Software Engineer
Walk me through a piece of software or technical work you helped deliver. What was your contribution?
Specific actions, the available scope and an observable outcome; numbers are helpful when available, but are not required.
Phone screen questions & interview scorecard template
Prepare a focused first conversation. Choose a role, explore relevant experience and record the evidence in a scorecard you can edit and download.
Build your screening kit
Choose the role and level, then adapt the expectations to your vacancy.
Software Engineer · Experienced
A recruiter-led first conversation for individual contributor engineering roles. Use a later technical assessment to evaluate coding and system design.
Look for independent delivery of relevant work, sound trade-offs and effective collaboration within the scope this person will own.
6 core questions · 2 alternatives · 4 evidence-based criteria
Use the questions and scorecard together: each question is linked to a criterion you can assess.
Before you begin: Agree the expected technical scope, ownership and collaboration for this level. Accept study, open-source, internal and confidential projects; ask for anonymized examples where needed.
Phone screen questions for Software Engineer roles
Agree the core set before interviewing. Use alternatives to replace a less relevant question, and keep the same set for every candidate for this vacancy.
- Delivery & ownership
1. Walk me through a piece of software or technical work you helped deliver. What was your contribution?
Listen for: Specific actions, the available scope and an observable outcome; numbers are helpful when available, but are not required.
Follow-up questions
- Which parts did you decide or implement yourself?
- How did you know the work was complete or useful?
Point to explore: If the answer stays at team level, clarify ownership before drawing a conclusion.
- Technical reasoning
2. Describe a technical problem you worked through. What options did you consider?
Listen for: A clear problem, constraints, alternatives and a reasoned choice appropriate to the role.
Follow-up questions
- What made the problem difficult in that context?
- What would have made you choose a different approach?
Point to explore: Offer time to choose an example. A familiar project can be more informative than the most impressive one.
- Quality & learning
3. How did you check that work before and after it was used?
Listen for: Checks linked to actual risks, feedback from use and an understanding of what remained uncertain.
Follow-up questions
- What failure were you trying to prevent?
- What did you learn from a defect, review or unexpected result?
Point to explore: Explore the division of responsibility with reviewers or QA; shared testing does not imply lack of ownership.
- Engineering collaboration
4. Tell me about a technical decision where you and someone else initially disagreed.
Listen for: An explanation of both positions, a constructive response and what happened next.
Follow-up questions
- How did you understand the other person’s concern?
- How was the decision made, and what did you do afterward?
Point to explore: If no disagreement comes to mind, ask about coordinating a dependency or incorporating review feedback.
- Delivery & ownership
5. Tell me about a time the original plan changed while you were delivering work.
Listen for: How the person surfaced uncertainty, adjusted scope and communicated the effect on delivery.
Follow-up questions
- What changed, and when did you notice it?
- What did you communicate and to whom?
Point to explore: Distinguish a change outside the person’s control from the actions they could reasonably take.
- Quality & learning
6. What is one change you made to how you work after feedback or a mistake?
Listen for: A specific observation, a change in behavior and some evidence of its effect.
Follow-up questions
- What prompted the change?
- How have you used the new approach since?
Point to explore: Allow examples from study or personal projects for someone early in their career.
- Technical reasoningAlternative question
7. Which parts of your current technical work are most relevant to this role?
Listen for: Relevant tasks and depth of involvement, rather than a list of product names or versions.
Follow-up questions
- What have you used directly, and what have you only encountered?
- How would you learn a part of our stack that is new to you?
Point to explore: Separate transferable reasoning from familiarity with a particular tool.
- Engineering collaborationAlternative question
8. Describe a time you explained technical work to someone with a different background.
Listen for: How the explanation was adapted and whether it enabled a useful decision or action.
Follow-up questions
- What did that person need to understand?
- How did you check that your explanation helped?
Point to explore: Assess job-relevant clarity rather than accent, confidence or presentation style.
Interview scorecard template
Compare evidence with the expectations agreed for this vacancy and level. Rate independently before discussing with other interviewers. Use “Not assessed” when evidence is missing; there is no automatic pass score.
Notes are kept only while this page is open. Copy or download them before leaving or reloading. Changing role or level keeps a separate draft.
0 of 4 criteria assessed
A 30-minute phone screening interview
Use this suggested agenda as a starting point. Select the most relevant questions in advance and allow time for follow-ups rather than trying to cover the entire bank.
- 0–3 min
Set the context
Explain the role, the purpose of this conversation and the next stages.
- 3–6 min
Understand relevant experience
Ask for a short overview and select a relevant example to explore.
- 6–21 min
Explore the agreed questions
Use the same core set for this vacancy. Follow up on actions, reasoning and outcomes; do not rush to cover every prompt.
- 21–25 min
Check practical alignment
Share the compensation range and working arrangements, then clarify availability.
- 25–30 min
Leave room for the candidate
Invite questions, explain the next step and agree when they will hear from you.
