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Competency-based interview guide builder

Pick the role, select 3 to 5 competencies and get a ready-to-use behavioral interview guide: anchor question, competency-specific follow-ups, what to listen for, red flags, a 1-4 scale and the time split. Generated in your browser in seconds.

Step 1 of 3

  1. 1. The role
  2. 2. Competencies
  3. 3. Your guide

The generated interview guide is in Spanish: the question bank is consulting content written for Latin America.

Which role is this interview for?

Do not include the candidate's name or any personal data.

Seniority
Time available

Appears in the guide header; it does not change the questions.

How to run a competency-based interview

A competency-based interview isn't a conversation with better questions: it's an instrument. You decide up front what you'll assess, ask every candidate the same thing, and score against a shared scale. That's what makes results comparable — and what makes it predict performance better than an unstructured chat.

1. Decide what you're assessing before writing questions

Pick 3 to 5 competencies that genuinely explain performance in the role. Fewer than three and every candidate looks alike. More than five and there's no time to go deep, so every answer stays shallow. When in doubt, keep the ones whose absence would sink the person in the first six months.

2. Ask about past behavior, not intentions

A hypothetical question measures how well a candidate imagines the right answer. A behavioral one forces them to recount something that actually happened. The best predictor of future behavior is still past behavior in an equivalent situation. The reasonable exception is entry-level hiring, where there may be no work history to draw on.

3. Use STAR to structure the account

STAR is how you collect evidence: Situation, Task, Action, Result. You don't spell out the acronym to the candidate — you ask for context, their role, what they did and how it ended. When an answer drifts into generalities, the follow-up brings it back to the concrete case.

4. Probe where the answer evaporates

That's the interviewer's real work. If the candidate speaks in a permanent 'we', ask what they did. If a results story has no numbers, ask for them. If the account jumps from problem to solution, ask what they ruled out. Two well-placed follow-ups per competency beat four new questions.

5. Score during the interview, not afterwards

The 1-4 scale with a descriptor per level exists so two different interviewers mean the same thing by a 3. Score as soon as you close each competency block, while the evidence is fresh: leave it to the end and general impression outweighs the data.

6. Mind the clock and the off-limits questions

Split the minutes before you walk in: short opening, one block per competency, and a real closing for the candidate's questions and next steps. And some questions simply don't belong: marital status, children or plans to have them, age, health, religion, nationality or sexual orientation. They don't predict performance, they bias the decision and they expose the company.

This tool builds that structure for you. What it doesn't replace is the conversation: the guide organizes the evidence, the decision still belongs to a trained human being.

Preguntas frecuentes

Lo que más nos preguntan

Common questions about interview guides, competency-based questions and what this tool does.

What is a competency-based interview guide?
A document that sets out, before the interview, which competencies will be assessed, with which questions, what counts as a good answer and how it is scored. It makes every candidate in a process face the same interview, so results can be compared instead of depending on whoever interviewed that day.
What's the difference between a behavioral and a hypothetical question?
A behavioral question asks for a past fact: 'tell me about a time when…'. A hypothetical asks for a projection: 'what would you do if…?'. The first forces an actual account you can probe; the second mostly measures the ability to give the socially correct answer. Behavioral is preferred in selection, except in entry-level roles where there may be no prior experience to draw on.
How many competencies should one interview cover?
Between 3 and 5. With fewer than three, candidates end up looking alike; with more than five, there's no time to go deep. This tool enforces that range on purpose.
What is the STAR method?
STAR structures the evidence in an answer: Situation, Task, Action and Result. You don't state the acronym to the candidate — you ask for the context, their responsibility, what they concretely did and how it ended. When one of the four is missing, that's where the follow-up goes.
Which questions can't you ask in a job interview?
Anything probing marital status, children or plans to have them, age, health, religion, nationality, socioeconomic background or sexual orientation. They don't predict performance, they bias the decision and they expose the company. If the candidate raises one of these themselves, listen but don't record it in the evaluation.
Is it free, and do I need an account?
It's free and needs no signup. The guide is generated in your browser and shown in full: it is never placed behind a form. You can leave your email to receive it, but that's optional.
How is it different from the Obrii App version?
This Lite version produces a base guide from a closed catalog of 14 cross-functional competencies. The Interview Guide Builder in Obrii App (Pro plan) starts from the job descriptor, proposes competencies from your own dictionary with evidence from the descriptor, generates contextualized questions using BEI or STAR, supports a live interview mode capturing evidence and ratings, and saves and exports the guide inside your selection process.