filter rather than an in-depth assessment.
Used well, these questions help expedite hiring, while maintaining quality. With the average recruitment cycle stretching to roughly 44 days worldwide, according to our hiring report, every extra interview given to a clear mismatch drags that figure higher.
By weeding out unqualified or poorly aligned applicants early, teams free up calendars for high-potential talent, improve quality-of-hire, and give candidates the swift, transparent experience they now expect.
Formats for screening questions are flexible, including:
- Yes/no “knock-out” items in an ATS
- Short written answers,
- Or open-ended prompts during a screening call.
Whatever the format, a thoughtfully crafted set of screening questions is a recruiter’s fastest route to a focused shortlist. And, in 2025’s tight market, that’s a decisive competitive edge.
Types of screening questions to ask candidates
Comprehensive screening starts with covering five key areas:
- Skills
- Experience
- Motivation
- Culture
- Logistics
Screening for these early will give you a well-rounded view of every applicant before committing to full interviews.
Note: We’ve included a list of 20 sample screening questions further down in this article.
Skill and role-specific questions
This first category of questions is essential. It allows you to quickly confirm that candidates have the critical know-how to do the job. If they don’t, it’s generally an easy decision to pass and focus on other candidates.
These screening interview questions act as instant yes/no or short-answer filters that save hours later.
Work-experience questions
These questions are a logical follow-up to the above skills-based screening, and help you understand how the candidate has applied those skills on the job. They also help you match a candidate’s background to the role’s level and scope.
Answers to these questions help to verify CV claims and reveal career narrative and red flags.
Motivation and interest questions
These questions help you dig a little deeper into why the candidate is applying to this role, and what their motivation might be for leaving their existing company to join yours (if they’re currently employed).
Listen—or watch—for enthusiasm and specifics that help to signal the candidate’s motivations and ambitions. Generic or vague replies often signal low commitment or interest.
Culture and team-fit questions
These questions help you assess collaboration style and values to ensure a positive cultural add.
While you’ll likely need more time to delve into culture and team-fit in later interview stages, asking general pre-screening questions early will help you identify candidates that clearly have a working style that differs from your existing team dynamics.
Logistics and expectation questions
Lastly, it’s good practice to discover the practical deal-breakers early to ensure that neither party is wasting their time on more advanced interviews.
Clarifying basics up front prevents late-stage surprises and drop-offs. This last one is critical, given the relative disconnect we identified between advertised work models and desired work models in ‘The State of Hiring in 2025’ report.
Specifically, we found that hybrid work remained the dominant working model, with 72.7% of all job postings promoting this arrangement. Despite this, job seekers still clearly prefer fully remote work, according to our findings. Being clear about what the working model is upfront and early will help candidates make an informed decision about whether they want to proceed.
“Candidates increasingly value flexibility and the ability to work from anywhere, which makes fully remote roles more attractive than hybrid ones. One challenge with hybrid work is that it often lacks clarity—companies don’t always define expectations around office days or workplace culture upfront, leading to hesitation and drop offs later in the hiring process. In regions like DACH, many companies are pushing for a return to the office or hybrid models, but candidates aren’t happy about it. This shift makes fully remote employers more competitive in attracting top talent. Additionally, because hybrid roles require candidates to live within commuting distance, the talent pool shrinks, which naturally extends time-to-hire.” — Yulia Bondar, Talent Acquisition Specialist at Tellent
By covering these five areas—skills, experience, motivation, culture, and logistics—you build a holistic picture of each candidate from day one. Remember to stick to job-related topics and avoid any questions that touch on protected characteristics, or ones that are needlessly detailed for early screening. Fair, consistent screening keeps your process fast, compliant, and candidate-friendly.
20 best screening questions to ask candidates (with rationale)
Below you’ll find twenty go-to screening questions, each grouped by the hiring dimension it checks—Skill, Experience, Motivation, Culture, or Logistics—and followed by a quick note on why it matters.
Mix and match the ones that suit your role, and you’ll have a ready-made script that filters for must-have abilities, attitude, and practical fit without bogging candidates (or yourself) down in a drawn-out process.
1. Do you have hands-on experience with [core software/tool]? [Skill]
A fast yes/no gate that prevents you advancing candidates who lack a must-have technical competency.
2. Which programming languages do you use weekly, and at what proficiency level? [Skill]
Reveals depth, recency, and breadth of technical skill in one quick answer. This is an example of a screening question that’s specific to a technical programming role. You can swap this question depending on the role you’re screening for, of course.
For example, if you’re hiring for a digital marketing role, you might ask about their proficiency using AI tools for deep data analysis.
3. Are you certified in [mandatory qualification], or scheduled to complete it within six months? [Skill]
Distinguishes fully qualified talent from near-qualified prospects and helps plan training budgets.
4. Describe a project where you improved a process using data or automation. [Skill]
Shows practical application of skills and hints at a problem-solving mindset. Again, this is a super specific question for a specific type of role. Adapt this to the role that you’re recruiting.
5. How many years of experience do you have in [industry/discipline]? [Experience]
Sets a baseline for seniority and salary-band alignment.
6. What size teams and budgets have you been responsible for? [Experience]
Maps past scope to the expectations of your open role.
7. Tell me about one metric-driven achievement you’re proud of. [Experience]
Verifies impact, not just tenure, and flags data-literate candidates.
8. Why are you considering leaving your current position? [Experience]
Surfaces push-and-pull factors plus potential red flags around performance or fit.
