Competency-Based Interview Questions Generator
Get behavioural questions for any role, with STAR follow-up probes and the evidence that separates a strong answer from a weak one.
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Last updated: October 4, 2026
Build your question set
Only the job title is required. Name the competencies you care about to focus the questions.
How to use the competency-based question generator
Enter the job title and seniority.
List the 3-5 competencies the role depends on, or paste the job description.
Pick two or three questions per competency and agree them with the panel.
Ask every candidate the same questions and use the probes for detail.
Score each competency against the indicators straight after the interview.
What are competency-based interview questions?
Competency-based questions, also called behavioural questions, ask candidates for a specific example from their past instead of a hypothetical answer. Because every candidate answers the same questions and is scored against the same evidence, competency-based interviews are one of the most consistent ways to compare people for a role.
A competency is a skill or behaviour the job depends on, such as stakeholder management, resilience or decision making. Many employers, including public sector bodies and graduate programmes, publish a competency framework and build every interview from it. This generator works from your job title, your chosen competencies or the job description.
The question opens the topic. The probes do the real work. A first answer is often a summary or a team story, and the follow-ups get to what the candidate personally did, why, and what happened as a result.
- A short definition of each competency, written for the role.
- Two or three behavioural questions per competency.
- STAR follow-up probes for each question.
- Positive indicators that show the competency is present.
- Negative indicators that show it is weak or missing.
- Interviewer tips for running and scoring the interview.
Example: stakeholder management, project manager
Question: Tell me about a time you had to win over a sceptical stakeholder.
Probes: What was their concern? What did you do personally? How did you know they were on board?
Positive: names the stakeholder's real concern, adapts the approach, shows the result.
Negative: describes going over their head, or credits the outcome only to the team.The STAR method for interviewers
Use STAR to check whether an answer is complete, and to choose the right probe when it is not.
| Part | What a strong answer covers | Probe if it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Situation | The context: where, when, who was involved | "What was the background?" |
| Task | What the candidate was responsible for | "What was your part in this?" |
| Action | What they personally did, and why | "What did you do, rather than the team?" |
| Result | The outcome, ideally measured | "How did you know it worked?" |
| Reflection | What they learned or would change next time | "Looking back, what would you do differently?" |
Some UK employers call the extended version STARR or STAR-L. The reflection step is useful for senior roles, where learning from mistakes matters.
Competency-based interview question examples
Starting points for eight common competencies. The generator writes role-specific versions with probes and scoring indicators.
Teamwork
Tell me about a time you had to work closely with someone whose working style was very different from yours. How did you make it work? Probe: What did you change about how you worked?
Communication
Describe a situation where you had to explain a complicated idea to someone without your background. How did you check they understood? Probe: What would you explain differently now?
Problem solving
Tell me about a problem at work that had no obvious solution. What options did you consider, and why did you choose the one you did? Probe: What did you rule out, and why?
Leadership
Give me an example of a time you had to get a team behind a decision they initially disagreed with. Probe: How did you know the team had really accepted it?
Adaptability
Describe a time your priorities changed suddenly. What did you stop doing, and how did you handle it? Probe: Who did you tell, and how?
Customer focus
Tell me about a time a customer or stakeholder was unhappy with something you were responsible for. What did you do? Probe: What changed afterwards so it did not happen again?
Decision making
Describe a decision you made without all the information you wanted. How did you decide, and what happened? Probe: What would have made you decide differently?
Resilience
Tell me about a setback at work. What did you learn, and what did you do differently afterwards? Probe: How did you keep the rest of your work on track?
Avoid naming the answer in the question. "Tell me about a time you showed great teamwork" tells the candidate what to say.
Competency-based vs. situational vs. strengths-based questions
| Question style | What it asks | Best used for |
|---|---|---|
| Competency-based (behavioural) | "Tell me about a time you..." Real past examples | Experienced candidates with relevant work history |
| Situational | "What would you do if..." A realistic scenario from the role | Career changers, or situations the candidate has not faced yet |
| Strengths-based | "What kind of work energises you?" What the candidate enjoys and does well | Graduate and early-career hiring, alongside competency questions |
| Technical or knowledge | "How does... work?" Job-specific knowledge | Roles where specific expertise is a must-have |
Most structured interviews combine styles. Keep competency questions at the centre and use the others to fill gaps.
How to know if your competency questions are good
Before the interview, read each question and its probes with these checks in mind.
- Each competency comes from the job description, not a generic list.
- Every question asks for one real past example.
- The question does not hint at the answer you want.
- The probes cover Situation, Task, Action and Result.
- Positive and negative indicators describe what you would hear, not personality traits.
- The whole set fits the time available, with room for follow-ups.
If two interviewers would score the same answer very differently, tighten the indicators before you use them.
Common competency-based interview mistakes
Choosing competencies after meeting candidates
Agree the competencies from the job description before the first interview, so they reflect the role and not a favourite candidate.
Changing the core questions between candidates
Follow-ups can vary to get detail, but every candidate should get the same opportunity to show each competency.
Accepting "we" answers
Probe until you know what the candidate personally did and decided. Listen for "I", not "we".
Scoring on overall impression
Rate each competency against the indicators and write down what the candidate said.
Discussing candidates before scoring
Each interviewer should submit scores independently so one strong opinion does not set the group's view.
Asking leading questions
A question that names the answer invites a rehearsed response. Describe the situation and let the candidate choose the example.
This generator vs. ChatGPT vs. writing questions manually
This generator
Returns questions, STAR probes and positive and negative indicators for each competency in one consistent format. You still choose which questions to ask and check them with the panel.
ChatGPT
Good at drafting behavioural questions from a detailed prompt. It may skip the probes or indicators unless you ask, and the format changes from one run to the next.
Manual questions
The best option when you already have an internal competency framework. Writing probes and indicators for every competency takes time, so they are often left out.
If your organisation has its own framework, enter those competency names so the generated questions match it.
When competency-based questions are the wrong tool
Behavioural questions depend on candidates having relevant past examples. They work less well when:
- Candidates are school leavers or graduates with little work history to draw on.
- You need to see a skill in action, such as writing, coding or handling data.
- The role needs specific technical knowledge that a story cannot show.
- You need to run the same first-round interview for a large number of applicants.
For large first rounds, the AI interviewer can ask the same structured questions by phone or video, follow up on vague answers and score each answer against your rubric. For hands-on skills, use a skill assessment.
Frequently asked questions
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Wrote the questions. Now ask them the same way every time.
InterviewFlowAI's AI interviewer asks every candidate the same competency questions by phone or video, follows up, and scores each answer against weighted 1-5 rubrics. Your team reviews the transcripts and scores before deciding who advances.
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