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A Questions To Avoid During An Interview template is a structured compliance reference document that identifies pre-employment questions employers are prohibited — or legally advised — from asking job candidates, explains which protected class each question implicates, and provides a vetted lawful alternative for each. It functions as both a practical interviewer training tool and a documented record of the employer's good-faith anti-discrimination efforts. Unlike a general EEO policy, this template translates broad legal obligations into specific, actionable guidance at the moment — the interview itself — where most discrimination violations actually occur.
Without a written guide distributed to every interviewer before each hiring cycle, the risk of a prohibited question being asked falls entirely on individual judgment under pressure — and that judgment frequently fails. A single question about pregnancy plans, religious availability, or prior salary can give rise to an EEOC charge that costs tens of thousands of dollars to defend even when the employer ultimately prevails. In jurisdictions with salary history bans, asking the question is a per se violation regardless of intent or outcome. Maintaining a signed acknowledgment that each interviewer reviewed the prohibited questions list before participating is often the single most effective piece of evidence an employer can produce in response to a discrimination complaint. This template gives you that documentation, the side-by-side prohibited-and-lawful question reference, and a jurisdiction-aware framework you can update as employment law continues to evolve — for the cost of 30 minutes of customization.
| If your situation is… | Use this template |
|---|---|
| General hiring compliance reference for any industry or role | Questions To Avoid During An Interview |
| Formalizing the full hiring process from posting to offer | Recruitment Policy |
| Documenting interview scores and candidate evaluations lawfully | Interview Evaluation Form |
| Structuring the questions you can ask in a consistent, defensible format | Interview Questions Template |
| Extending a formal offer after a compliant interview process | Job Offer Letter |
| Engaging a new hire with full employment terms after the offer is accepted | Employment Contract |
| Documenting equal opportunity policy as a standalone HR policy | Equal Employment Opportunity Policy |
Why it matters: Hiring managers and department heads conduct the majority of substantive interviews. A complaint arising from a question asked by an untrained manager carries the same liability as one asked by HR.
Fix: Expand the scope clause to cover every employee who participates in any interview, and collect signed acknowledgments from all of them before the hiring cycle opens.
Why it matters: More than 20 US states and dozens of cities have salary history bans, and ban-the-box laws vary widely in timing and scope. A question lawful in Texas may be a per se violation in New York City.
Fix: Create jurisdiction-specific addenda that layer local restrictions on top of the federal baseline, and brief interviewers on the rules that apply to each candidate's location.
Why it matters: The EEOC's 2012 enforcement guidance requires an individualized assessment — nature of the crime, time elapsed, and relevance to the role. Blanket exclusions have resulted in multi-million-dollar class settlements.
Fix: Replace any automatic disqualification policy with a documented individualized assessment process that is applied consistently to all candidates with a relevant record.
Why it matters: The ADA prohibits all medical inquiries and disability-related questions prior to a conditional offer of employment, regardless of how the question is framed or how relevant the employer believes the information to be.
Fix: Restrict all medical and disability-related inquiries — including questions about leave history or physical capacity — to the post-conditional-offer stage, and apply them uniformly to all candidates who receive an offer for that role.
Why it matters: Employment discrimination law changes frequently at the state and local level. A guide that was compliant three years ago may now miss salary history bans, new protected classes, or revised ban-the-box timelines.
Fix: Assign ownership of the guide to a named HR or legal role with a mandatory annual review date, and update the version number and effective date each time a change is made.
Why it matters: Without a ready-made lawful alternative, interviewers improvise — and improvised substitutions are often just reworded versions of the prohibited question.
Fix: For every prohibited question in the guide, provide an approved, role-neutral lawful alternative that interviewers can use verbatim, reducing the temptation to rephrase on the spot.
In plain language: States why the document exists — to prevent discriminatory pre-employment inquiries — and identifies which employees and stages of the hiring process it governs.
This guide applies to all [COMPANY NAME] employees involved in recruiting, screening, or interviewing candidates for any position. Its purpose is to identify prohibited pre-employment inquiries under applicable federal, state, and local law and to provide lawful alternatives.
Common mistake: Scoping the document only to HR staff. Hiring managers, department heads, and any employee who participates in panel interviews must be covered — omitting them leaves the company exposed when an untrained manager asks a prohibited question.
In plain language: Prohibits asking a candidate's age, birth date, graduation year, or any question that reveals or implies age, because it implicates the ADEA and similar statutes.
Prohibited: 'How old are you?' / 'What year did you graduate high school?' Lawful alternative: 'Are you at least [MINIMUM AGE] years old, as required for this role?' (only where a minimum age is a legal requirement of the position).
