How long should an interview guide be? Questions and pages for a 20, 30, 45 or 60-minute interview

For a 20-minute interview, the guide should fit on one page: a two-line opener, three quick must-have checks, two scored questions with two planned follow-ups each, a short rating scale under each, and the close, about five questions in all. More generally, plan one scored question for every six to eight minutes of questioning time, which gives two or three for 30 minutes, four for 45 and five or six for an hour, and about half a page per scored question. These are planning figures, not rules: there is no official standard for guide length, so count the minutes.

The parts of a guide are defined in what is an interview guide, a blank one is in the interview guide template, and the length of the interview itself is covered in how long should an interview be. This page answers the narrower question: how much to put in the guide for the time you have.

How long should an interview guide be for a 20-minute interview?

One page. Twenty minutes is a recruiter phone screen, a high-volume hourly interview or a first call with the hiring manager, and after the opener, the candidate's questions and the close, it leaves about 12 to 14 minutes for your questions. An example plan:

That is five questions you plan to ask, plus one backup marked optional. A 20-minute guide with eight or ten questions turns into a quiz: every answer gets one sentence and no follow-up, and the scores mean little. If the role has more must-haves than fit, move some to the application form or a knock-out question before the call; the recruiter phone screen template shows what usually belongs where.

How many questions should an interview guide have?

Work it out from the clock rather than from a question bank:

Questioning time   = slot − opener − candidate's questions − close − must-have checks
Scored questions   = questioning time ÷ minutes per scored question
Minutes per scored question: about 5 to 6 in a screen, 6 to 8 in a structured interview with follow-ups

Planning figures by interview length (examples, not measured averages):

Short checks are questions with a factual answer you record rather than score, such as availability, work location or a required license. Scored questions are behavioral or situational questions with follow-ups and a rating scale with written anchors. Later-round interviews usually drop the short checks because the screen already covered them.

How many pages should an interview guide be?

As a planning figure, one scored question takes about half a page: the lead question, two follow-ups, a rating scale with anchors at the low, middle and high points, and a few lines for notes. So a 20-minute guide is one page and a 60-minute guide two to three. A cover note for the hiring team, the job's competencies and the legal reminders can sit on a separate sheet that interviewers read once, rather than on every interview page.

Do not shrink the rating scale to save space. The US Office of Personnel Management's structured interview guide (2008) says to create at least three proficiency levels and aim for five to seven, and to tie ratings to specific behavioral examples. A 1–5 scale with the 1, 3 and 5 points written out fits in three lines.

What must even a one-page guide include?

• The opener, word for word, so every candidate hears the same format and knows how long the call will last.
• Must-have checks with the answer you need written beside each, so a no is recorded consistently.
• Each scored question with its planned follow-ups. OPM's guide says that when probes are needed, interviewers should use very similar probes for all candidates; writing them down is how that happens.
• A rating scale with anchors under each scored question, not on a separate form.
• Space for notes that record what the candidate said, not impressions.
• The close: the next step and the date the candidate will hear back.

If you interview on a computer, software can keep a short guide on track: Interview Signal, which we make, builds a question guide from the job description and pins the must-ask questions until they have been asked. A printed page with a tick box next to each question does the same job.

Example: a one-page guide for a 20-minute phone screen

An example for a customer support specialist screen. The role details are invented; replace them with your own.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT SPECIALIST · 20-MINUTE SCREEN (example)

OPENER (0–2)
"Thanks for your time. This call is 20 minutes: a few basics, two questions about
your support work, then your questions. I'll take notes as we talk."

MUST-HAVES (2–5)                                         Need   Answer
1. The role works one weekend in three. Can you work that?    Yes    ____
2. The range is $21 to $24 an hour. Does that work for you?   Yes    ____
3. Could you start within four weeks of an offer?             Yes    ____

SCORED 1 · Handling upset customers (5–10)
"Tell me about a recent time a customer was angry about something you could not
fix on the spot. What did you do?"
  Follow-up: What exactly did you say first?
  Follow-up: What happened after the call?
  1 = no specific example   3 = clear example, vague outcome   5 = clear actions and outcome
  Notes: ________________________________________________

SCORED 2 · Managing a heavy queue (10–16)
"Walk me through a recent day when the ticket queue was much heavier than usual.
How did you decide what to handle first?"
  Follow-up: What did you delay, and how did the customer find out?
  Follow-up: What would you do differently?
  1 = no specific example   3 = clear example, vague outcome   5 = clear actions and outcome
  Notes: ________________________________________________

OPTIONAL BACKUP: "Tell me about feedback on your written replies and what you changed."

CLOSE (16–20)
Candidate questions. Next step: "You'll hear from me by [date]."

Ask about pay expectations against the posted range, not about current or past pay, which many states and cities forbid; see salary history ban states.

What should you cut when the guide is too long?

1. Questions that repeat the resume. Read the resume before the call instead of asking the candidate to recite it.
2. Must-haves that can move earlier, to the application form or a knock-out question.
3. A third competency in a 30-minute slot. Two assessed well beat three assessed badly.
4. "Tell me about yourself" as a scored question. If you keep it, give it a minute and do not score it.
5. Never the follow-ups. Cut a whole question before you cut its probes.

How long should each guide be in a panel or interview loop?

Each interviewer gets their own short guide covering one to three competencies, not a copy of everything. OPM's guide says a structured interview is typically used to assess between four and six competencies, unless the job is unique or at a high level; across a loop, that is split so no competency is assessed twice and none is missed. A four-person loop of 45-minute interviews might give each interviewer two competencies and four scored questions, two pages each. The panel interview plan template shows how to divide questions between panelists so each one's guide stays short.

How do you know the guide is the wrong length?

OPM's guide also recommends giving every candidate the same amount of interview time, which a guide sized to the slot makes possible. If you keep running over, the guide is too long, not the interviewer too slow.