9. What attracted you to our company and this role? [Motivation]
Checks the candidate’s research effort and genuine interest, both of which are key predictors of engagement.
10. Which aspects of your work energise you the most? [Motivation]
Helps you place candidates in roles where they’ll stay motivated and productive.
11. What skills are you keen to develop over the next 12 months? [Motivation]
Reveals growth mindset and alignment with your learning culture.
12. Where do you see your career in five years, and how does this role fit? [Motivation]
Assesses long-term fit and succession potential.
13. Do you thrive in independent settings, team-oriented environments, or a mix? [Culture]
Quickly gauges collaboration style to match squad dynamics.
14. How would colleagues describe your communication style? [Culture]
Flags self-awareness and indicates how smoothly the candidate might mesh with cross-functional partners.
15. Describe the best manager you’ve worked with—and why. [Culture]
Uncovers preferred leadership style and compatibility with your management approach.
16. Give an example of how you resolved a conflict inside a team. [Culture]
Tests emotional intelligence and constructive-feedback habits, which is crucial in remote or hybrid teams.
17. What salary range are you targeting for your next role? [Logistics]
Ensures compensation expectations align early, avoiding late-stage derailments.
18. If hired, what notice period would you need before starting? [Logistics]
Lets you forecast onboarding timelines and fill-date feasibility.
19. This role is hybrid, two days on-site in the office. Can you commit to that schedule? [Logistics]
Clarifies alignment with work-model expectations, which is vital given the remote-vs-hybrid mismatch we highlighted earlier.
20. Do you require visa sponsorship or other work authorization to work in [country]? [Logistics]
Surfaces legal constraints early so HR can plan compliantly and avoid surprises.
By mixing skill, experience, motivation, culture, and logistics questions, you create a holistic early filter that speeds up hiring while protecting candidate experience. Remember to keep every question job-related and consistent across applicants to remain fair, compliant, and competitive.
Best practices for screening candidates
Even the sharpest questions fall flat if they’re misused. Keep these tips in mind to run a fast, fair, and candidate-friendly screen:
- Keep it lean and relevant. Limit yourself to the handful of questions that truly decide fit; our ‘State of Hiring in 2025’ research shows nearly 60% of applicants abandon processes that feel long or repetitive. Save finer-grained probes for later stages.
- Be transparent from the first touch. Spell out travel, hybrid schedules, salary bands, or notice-period needs up front and turn them into yes/no checks (“This job is two days on-site in Rotterdam—does that work for you?”). Clear expectations cut early drop-offs and build trust.
- Ask open questions, listen for specifics. “Describe a time you de-escalated an unhappy customer” reveals far more than “Do you have customer-service experience?”—and shows you value the candidate’s story, boosting their perception of your brand.
- Standardise for fairness and speed. Use the same core questions for every applicant, record answers in a simple 1-to-5 rubric, and avoid anything personal or legally sensitive. Structured comparison reduces bias and satisfies EU equal-treatment guidelines.
- Leverage scoring tools in your ATS. Capture notes and ratings directly in Tellent Recruitee so the whole hiring team can see at a glance who meets the bar. Data beats gut feel, and makes debriefs faster.
Follow these practices and you’ll spot the right talent sooner while leaving every candidate—successful or not—with a positive, professional impression of your company.
How to leverage technology for smarter pre-screening
High-performing talent teams don’t run every candidate screen manually. Instead, they let tech shoulder the busywork while they focus on judgment calls. An applicant-tracking system such as Tellent Recruitee makes that shift easy.
Customizable screening questionnaires
Drop knockout questions—yes/no eligibility checks, salary range, work-authorisation—straight into the application form. Tellent Recruitee can even collect one-way video answers or file uploads, giving you richer context without scheduling a call.
Structured pipelines and automation
Create a dedicated “Screening” stage, add scoring fields, and set rules: candidates who meet all must-haves auto-advance. Others get a polite rejection email.
With this feature, mid-market teams gain the structured speed usually reserved for enterprise TA departments.
Plug-in assessments and interviews
Need a coding test, language assessment, or asynchronous video interview? Tellent Recruitee’s marketplace of integrations pull those tools into the same dashboard, so you expand screening depth without juggling logins or spreadsheets.
Collaborative feedback in one place
Hiring managers rate answers on shared scorecards, compare notes side-by-side, and agree who moves forward—no more lost emails or version-confusion. Meanwhile, branded email templates keep every candidate informed, reinforcing a positive experience.
Automating these checkpoints delivers three wins:
- Faster shortlists
- Consistent evaluations
- Clearer communication.
Pair your carefully crafted questions with an ATS like Tellent Recruitee and you’ll build a screening engine that’s quick, fair, and ready to secure the talent your team needs to grow.
“We focus on clear communication, quick feedback and a transparent selection process. Digital solutions allow us to interact seamlessly and help us to minimize application dropouts. In this way, we achieve recruiting processes that are efficient and at the same time appreciative for both hiring managers and candidates.” — Denise Loschek, Head of HR @ RSM Austria
Set, automate, and scale screening questions
Hiring in 2025 demands both speed and precision. Thoughtful screening questions—backed by structured, tech-powered workflows—let you zero in on the right candidates sooner, keep the process fair, and deliver the transparency today’s talent expects.
Update your question set, lean on data-driven tools like Tellent Recruitee, and you’ll work smarter and faster to secure the people who’ll move your organisation forward. Ready to put these ideas into practice? Start refining your screening today and watch your hiring outcomes improve.