Common mistake: Asking graduation year as a proxy for age under the assumption it is factual rather than demographic. Courts and the EEOC treat graduation year inquiries as age-revealing and therefore potentially unlawful.
In plain language: Prohibits any question that directly or indirectly reveals or implies a candidate's race, skin color, ethnicity, national origin, or citizenship ancestry.
Prohibited: 'Where were you born?' / 'What is your nationality?' Lawful alternative: 'Are you legally authorized to work in [COUNTRY] on a full-time basis?' — which addresses work authorization without implicating national origin.
Common mistake: Asking about accent or language fluency in terms broader than the job requires. Fluency in a specific language is permissible only when it is a documented, genuine requirement of the role — asking generally about accents or mother tongue is unlawful.
In plain language: Prohibits asking about a candidate's religion, religious practices, place of worship, or availability on religious holidays, as these inquiries violate Title VII.
Prohibited: 'What religion do you practice?' / 'Can you work on Sundays?' Lawful alternative: 'This role requires availability on [SPECIFIC DAYS/TIMES]. Are you able to meet that schedule requirement?'
Common mistake: Framing availability questions around specific days (Saturday, Sunday) without tying them to a documented schedule requirement. Asking about Sunday availability with no business justification is routinely interpreted as religious inquiry.
In plain language: Prohibits questions about a candidate's sex, gender identity, pregnancy status, plans to have children, marital status, or childcare arrangements, all of which implicate Title VII, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and equivalent statutes.
Prohibited: 'Do you plan to have children?' / 'Are you married?' / 'Who takes care of your kids?' Lawful alternative: 'This role requires [X]% travel. Are you able to meet that requirement?'
Common mistake: Asking female candidates about childcare or travel capacity but not asking the same of male candidates. Disparate application of the same question creates a sex discrimination claim even if the question is neutral on its face.
In plain language: Prohibits any pre-offer inquiry into a candidate's physical or mental health, disability status, medical history, or workers' compensation claims — all restricted by the ADA before a conditional offer is extended.
Prohibited: 'Do you have any disabilities?' / 'Have you ever filed a workers' comp claim?' Lawful alternative: 'Can you perform the essential functions of this role, with or without reasonable accommodation?' — asked of all candidates equally.
Common mistake: Asking a candidate to describe a visible disability or to demonstrate a physical task beyond what is listed as an essential function. The ADA requires that medical inquiries follow — not precede — a conditional offer.
In plain language: Restricts or defers questions about arrest or conviction history, with the timing and permissibility governed by applicable ban-the-box laws at the state and local level.
Prohibited (at application stage in covered jurisdictions): 'Have you ever been arrested or convicted of a crime?' Post-conditional-offer lawful language: '[COMPANY NAME] will conduct a background check. A criminal record is not an automatic disqualifier and will be evaluated in relation to the duties of the role.'
Common mistake: Applying a blanket criminal history exclusion without conducting an individualized assessment. The EEOC requires employers to weigh the nature of the offense, the time elapsed, and the relevance to the specific job before disqualifying a candidate.
In plain language: Restricts asking about credit history, personal debt, bankruptcy, or prior salary and compensation, which can constitute disparate-impact discrimination and violate salary history ban statutes in more than 20 US states and several Canadian provinces.
Prohibited (in covered jurisdictions): 'What is your current salary?' / 'Have you ever declared bankruptcy?' Lawful alternative: 'The budgeted salary range for this role is $[X]–$[Y]. Does that align with your expectations?'
Common mistake: Asking about salary history to anchor an offer, believing it is a neutral business practice. In jurisdictions with salary history bans, this is a per se violation regardless of intent, and the candidate does not need to prove discriminatory purpose.
In plain language: Restricts asking about the type of military discharge a candidate received, as other-than-honorable discharges disproportionately affect protected classes and may constitute discriminatory screening.
Prohibited: 'What type of discharge did you receive from the military?' Lawful alternative: 'Do you have military experience that is relevant to this role? If so, please describe the skills or responsibilities you gained.'
Common mistake: Treating a general discharge or other-than-honorable discharge as automatic grounds for rejection without any individual assessment — courts have found this practice can violate both USERRA and Title VII.
In plain language: Requires each interviewer to sign confirming they have read and understood the prohibited questions list before participating in any candidate interview.
