Should you give candidates the interview questions in advance?

Send every candidate the format of the interview, the competencies you will assess and the topics you will cover, a day or two ahead. Send the exact questions when a candidate asks for them as an accommodation, or to all candidates for roles where prepared answers are what the job needs; when you do, keep live follow-up questions that you do not share. Exact questions help anxious and neurodivergent candidates give their best evidence, but they also make scripted and AI-written answers easy, so the follow-ups have to do the testing. Whatever you choose, give the same material to every candidate for the role.

ADA accommodations in interviews and neurodivergent interview accommodations cover advance questions as an adjustment for one person. This page answers the policy question for every candidate.

What are the options?

What does each option do to fairness?

Fairness in a structured interview means every candidate for the role gets the same questions, the same information and the same scoring guide. The risk is rarely the policy you choose; it is giving some candidates more than others. Common ways that happens:

• An internal candidate or referral hears the questions from a colleague.
• An agency candidate is prepped with topics that direct applicants never see. Agency recruiters should share the topics and competencies the client has said it will assess, not the client's exact questions, as the candidate prep email guide explains.
• One interviewer emails questions to a candidate they liked on the phone.

Sending the same pack to everyone removes all three. An accommodation for one candidate is different: it is a legally required adjustment, not an advantage, and does not make the process unfair.

What does it do for accessibility?

Advance information is one of the cheapest adjustments there is. Acas, the workplace advisory service for Great Britain, advises employers to allow applicants to see the questions before the interview where possible, and gives the example of an employer that shares most questions with an autistic applicant but, by agreement, holds back one designed to test how candidates handle the unexpected (Acas).

Telling everyone the format also makes accommodation requests possible. The EEOC says an employer may tell applicants what the hiring process involves, such as an interview or a timed test, and ask whether they will need a reasonable accommodation for it (EEOC guidance). A candidate who does not know a 20-minute written exercise is coming cannot ask for extra time.

When must you give the questions as an accommodation?

When a candidate's request relates to a disability, treat it as a request for a reasonable accommodation, not a favor. In the US, reasonable accommodation includes modifications or adjustments to a job application process that let a qualified applicant with a disability be considered for the position (29 CFR 1630.2(o)(1)(i)). In Great Britain, the Equality Act 2010 sets out a duty to make reasonable adjustments, which applies to employers deciding whom to offer employment, so it covers applicants (section 20 and Schedule 8). You can agree an effective alternative through a conversation, for example topics in advance plus each question in writing on the day, and the ADA page covers how to handle the request. Not legal advice.

Will candidates script their answers or use AI to write them?

If they have the exact questions, some will, and AI makes a polished draft trivial. That is the real cost of full advance questions, and it is why a policy that shares topics but keeps the exact wording and follow-ups live is the usual compromise. Whatever you send, design the interview so prepared text is not enough:

• Ask for a specific example, not a definition or an opinion. "Tell me about a migration you led" rather than "how should a migration be run?"
• Probe for details only the doer knows: numbers, dates, who disagreed, what went wrong, what they would change. The probing questions guide has a bank.
• Ask for a second example of the same competency; candidates rarely script two.
• Score substance, not fluency. A well-prepared answer is not evidence of cheating. Signs worth a follow-up are in how to detect AI-generated interview answers.

Does the answer change by stage or role?

Yes. The question to ask each time is whether improvising under pressure is part of the job. If it is not, sharing more costs you little; if it is, keep that part live and say so.

Whatever the stage, tell candidates what you are holding back. "We'll send the main questions; the follow-ups will be live" is fair notice and stops the held-back question feeling like a trick.

What do large employers tell candidates?

Two published approaches, both closer to "competencies in advance" than to full question lists:

• The UK Civil Service tells candidates that details of which elements will be assessed, and how, are included in the job advert, and points them to its Strengths Dictionary to prepare (GOV.UK, Success Profiles candidate overview).
• Amazon lists its Leadership Principles, behavioral-based questions and the STAR method as what to expect and prepare for (Amazon interview prep).

A default policy you can copy

INTERVIEW PREPARATION POLICY  [role family]

1. Every candidate for a role receives the same preparation pack,
   [48 hours] before the interview (example timing):
   - format, length, interviewers' names and roles
   - any exercise, with time allowed
   - the [3-5] competencies we will assess, in plain words
   - an invitation to ask for any adjustment, with a named contact
2. Exact questions are shared when a candidate asks for them as an
   adjustment. [For roles where prepared presentation is part of the
   job, all candidates receive the main questions.]
3. Where questions are shared, follow-up questions are not, and [one]
   question may be held back by agreement with the candidate.
4. Every question is also shown in writing during the interview on
   request.
5. Interviewers do not send questions to individual candidates.
   Agency partners receive the competency list, not the questions.
6. Scoring follows the same guide for every candidate, whatever
   material they received.

Write the pack once per role and reuse it; the prep email guide has wording for what to say about the client and the team.