Practical alignment, separate from the scorecard
Record constraints and open questions. Compensation, location and start date are not measures of professional capability.
- Role interest
Which parts of the role would you like to explore, and what would you need to know to decide whether it is right for you?
Provide context first, especially for a sourced candidate. Interest is a conversation, not a personality score.
- Compensation
The budgeted compensation range is [range], with [relevant components]. Is that broadly compatible with what you are considering?
Clarify expectations and flexibility without requiring previous salary details.
- Working arrangements
This role involves [location, schedule and any essential travel]. Are there arrangements or questions we should clarify?
Discuss the requirements of the work. Do not make assumptions about personal circumstances.
- Availability
If we both wanted to proceed, what start date or notice period would we need to plan around?
Record the timeline separately from capability. Availability alone is not evidence of professional quality.
Close with: What would you like to ask about the work, the team or the process? A candidate having no further questions is not, by itself, a negative signal.
Export the complete kit with questions and interview plan, or the scorecard alone with your ratings and evidence. Both include blank candidate, vacancy and date fields.
Help candidates prepare, too. A role.so candidate pack brings the role, company and hiring process together before the next conversation.
Explore a candidate packPhone screen questions to ask candidates, by role
Good screening questions ask for evidence of the actual work. These examples show how the focus changes by role. Open the kit above for the full question set, follow-up prompts and points to explore.
Product Manager
Tell me about a user problem you worked on. How did you establish that it mattered?
Who experienced the problem, the evidence gathered and what remained uncertain.
Recruiter / Talent Acquisition
Walk me through how you clarified a recent hiring need with a hiring manager.
Job-relevant requirements, trade-offs and an agreed definition of a suitable candidate.
Sales / Account Executive
Walk me through a recent customer conversation where you assessed whether there was a real fit.
Customer context, questions asked and a clear qualification decision.
General role
Choose a task from this role that you have done before. How did you approach it?
A relevant example, practical steps and attention to the task’s constraints.
How to use your interview scorecard
An interview scorecard connects the requirements of a vacancy with the evidence collected in an interview. Its purpose is to make reasoning visible and comparisons more consistent.
- Define the essential tasks and the expected level before the first interview.
- Agree a core question set and use it consistently for that vacancy.
- Write down what the candidate did and what happened, then assign ratings.
- Mark missing evidence as “Not assessed” and identify how to gather it.
- Make a documented next-stage recommendation. Do not use an uncalibrated average as an automatic hiring rule.
Interview scorecard example
Illustrative evidence for an experienced software engineer.
- Competency
- Delivery & ownership
- Evidence:
- Owned the API changes for an internal reporting feature, coordinated a staged rollout with support and checked that the operations team could complete the task. Explained which decisions belonged to the technical lead.
- Rating:
- 3 · Meets expectations for the delivery scope agreed for this example.
- Next-stage question
- Explore error handling and rollback choices in the technical interview.
Phone screening and scorecard questions
What is a phone screen interview?
A phone screen is an early conversation used to understand relevant experience, clarify the role and decide what to assess next. It can take place by phone or video. It should not be treated as a substitute for the role-specific assessments that follow.
What phone screen questions should a recruiter ask candidates?
Ask about a relevant piece of work, the candidate’s own contribution, a decision they made, how they worked with others and what they learned. Use follow-up questions to understand actions and results. Then clarify the role, compensation range, working arrangements and next steps.
How long should a phone screening interview take?
This template uses a suggested 30-minute agenda, including time for candidate questions. Choose the core questions before the call and allow time to explore answers. If a competency cannot be assessed in the available time, record it as not assessed rather than rushing to assign a score.
How do I use an interview scorecard template?
Define the expectations for the vacancy first. Use the same core questions and rating criteria for candidates for that vacancy. Record specific evidence for each competency and rate independently before discussing with colleagues. Keep practical constraints separate from capability ratings.
What is an example of an interview scorecard rating?
For delivery and ownership, a rating of 3 could mean the candidate explained their personal contribution, how the work was completed and what changed. “Not assessed” means the conversation did not provide enough evidence. A rating of 1 requires evidence below the agreed expectations, not simply an unanswered question.
Can I download or copy the interview scorecard?
Yes. Copy kit and Download kit include the questions, follow-ups, interview plan, scoring guidance and any evidence or recommendations you enter. The download is an editable text file you can paste into your interview document. It is not an Excel or PDF download.
Can I use the same questions for junior and senior candidates?
Some prompts work across levels, but the expectations must change. Early-career examples may come from study or volunteering; senior individual contributors may demonstrate broader dependencies and judgment under uncertainty. Set the expected scope before interviewing and use the same level for candidates for the same vacancy.
About the method
These role.so templates use structured-interview principles: job-relevant questions, consistent criteria and evidence recorded before group discussion. They are starting points to adapt to a vacancy, not validated selection tests. The level selector changes the calibration guidance; it does not create a separate validated assessment.