I, [INTERVIEWER NAME], acknowledge that I have reviewed the [COMPANY NAME] Interview Compliance Guide dated [DATE] and understand that I am prohibited from asking the questions identified above. I agree to conduct interviews in accordance with this guide and applicable law. Signature: _______________ Date: _______________
Common mistake: Treating the acknowledgment as optional or skipping it for senior managers. The sign-off is the documentary evidence that training occurred — without it, the company cannot demonstrate good-faith compliance efforts in an EEOC investigation.
Add your legal entity name, the effective date of the guide, and a version number to the header. This establishes which version of the policy was in force at the time of any specific hiring decision.
💡 Use a YYYY-MM-DD date format and increment the version number (v1.0, v1.1) each time you make substantive edits — this creates a defensible audit trail.
Edit the scope clause to include every employee who participates in interviewing — not just HR staff. Include hiring managers, department heads, executive leaders, and any employee who sits in on panel interviews.
💡 List specific roles by title rather than department to prevent ambiguity about who the policy covers when an ad hoc interviewer is added at the last minute.
Go through each prohibited question category and confirm it reflects the law in every jurisdiction where you hire. Add state-, provincial-, or city-specific restrictions such as salary history bans, ban-the-box rules, or local protected classes (e.g., sexual orientation, source of income).
💡 Maintain a separate jurisdiction addendum rather than editing the core document — this makes it easier to update one jurisdiction without disrupting the others.
For every prohibited question in the template, confirm that the lawful alternative provided is both legally sound and operationally relevant to your actual roles. Remove alternatives that do not apply to your business.
💡 Have a single lawful version of each question pre-approved in writing so interviewers never need to improvise in the room.
If any of your roles have genuine bona fide occupational qualifications that permit an otherwise prohibited inquiry — for example, a minimum age requirement for alcohol service — document the legal basis and the specific roles to which the exception applies.
💡 BFOQs are narrow and courts scrutinize them closely. Require legal review before designating any characteristic as a BFOQ for a specific role.
Distribute the completed guide to every covered employee and collect a signed acknowledgment before they participate in any interview. Store signed copies in the employee's personnel file or a centralized compliance folder.
💡 Run acknowledgment collection through your HRIS or document-signing system so you have a timestamped, searchable record of who signed and when.
Set a calendar reminder to review and update the guide at least once per year, or immediately following any change in applicable law — especially salary history bans, ban-the-box expansions, or new local protected classes.
💡 Subscribe to EEOC and SHRM regulatory updates so you receive notice of law changes before they take effect rather than after a violation occurs.
Under US federal law, employers are prohibited from asking questions that reveal or imply a candidate's membership in a protected class — including age, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or genetic information. Common examples include asking about pregnancy plans, country of birth, church affiliation, or medical history before a conditional offer. State and local laws add additional restrictions, such as salary history bans and limits on criminal history inquiries.
Asking a candidate's age directly is prohibited under the ADEA for employers with 20 or more employees, and under similar statutes in most states for smaller employers. Indirect age-revealing questions — such as asking for a high school or college graduation year — are treated similarly. The only permissible age-related inquiry is confirming that a candidate meets a legally required minimum age for the specific role, such as serving alcohol.
In more than 20 US states and numerous cities, yes — salary history bans prohibit employers from asking candidates about prior compensation at any stage of the hiring process. California, New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois are among the states with active bans. Several Canadian provinces have enacted similar restrictions. Violations can result in fines and provide the basis for a pay discrimination claim even without proof of discriminatory intent.
Before extending a conditional offer of employment, the ADA prohibits any question that is likely to elicit information about a disability — including asking about medical history, prior leave usage, or workers' compensation claims. After a conditional offer is made, an employer may require a medical examination if it is required of all candidates for the same role. The only permissible pre-offer question is whether the candidate can perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation.
An illegal question directly violates a specific statute — for example, asking about pregnancy plans violates the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. An inadvisable question is not necessarily illegal but creates evidence of discriminatory intent that can support a discrimination claim if the candidate is not hired — for example, asking about weekend availability without a documented business justification. Both categories belong in a questions-to-avoid guide because both create liability.
Federal anti-discrimination statutes like Title VII and the ADA apply to employers with 15 or more employees, while the ADEA applies to employers with 20 or more. However, most states have parallel statutes with lower or no employee thresholds — California's FEHA, for example, applies to employers with five or more employees. Salary history bans and ban-the-box laws often apply to all employers regardless of size. Small businesses should review the specific laws of every state in which they hire.
If a prohibited question is asked, the interviewer should not record the answer and should not allow it to factor into the hiring decision. The best immediate response is to acknowledge the error, redirect with a lawful alternative question, and document that the answer was disregarded. HR should be notified so the incident can be logged and the interviewer retrained. A single isolated incident handled correctly is unlikely to result in liability; a pattern of prohibited questions without corrective action is significantly more dangerous.
