45 Candidate Screening Questions That Actually Predict Fit (With Scorecards, Red Flags, and AI Automation)

Your recruiting team shouldn’t spend half a day per hire repeating the same phone screen: salary, start date, eligibility, and “walk me through your resume.” That work is necessary, but it’s not where great hiring decisions get made.

The real problem is a screening bottleneck. When screening is slow or inconsistent, two things happen:

• Strong candidates drop out (or accept faster offers).
• Recruiters waste hours on people who were never viable.

The fix is simple: a structured set of screening questions tied to day-one requirements, asked the same way every time, and scored with a lightweight rubric.

In this guide, Tenzo shares:

• The complete list: 45 screening questions across five categories
• A selection framework: how to pick questions that predict performance (not just confidence)
• Green flags + red flags: what to listen for
• How to scale screening: without adding headcount, using Tenzo’s multi-channel AI interviewing

What are screening questions?

Screening questions are the short, structured prompts you ask early in the process to confirm:

• Must-have qualifications
• Motivation and role alignment
• Practical deal-breakers (schedule, location, pay, start date)
• Baseline communication and judgment

They can be delivered through a recruiter call, an email form, a one-way prompt, or an automated interview. What matters most is consistency: same questions, same evaluation standard, same scoring logic.

When screening is structured, you also create an auditable, comparable dataset across candidates—useful for fairness, quality-of-hire analysis, and hiring manager alignment.

Why structured screening improves hiring outcomes

It protects recruiter time and speeds up hiring

Screening is the choke point. If your top-of-funnel is large, manually scheduling calls becomes a throughput cap.

Tenzo’s approach is to move screening earlier and make it easier to complete: candidates can interview across email, SMS, phone, and Zoom, so your team spends time only where it adds value.

It increases quality (because structure predicts performance)

Selection research consistently shows structured interviews outperform unstructured conversations at predicting job performance. The difference isn’t the questions alone; it’s the combination of:

• role-relevant prompts
• consistent delivery
• standardized scoring

It supports skills-based hiring (the direction the market is already moving)

More employers are shifting to skills-based evaluation at the screening stage, reducing overreliance on proxies like credentials or GPA.

The Tenzo framework for choosing the right screening questions

If you only remember one thing: screen for day-one success. Build questions around what someone must do (and handle) in the first 30–90 days.

1) Start with “knockouts,” then add proof questions

A strong screen follows this order:

1. Eligibility + logistics: work authorization, schedule, location, compensation bands
2. Must-have skills: “Can you do X?” + “Show me you’ve done X.”
3. Behavior under pressure: deadlines, ambiguity, conflict, ownership
4. Collaboration + communication: how they work with others (especially remote)

2) Keep it brief: 10–15 questions, 15–20 minutes

Long screening flows raise drop-off and reduce signal quality. Aim for:

• one topic per question
• simple language
• scorable answers

3) Match the difficulty to the seniority

• Entry-level: learning agility, reliability, coachability
• Mid-level: repeatable execution, collaboration, measurable outcomes
• Senior: trade-offs, strategy, influencing without authority, systems thinking

4) Design for compliance

Keep questions job-related and avoid sensitive personal topics. If you’re unsure, ask: “Would the answer change whether they can do the job?” If not, don’t ask it.

The 45 screening questions (organized by category)

Below are 45 questions you can mix-and-match based on the role. Each category includes what to listen for plus red flags.

Category 1: Motivation and alignment

Use these to understand why they applied and whether the role is a fit—not just whether they can sell themselves.

1. What prompted your job search right now?
2. What about this role feels like a step forward for you?
3. What stood out to you about Tenzo (or our team/mission/product)?
4. What does “a great week of work” look like to you?
5. What type of work energizes you most?
6. What kind of work drains you (and how do you handle it)?
7. What accomplishment are you most proud of, and why?
8. What’s a skill you’ve intentionally improved in the last year?
9. What would make you say “yes” to a new role within 30 days?

Green flags: specific interest, clear career logic, self-awareness, realistic expectations.
Red flags: generic answers, “any job works,” or motivation anchored only to title/pay with no role fit.

Category 2: Skills and experience verification

These questions confirm whether the resume translates into real, role-relevant output.

10. Walk me through a recent project that maps directly to this role’s core responsibilities.
11. Which responsibilities from this job have you done repeatedly (not just once)?
12. What tools or systems do you use most in this type of work?
13. What can you do on day one with minimal guidance?
14. What would you want training or support on in your first month?
15. What metrics did you own in your last role? What moved, and why?
16. Tell me about a time you improved a process—what changed and what impact did it have?
17. What’s the most complex problem you’ve solved in this domain?
18. If I asked your last manager what you’re “best at,” what would they say?

Green flags: concrete scope, numbers, real artifacts, clear ownership (“I did X”).
Red flags: vague language (“helped,” “supported”), unclear impact, or inability to explain how results happened.

Category 3: Behavioral and situational judgment

These reveal how someone behaves under the conditions your team actually faces: pressure, ambiguity, change, and disagreement.

19. Tell me about a meaningful mistake you made at work. What changed afterward?
20. Describe a time you had competing deadlines. How did you decide what to do first?
21. Tell me about a project that went sideways. What did you do when it became clear?
22. What’s a time you had to deliver bad news to a stakeholder?
23. Tell me about a time you disagreed with a decision. How did you handle it?
24. Describe a time you had to learn something fast to meet a deadline.
25. Give an example of when you improved quality while moving quickly.
26. If you inherited messy work (poor documentation, unclear ownership), what’s your first move?
27. Imagine you realize halfway through you’ve built the wrong thing. What do you do next?

