Types of Interviews: How to Choose the Right One for Each Hiring Stage

The types of interviews come down to three choices: how structured each one is, what questions it asks, and its format. Deciding all three for each stage gives candidates comparable interviews and tells you what each round should find out.

Most lists of different types of interviews mix these choices together, so "panel" sits next to "behavioral" as if you had to pick one. A panel can ask behavioral questions from a structured guide, and that combination is the real decision for each round.

Types of interviews sorted into three choices

Every interview type you'll see on a list belongs to one of three groups: structure, question type, or format. Structure is how much of the questions and scoring you set in advance. Question type is what you ask the candidate to do, and format is the setting, from a phone call to an office panel.

That's why lists promising a fixed number of types of job interviews don't agree with each other. They count items from all three groups as alternatives, when a single round needs one choice from each. Exit interviews sit outside the set, since they're conversations with people leaving, and exit interviews follow their own process.

Say you're an in-house recruiter planning interviews for an account executive at a business-to-business (B2B) software company. You need to know whether the candidate can run a discovery call, manage a pipeline, and work with sales engineers. Each of those questions points to a different mix of the three choices. On many agency searches, the recruiter runs the first screen and advises the client on the later rounds.

Choose the level of structure before you start writing questions

Structure comes first because it decides whether candidates' answers can be compared side by side. The three main types of interviews by structure are structured, semi-structured, and unstructured:

• Structured: OPM's interview guidance says a structured interview "uses a standardized questioning and scoring process for all candidates."
• Semi-structured: The core questions and scoring stay fixed, and the interviewer can add follow-ups.
• Unstructured: The conversation goes wherever the interviewer takes it, with no set questions or scoring.

A 2022 meta-analysis on predicting job performance found that structured interviews "emerged as the top-ranked selection procedure" among the methods it compared. That result covers many jobs, so it can't promise that one structured round will pick the right account executive. It's still a good reason to structure the rounds that carry the most weight.

Unstructured conversations can still help. An informal coffee with the team lets a candidate decide whether they want the job, as long as nobody scores it. Semi-structured interviews suit a first screen, where you may need to ask about an unusual career path.

Structure only works if the scoring is set too. An interview scorecard lists the job requirements you'll rate. Pair it with an interview rubric that describes weak, solid, and strong answers, so two interviewers mean the same thing by the same rating. For the account executive, agree with the sales manager on the few requirements that matter before anyone writes a question.

Question types: behavioral, situational, technical, and case

Behavioral, situational, technical, and case questions each show a different side of how a candidate works. Pick the one that tests what the role needs.

• Behavioral: OPM's structured interview page says these questions "ask applicants to describe a past behavior," such as reviving a stalled deal. The page says they've shown higher validity where work is highly complex, which it ties to professional and managerial jobs. For managers, see leadership interview questions.
• Situational: OPM describes these as asking applicants "to describe what they would do" in a given situation. They help when someone hasn't faced that situation yet, such as a first-time manager.
• Technical or work sample: The candidate does a piece of the job, such as writing code or giving a product demo. A technical assessment covers how to design and score one.
• Case: The candidate reasons through an open business problem out loud, which fits strategy or operations roles. Good problem-solving questions work for case and situational rounds.

For the account executive, past-deal questions and a mock discovery call will tell you more than a pricing puzzle. Both show the work the person will do every week. Stress interviews and trick questions are a poor fit for most roles, because they test reactions to pressure the job may not involve. They can also put off strong candidates who have other options.

Interview formats and when each one fits

Interview formats describe where the interview happens and who's in the room. The same structured guide can run in any of them. OPM's guidance notes that structured interviews can be held face-to-face, by phone, or by video conference.

• Phone: Quick to schedule, which suits a short first call on pay, location, and recent experience.
• Video: Lets the candidate share a screen or run a demo without travel.
• One-way video: The candidate records answers to set questions on their own time. Explain how it works in advance and offer another way to interview if someone asks.
• In person: Shows how the candidate works with the team on site, though it takes the most time to arrange.
• Panel: Several interviewers in one session. OPM's FAQ notes that a panel "also reduces the risk of biases in ratings," and the panel interview guide covers how to run one.
• Group: Several candidates at once, sometimes for high-volume hiring. It can show how people work together, but it makes scoring each person separately harder.

Any format may need adjusting for some candidates. The EEOC's disability guidance says the disability laws forbid discrimination in "any aspect of employment, including hiring," and that a reasonable accommodation can help a person apply. It also says employers can't ask disability-related questions or require a medical exam before a job offer. As a practice rather than a legal rule, tell every candidate the format early and invite requests for a different one.

A stage-by-stage interview plan for an account executive

A workable plan for the account executive picks one level of structure, one question type, and one format at each of four stages. The table shows one way to set it up and what each stage should tell you.

The screen stays semi-structured so the recruiter can follow up on a pay question or a career gap. The skills round gets full structure because a mock call scored against a rubric shows the main task of the job. Experienced account executives have past deals to describe, so the panel asks behavioral questions. The final round switches to situational questions, which lets the hiring manager judge how the candidate would handle what's coming.

The plan changes with the role. A software engineer's skills stage might be a live coding task. An entry-level role might swap behavioral questions for situational ones, since the candidate may have little past work to describe. On an agency search, you'd run the screen and suggest the types of interviews for the client's later stages.

Check each stage's interview type before you schedule

Treating structure, question type, and format as separate choices turns a long list of options into a plan you can explain to the hiring manager or client. When each round has a clear purpose, interviewers stop repeating each other, and the debrief compares answers against the same requirements. It also makes accommodations easier, because you can change a stage's format without changing what it tests. Before the next opening goes live, write down all three choices for every stage and confirm them with the hiring manager or client.