Get deeper insights into your candidates

Open-Ended Interview Questions

Open-ended questions are an excellent way to learn more about your candidates and their working style. Candidates can answer questions through screen share, audio, video, or text responses right after completing their coding assignment.

These questions help you understand not just what candidates can code, but how they think, communicate, and approach real-world challenges.

Multiple ways for candidates to express themselves

Question Response Types

Choose from six different response formats to give candidates the flexibility to showcase their skills in the way that works best.

Video Response
Perfect for behavioral questions and project walkthroughs. Candidates can record video responses to share their experiences and thought processes.
Audio Response
Ideal for quick explanations and verbal communication assessment. Candidates can record audio responses for efficient screening.
Screen Recording
Excellent for code reviews and technical explanations. Candidates can walk through their implementation step by step.
Text Response
Great for detailed technical explanations and deployment strategies. Candidates can provide written responses with code examples.
File Upload
Allow candidates to upload additional materials like portfolios, documentation, or supporting files to complement their responses.
Multiple Choice
Structured assessment questions with predefined options. Perfect for evaluating specific technical knowledge and decision-making skills.

Ready-to-use templates for your interviews

Question Examples

Here are some proven question examples that help you evaluate different aspects of candidate experience and technical skills.

Each example shows the question type, purpose, and what insights you can gather from candidate responses.

Video Question

Project Pride & Achievement

"Tell me about the project you've worked on that you're most proud of. What did you do that worked out particularly well?"

Purpose: Evaluate passion, problem-solving approach, and communication skills
Text Question

Production Deployment

"How would you deploy this application to production? Include your considerations for scalability, security, and monitoring."

Purpose: Assess DevOps knowledge and production readiness
Video Question

Overcoming Challenges

"Describe a situation where you encountered a major obstacle while completing a project. How did you deal with it? What steps did you take?"

Purpose: Evaluate problem-solving resilience and adaptability
Screen Recording

Code Walkthrough

"Walk us through your implementation of the coding challenge. Explain your design decisions and any trade-offs you considered."

Purpose: Assess code quality, architecture thinking, and communication

Beyond the code

Why Open-Ended Questions Work

While coding challenges test technical skills, open-ended questions reveal the complete picture of a candidate's potential contribution to your team.

These insights help you make confident hiring decisions based on both technical competency and cultural alignment.

Seamless Integration: Questions appear automatically after coding challenges
Flexible Timing: Candidates can complete responses at their own pace
Rich Insights: Review all response types in one centralized dashboard
Team Collaboration: Share responses with hiring team members for discussion

Communication Skills

See how candidates articulate complex technical concepts and explain their thought processes clearly.

Problem-Solving Approach

Understand their methodology for tackling challenges and their analytical thinking process.

Cultural Fit

Assess alignment with team values, working style, and collaborative mindset.

Experience Depth

Go beyond resume claims to understand real experience and hands-on expertise.

Start using open-ended questions today

Ready to enhance your interviews?

Open-ended questions are included in all CodeSubmit plans. Start getting deeper insights into your candidates beyond just their code.