TIL asking open ended questions in job interviews works way better than yes/no ones

I used to run through a checklist of canned questions for every candidate. Stuff like 'do you have experience with Python?' got me short answers and nothing useful. Then about 3 years ago a coworker suggested I try 'tell me about a time you debugged a tricky bug step by step' instead. The difference was night and day. People actually opened up and I got way more insight into how they think. Has anyone else had luck switching up their ask? What kind of questions work best for you?

2 comments

2 Comments

emery9651mo ago

Another angle nobody's mentioned - open ended questions also let you spot the people who are just good at interviews. Someone who rehearses "yes I have Python experience" can sound fine, but ask them to walk through debugging a weird error and you'll see who actually did the work versus who just watched tutorials.

margaret_singh11mo ago

Nodding along and hoping @emery965 doesn't ask me to debug anything live.