Why you should ask “would you rather” questions in an interview

When a job applicant comes in for an interview, they’re probably expecting to answer questions about their strengths, their weaknesses and how they handle workplace conflict. Unfortunately, because it’s often easy to anticipate what a potential employer may ask, candidates frequently arrive with well-rehearsed answers, which may have been carefully constructed to tell you exactly what you want to hear.

What makes “would you rather” questions effective is that they’re unexpected, leading to fewer canned answers and more candid conversations. There are also no right or wrong answers to these questions, so you won’t have to worry that an interviewee is just answering a question the way they think you want them to. That means you can often use this type of question to gain insights into a prospective employee’s values, character, preferences and personality without resorting to intrusive or off-putting questions.

Because these unconventional questions can be serious or silly, engaging or probing, they typically invite thoughtful responses, often prompting interviewees to take a moment to consider their response before answering. The answer an applicant gives to a “would you rather” question may also present unique opportunities to open a deeper dialogue or follow-up discussion .

Good “would you rather” questions can also add an element of fun to an interview, which can relax candidates so you get a better picture of what they’re really like and whether they’d fit into the corporate culture of your SMB. Plus, answers to even the silliest “would you rather” questions can often provide interesting insights into the character of your interviewee.

60 “Would you rather” questions to get you started

If you’d like to incorporate “would you rather’ questions into your interviews but don’t know where to start, here are 60 great examples that range from thought-provoking to downright weird:

Insightful “would you rather” questions

1. Would you rather give up the internet or TV?
2. Would you rather have plenty of good friends or just one best friend?
3. Would you rather be the oldest or youngest sibling in your family?
4. Would you rather no one showed up for your wedding or your funeral?
5. Would you rather live in the same town for your entire life or have to move to a new town every year?
6. Would you rather excel at every new skill you try and work on something new each day or excel at a single skill and specialize your work?
7. Would you rather travel on a fast jet or a slow boat?
8. Would you rather spend a day alone or surrounded by friends?
9. Would you rather always have a full tank of gas in your car or a fully charged battery for your cell phone?
10. Would you rather make only a little money working at your dream job or make a billion dollars at the worst job ever?
11. Would you rather ruin someone’s surprise party or show up in casualwear to a black-tie event?
12. Would you rather automatically win $50 or flip a coin for a chance to win $100?
13. Would you rather be the smartest person in the room or the funniest?

Fun “would you rather” questions

1. Would you rather be locked in a library or an amusement park?
2. Would you rather star in a romantic comedy or an action-adventure movie?
3. Would you rather perform in front of your closest friends or for complete strangers?
4. Would you rather travel in a spaceship or a submarine?
5. Would you rather be a celebrity or a hermit?
6. Would you rather explore deep space or the ocean floor?
7. Would you rather win the lottery jackpot or a Nobel prize?
8. Would you rather be stranded in the desert or on Antarctica?
9. Would you rather live high in a treehouse or deep underground?
10. Would you rather win an Olympic gold medal or write a best-selling novel?
11. Would you rather excel at every sport or be able to play every musical instrument?
12. Would you rather have the ability to read people’s minds or to see the future?
13. Would you rather be cast on a survival-style reality TV show or a creative competition show?

Thought-provoking “would you rather” questions

1. Would you rather be frightened or embarrassed?
2. Would you rather have a pause button for your life or a rewind button?
3. Would you rather have the ability to change the past or alter the future?
4. Would you rather have to say everything that’s on your mind or never be able to speak again?
5. Would you rather live in the past or the future?
6. Would you rather forget your favorite movie so you can rewatch it without knowing what happens or forget your favorite book so you can read it again, as if for the first time?
7. Would you rather run a company or a country?

Weird “would you rather” questions

1. Would you rather be a superhero or a supervillain?
2. Would you rather speak in public or dive with sharks?
3. Would you rather give up swearing or ice cream?
4. Would you rather meet an alien or a dinosaur?
5. Would you rather speak every foreign language or be able to talk to animals?
6. Would you rather be able to fly or to breathe underwater?
7. Would you rather own a horse that’s the size of a mouse or a mouse that’s the size of a horse?
8. Would you rather have the lights on or off if you were in a room full of spiders (or snakes)?
9. Would you rather be in a room full of spiders or snakes?
10. Would you rather have the ability to read minds or control minds?

Practical “would you rather” questions

1. Would you rather watch the sun rise or set?
2. Would you rather go hiking or visit a museum?
3. Would you rather be too hot all day or too cold?
4. Would you rather watch a great movie or read an excellent book?
5. Would you rather live at the seashore or in the mountains?
6. Would you rather stay overnight in a luxury hotel or sleep under the stars?
7. Would you rather wear a great suit all day or stay in your pajamas?
8. Would you rather talk on the phone or communicate via text message?
9. Would you rather hear the good news or the bad news first?

Professional “would you rather” questions

1. Would you rather work with people or with information?
2. Would you rather make a presentation at a major industry event or host a crucial in-person meeting in the office conference room?
3. Would you rather have a set routine every day or tasks that change each day?
4. Would you rather have a desk in a noisy room or in a quiet corner?
5. Would you rather arrive late to work and leave late each day or arrive early and leave early each day?
6. Would you rather work as part of a large team or partner with just one other person?
7. Would you rather get regular feedback from your supervisor or work independently, with little supervisory feedback?
8. Would you rather work at a company that pays you by the hour or for each task completed?

Making up your own questions

If you don’t like any of these questions, go ahead and make up your own. “Would you rather” questions are easy to create and can be adapted to suit different people and different situations. To craft your own questions, simply offer interviewees a difficult choice—either between two desirable things or two undesirable things.