Green flags: ownership, clear trade-offs, learning, stakeholder awareness, structured thinking.
Red flags: blame, “nothing I could do,” fuzzy timelines, or no evidence of behavior change after failure.

Category 4: Collaboration and communication

Most hiring failures are “team fit” failures in disguise. These questions help you see how a candidate works with people.

28. How do you keep others informed without overwhelming them?
29. Describe how you adapt communication for execs vs peers vs cross-functional partners.
30. Tell me about a time you gave hard feedback. What happened next?
31. Tell me about a time you received feedback you didn’t agree with. How did you respond?
32. What does your ideal manager/collaboration style look like?
33. Give an example of working with someone whose style conflicted with yours.
34. How do you build trust with a new team in the first 30 days?
35. What’s your approach to documenting decisions and handoffs?
36. In remote work, what habits do you use to stay aligned?

Green flags: clarity, empathy, directness, proactive updates, strong written habits.
Red flags: “I’m not political,” “I just do my work,” avoiding conflict entirely, or blaming communication failures on others.

Category 5: Logistics and deal-breakers

These are the highest ROI questions in screening. Ask them early and neutrally.

37. What compensation range are you targeting?
38. What’s your earliest possible start date?
39. Are you authorized to work in [country], and will you need sponsorship now or later?
40. This role requires [hours/shift/on-site days/travel]. Does that work for you?
41. Are you comfortable with [background check / reference check / required certification] if applicable?
42. Do you have any planned time off or constraints in the first 60–90 days?
43. What’s your notice period?
44. Are you interviewing elsewhere, and what’s your timeline?
45. What questions do you have that would help you decide if this role is right?

Green flags: direct answers, alignment with constraints, thoughtful questions.
Red flags: misaligned expectations, evasiveness, or constraints they “forgot” until late stage.

What strong answers look like (and how to score them)

A useful screen isn’t “did I like them?” It’s “did they prove they can do the job?”

Strong answers tend to be:

• Structured: clear context → action → outcome
• Evidence-based: metrics, artifacts, concrete deliverables
• Role-relevant: their examples map to your requirements
• Reasoned: they explain trade-offs, not just actions

Simple 1–5 scoring rubric you can reuse

• 5: role-relevant example + clear ownership + measurable outcome + strong judgment
• 3: relevant experience but limited depth/metrics; some clarity gaps
• 1: vague, unproven claims or no relevant example

Tip: define what a “5” means for each must-have competency (e.g., customer escalation handling, SQL proficiency, shift reliability, etc.). That’s how you make screening repeatable.

Five screening habits that push great candidates away

1. Dragging screening too long
   If the first step feels like paperwork, candidates opt out.
2. Freestyling questions across recruiters
   If each screener asks different questions, you can’t compare candidates fairly.
3. Telegraphing the “right” answer
   Leading prompts create rehearsed answers instead of real signal.
4. Delaying deal-breakers
   If pay, schedule, or location won’t work, learn that in minute 2—not after a calendar dance.
5. Moving slow after the screen
   Speed matters. Top candidates interpret silence as disinterest or dysfunction.

How Tenzo helps you scale screening without adding headcount

Structured questions work best when they’re:

• asked consistently
• completed quickly
• scored reliably
• easy for candidates to access

Tenzo’s AI interviewing is designed to make that practical at scale. Candidates can complete screens via email, SMS, phone calls, or Zoom, so you don’t rely on recruiter calendars to move the pipeline forward. Tenzo supports role-specific screening flows with scoring built around your requirements, and it integrates with common recruiting systems so teams can act on results without copy/paste overhead.

A practical rollout plan

1. Define a role-specific question set (start with 10–12)
2. Add knockouts first (pay, schedule, eligibility)
3. Pilot and review outcomes (completion rate, pass-through quality, hiring manager feedback)
4. Iterate monthly (which questions predict later-stage success?)

If you want to see how a structured screening flow looks end-to-end, Tenzo can help you turn the question library above into a repeatable, multi-channel screen that runs even when your team is offline.

CTA: Want a screening workflow your recruiters don’t have to schedule? Explore Tenzo’s AI interviewing.

FAQ: Screening questions for candidates

How many screening questions should we ask?

For most roles, 10–15 questions is the sweet spot. Put deal-breakers first, then 6–10 role-specific proof questions.

What’s the difference between screening questions and interview questions?

Screening questions confirm baseline fit (eligibility, must-have skills, logistics). Interviews go deeper: problem-solving, role simulations, and team alignment.

Are screening questions fair?

They’re more fair when standardized. Asking the same role-relevant prompts and scoring them consistently reduces “gut feel” variance.

Should we use AI to screen candidates?

AI can be a strong fit for high-volume roles, after-hours pipelines, and teams trying to reduce scheduling overhead. The key is keeping questions job-related and maintaining human oversight on final decisions.

What should we avoid asking in screening?

Avoid questions that aren’t job-related (family status, health, age, etc.). Keep prompts focused on capability, availability, and experience tied to the role.

Copy/paste: a 12-question “fast screen” template

If you want a quick starting point, use this set:

1. What prompted your job search right now?
2. Why this role?
3. What’s one relevant project you’ve delivered end-to-end?
4. What tools/systems do you use most for this work?
5. What metrics did you own recently?
6. Tell me about a time you had competing deadlines.
7. Tell me about a mistake you learned from.
8. How do you keep stakeholders aligned?
9. Compensation range target?
10. Earliest start date?
11. Work authorization / sponsorship?
12. Any questions for us?

Final takeaway

You don’t need more phone screens. You need better screening questions, asked consistently, scored simply, and delivered in a way candidates can complete quickly.

If you’re ready to turn a question library into a scalable screening workflow, Tenzo can help you automate the repetitive front end—so your recruiters focus on what humans do best: judgment, relationships, and closing.

‍