Interview questions by role: find questions for your job
Start typing your role, such as nurse, cashier or software engineer, and pick it from the list: you see 8 to 12 practice questions for that job and a link to the full guide on how to answer them. If your exact title isn't listed, try a broader word like manager, assistant or engineer.
How to use it
- Click the box and start typing your job title. Suggestions appear as you type.
- Pick your role from the suggestions. The questions for the closest match appear below and update as you type.
- Press Open the full guide for what each question is testing and how to answer it.
- Choose the three questions you'd least like to be asked, and practice those out loud first.
The roles come from our guides, which cover jobs across healthcare, education, retail and hospitality, offices, sales, tech, trades and public services. You can browse them all on the interview questions by role page.
If your role isn't listed
The search looks for what you typed anywhere in a role's name, so shorter words find more:
| You typed | Try instead | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pediatric staff nurse | nurse | Specialty titles usually share the core role's questions |
| Senior software engineer | software engineer | Level words like junior and senior aren't in role names |
| Shift lead | supervisor, or team leader | Different companies use different titles for the same job |
| Barista trainer | barista | Start with the job, then add the training questions yourself |
| A job not covered | the closest job you can find | Most of the questions will still apply |
Every interview also includes general questions like "Tell me about yourself" and "Why do you want this job?" Those are covered once, for every role, in common interview questions.
What role questions test
Role questions are usually one of three types. Knowing which one you're facing tells you how to answer.
| Type | Example | What a good answer does |
|---|---|---|
| Experience | "Tell me about a time you handled a difficult patient." | A real story, told with situation, action and result |
| Scenario | "What would you do if the register is short at closing?" | Walks through steps in order and says who you'd tell |
| Knowledge | "How do you prioritize support tickets?" | Explains your method plainly, with one example |
For experience questions, the STAR method keeps your story to about two minutes.
How to practice the list
- Read every question once and mark each one: confident, unsure or no idea.
- Prepare stories, not scripts. Three or four real examples from your work or studies can answer most experience questions.
- Answer out loud. Questions that feel easy on paper often come out long or vague when spoken. The interview answer check shows your time, fillers and transcript for each try.
- Practice the follow-up. After each answer, ask yourself "What exactly was your part?" and answer that too.
Speaking Coach's phone app does this with a voice interviewer: add the job post and your CV, and it asks role questions about your real experience, then follows up on what you said.
Questions people ask
How many questions should I prepare for an interview?
Prepare answers to the general questions everyone gets, plus your role's list. You won't be asked all of them, but the stories you prepare overlap, so a handful of good examples covers most.
Are these the exact questions I'll be asked?
No one can promise that. They are questions commonly asked for the role, written to help you prepare. Use the job posting to guess which ones matter most.
What if I'm changing careers into this role?
Practice the role's questions using examples from your old job. Explain in one sentence how that experience carries over.
Can I use this for a promotion or internal interview?
Yes. Search for the role you're moving into, not the one you have now.
Does the search work for other languages?
This English page searches the English role guides. Where the page exists in another language, that version searches the role guides written in that language.