In jurisdictions without ban-the-box laws, employers may ask about convictions at any point in the hiring process. In jurisdictions with ban-the-box laws — which cover most major US cities and several states — criminal history questions are deferred until after a conditional offer is made. Regardless of timing, the EEOC requires that any disqualification based on criminal history be supported by an individualized assessment of the offense's relevance to the specific role, rather than a blanket exclusion policy.
At a minimum, review the guide annually and immediately after any jurisdiction in which you hire enacts new employment legislation. Salary history bans, ban-the-box expansions, and new protected class designations have been among the most active areas of state employment law in recent years. Assign a named owner in HR or legal who is responsible for monitoring regulatory changes and updating the guide, rather than leaving the review to an informal annual reminder.
An interview questions template provides the affirmative list of approved, structured questions to ask candidates. A questions-to-avoid guide provides the prohibitions and alternatives. Both documents work together — one tells interviewers what to ask; the other tells them what they must not ask. Using only one without the other leaves gaps in your hiring compliance framework.
An interview evaluation form documents how a candidate performed against job-related criteria after the interview. A questions-to-avoid guide governs what can be asked during the interview itself. Compliance before and during the interview (questions guide) and consistent, criteria-based scoring after it (evaluation form) together create a defensible hiring record.
An employment contract governs the ongoing employment relationship after a hire is made. A questions-to-avoid guide governs the pre-hire interview stage. The two documents address different phases of the employment lifecycle and both carry legal risk — but the compliance guide is the earlier line of defense that prevents discrimination claims from arising before an offer is ever extended.
An EEO policy is a broad organizational commitment to non-discrimination across all employment decisions — hiring, promotion, termination, and compensation. A questions-to-avoid guide is an operational tool that translates that policy commitment into specific interviewer behavior. The EEO policy sets the standard; the interview compliance guide implements it at the point where violations most commonly occur.
Fast-growth hiring across multiple states means interviewers frequently cross jurisdictions with different salary history and ban-the-box rules, making a localized compliance guide essential.
Disability-related questions are especially high-risk given the medical nature of the work; post-conditional-offer medical screening must be carefully separated from pre-offer interview questions.
High-volume hiring with large numbers of untrained interviewers and significant turnover makes consistent compliance training and signed acknowledgments critical to limiting EEOC exposure.
Financial history and credit check inquiries are common in this sector but are subject to FCRA requirements and state restrictions; the guide must clearly delineate permissible post-offer credit checks from prohibited pre-offer inquiries.
Physical capability questions are frequently asked to assess job fitness but must be framed around essential functions only and deferred to post-conditional-offer medical examination where disability-related.
Partnership-track hiring often involves informal social interviews where prohibited questions arise conversationally; the guide must address the liability risk of unstructured 'culture fit' discussions.
Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act form the federal baseline. State and local laws frequently impose stricter requirements — California, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts each have salary history bans, and ban-the-box laws apply in over 35 states and 150 cities. Employers with operations in multiple states should maintain jurisdiction-specific addenda rather than a single national guide.
The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits pre-employment inquiries related to race, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, and family status at the federal level. Each province adds its own human rights code — Ontario's Human Rights Code, for example, is broader than the federal Act. Quebec requires all employment communications and documentation to be in French for provincially regulated employers.
The Equality Act 2010 prohibits pre-employment questions about health or disability before a conditional offer in most circumstances, with limited exceptions for diversity monitoring or assessing whether reasonable adjustments are needed. Questions relating to age, race, religion, sex, and pregnancy are similarly restricted. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 limits when spent convictions may be raised during hiring.
EU member states implement the Equal Treatment Framework Directive and Race Equality Directive, which prohibit discriminatory pre-employment inquiries. GDPR imposes additional obligations on the collection and processing of candidate personal data during interviews — recording or retaining answers to prohibited questions may itself constitute a GDPR violation. Individual member states such as France and Germany have additional restrictions on criminal record and health inquiries.
| Path | Best for | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use the template | Small and mid-sized businesses conducting standard domestic hiring in straightforward jurisdictions | Free | 30–60 minutes to customize and distribute |
| Template + legal review | Employers hiring across multiple states with salary history bans, ban-the-box laws, or recent EEOC activity | $300–$800 for an employment lawyer review | 2–5 business days |
| Custom drafted | Large employers, publicly regulated industries, or organizations responding to an active EEOC charge or class action | $1,500–$5,000+ | 1–3 weeks |
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