Even better, spice up interviews by taking traditional “would you rather” questions and substituting choices that are relevant to your workplace, your industry or the position you’re hiring for. Just make sure to keep your questions professional and avoid sensitive or taboo subjects such as religion, politics, sex or death. You should also take care to avoid any topics that an applicant could find upsetting or offensive, including questions that involve harm befalling children, animals or family members.

What to stay away from when asking “would you rather” questions

Depending on where your business operates, certain types of interview questions are disallowed. Illegal questions typically involve soliciting information from an interviewee that could be used to discriminate against them in the hiring process or in the workplace. Asking these illegal questions can prompt an investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and can potentially lead to a discrimination lawsuit.

Although “would you rather” questions are primarily hypothetical questions, you should stay away from certain topics such as:

• Age
• Disability
• Religion
• Race or national origin
• Marital status
• Children or pregnancy
• Arrest records
• Salary history

Although there may be legitimate reasons to ask questions related to some of these topics—for instance, asking about accommodation requirements for a disability—it’s generally better to steer away from them when asking “would you rather” questions.

For more about prohibited employment practices, including illegal interview questions, visit the EEOC’s webpage.

Getting the most mileage from “would you rather” questions

The best “would you rather” questions invite further conversation, so take advantage of that by following up on a candidate’s answers. Almost every “would you rather” question can and should be followed up by asking a candidate why they made the choice they did. Asking why promotes discussion and reduces the odds you’ll get a single-word response, but if you do get a response that’s too brief, it’s okay to dig for detail. Just remember to be respectful.

Following up on “would you rather” questions is also a great way to see an applicant’s decision-making process. An interviewee’s explanation of why they chose one answer over another can provide a glimpse into an applicant’s problem-solving skills and how they prioritize.

Although these unconventional interview questions are meant to be hypothetical, a candidate’s answers may relate to how well they’ll suit the job or fit into the workplace. For example, an interviewee who expresses a desire to experience the future rather than the past may be the kind of person you’d want for a workplace that’s striving to evolve quickly. By exploring their answer in more depth, you may get the information you need to make a great hiring decision.

Practice active listening

If you want to reap the most benefits from every question you ask, the best thing you can do is listen actively. Active listening means deliberately engaging with your interviewee when they’re speaking. By doing so, you’ll find it easier to retain the information that’s being conveyed, and you may also gain the applicant’s trust, making them more likely to relax and be themselves.

To be an active listener, you should follow these guidelines:

• Listen attentively
• Avoid distractions
• Withhold judgment
• Don’t fill pauses
• Smile, lean in or make eye contact
• Shut down your internal voice
• Don’t change the subject
• Paraphrase or reflect back what’s been said
• Ask questions or request clarification

Active listening is best done in a quiet place with few or no distractions, so, when possible, conduct interviews in a private area of the company such as a conference room or an empty office.

Pay attention to nonverbal communication

What an applicant doesn’t say can be just as important as what they do say, so always pay attention to nonverbal cues. An interviewee’s nonverbal communication style can offer additional insight into how they relate to and engage with other people. Plus, because nonverbal communication comes from the brain’s emotional centers, it be an even more reliable way to assess an interviewee’s interpersonal skills.

Nonverbal communication may include:

• Alertness
• Posture
• Eye contact
• Facial expressions
• Style of dress
• Personal grooming and hygiene
• Body movements and gestures

Other uses for “would you rather” questions

“Would you rather” questions aren’t just for interviews. Try using them with your current staff to promote team building and foster interpersonal communication skills. Asking your staff fun or get-to-know-you questions can also help decrease tension during challenging or stressful projects and can keep everyone engaged when work gets tedious. Plus, throwing in a few fun questions at an interdepartmental staff meeting can be a great way to let people from different parts of the company get to know each other.

You can also use “would you rather” questions as icebreakers during orientation periods, at office parties or when you’ve put a new project team together. Or, try starting a manager’s meeting with a thought-provoking “would you rather” question to get things rolling.

Other unconventional interview questions

Unconventional interview questions can set a candidate at ease and give you better insight into their thoughts and behaviors. In addition to “would you rather” questions, unconventional questions may include:

Self-assessments

These self-reflective questions can give job candidates the opportunity to describe themselves or aspects of their personality by using metaphors or hypothetical situations.

Self-assessments may include questions such as:

• If you wrote a song about your life, what would you call it?
• If you were to describe your superpower, what would it be?
• If you had to describe yourself as an ice cream flavor, what would it be?
• If you were a product or brand, what would your tagline be?

Brainteasers

Brainteasers present candidates with unconventional situations or problems that must be solved. Posing this type of question can give you insight into an individual’s adaptability, reasoning skills and problem-solving abilities. Brainteasers can also help you see if a candidate can work quickly under pressure.

Brainteasers may include questions such as:

• How would you describe baseball to an extraterrestrial visitor?
• How would you use the items on this desk to survive a zombie apocalypse?
• How would you sell hot cocoa to someone in the tropics?

Brainteasers can also be puzzles that have actual solutions. It may be helpful to give candidates time to answer these questions and provide pen and paper for working out possible solutions.

Random questions

Random questions can lighten up an interview and relax a candidate. They can also help you find common ground to build from and may ultimately be surprisingly insightful.

Try asking random questions such as:

• What’s the last gift you gave a friend?
• What’s your ideal pet?
• What TV, book or movie character do you most identify with?
• If you could sit down to dinner with one person, living or dead, who would it be?

Ultimately, the best interview questions are the ones that net candid, insightful answers. By mixing traditional employment inquiries and behavioral interview questions with less conventional questions, you can create an environment that’s conducive to making the best hiring decisions for your company.