Job Application Survey Questions (50+ Examples + Free Template)

–

May 26, 2025

Hiring the right candidate goes beyond scanning resumes; it's about creating a strategic, data-driven hiring approach. Applicants want fairness and transparency throughout the process, and job application surveys are a powerful tool that screens candidates and helps you improve the overall experience. In fact, studies have shown that organizations employing structured application surveys see up to a 20% reduction in time-to-hire and improve candidate satisfaction by over 30%.

This guide gives you 50+ ready-to-use examples, organized by category, plus a free template you can customize for any role. Use these questions to collect richer insights, predict job fit earlier, and make more confident, data-driven hiring decisions.

What Is a Job Application Survey?

A job application survey, sometimes called a job application questionnaire or pre-interview questionnaire, is a short form that candidates complete during the early stages of the hiring process. It helps employers gather consistent information about applicants beyond what appears on a resume so they can evaluate job fit, motivation, skills, and overall suitability more accurately.

These surveys typically include a mix of pre-screen questions, candidate experience feedback, skill-based questions, and value or culture-fit prompts. By structuring the same questions for every applicant, hiring teams reduce guesswork, improve fairness, and make faster, data-driven decisions.

Why Use Job Application Surveys in 2026?

Job application surveys are now a core part of structured hiring. These surveys often function as a candidate experience survey or job application feedback form to help teams improve the application process. Here’s why most companies are adopting these surveys in their process:

Faster, More Efficient Hiring: Companies with structured surveys can automatically reduce hiring time. Teams spend less time chasing down candidates and more time interviewing them.

Stronger DEI Outcomes: Standardizing how you collect data from applicants will reduce unconscious bias and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Data-Driven Hiring Decisions: Instead of relying on gut feelings, recruiters can predict job success and filter out poor fits.

Automation-Friendly: Using tools like TheySaid, you can quickly create and share job surveys, automating early screening and collecting detailed replies.

The Psychology Behind Asking the Right Questions

Great questions do more than gather information; they reveal how a candidate thinks, behaves, and fits into your work environment. In 2026, the most effective hiring teams use behavioral psychology to craft job application survey questions that don’t just collect data but uncover potential.

‍Reveals Personality & Motivation: Open-ended questions in job application surveys, such as "What motivates you to do work?" "What is your ideal workplace environment?" reveals applicants' personality traits.

Psychological Safety Leads to Better Insights: When applicants feel safe, it means they don’t feel judged or insecure, they open up. The tone of the questions plays an important role here. Swap robotic, transactional phrasing for human, conversational prompts.

The Right Questions Predict Real-World Performance: Ever heard of situational judgment testing? These questions place candidates in realistic situations and evaluate how they will respond, giving you a glimpse of their skills and traits.

Recommended Read: 70 Employee Feedback Survey Questions

How TheySaid Helped a Retail Chain Cut Drop-Off During Hiring

A retail chain struggled with candidates abandoning the application process halfway through. Using TheySaid’s automated AI surveys, they:

Replaced long forms with a 3-minute pre-screen questionnaire
Added questions about shift preferences, availability, and customer-service style
Used AI to flag applicants who demonstrated strong communication and reliability

Results after 90 days:

22% lower drop-off rate during the application stage
Faster shortlisting from 5 days to less than 48 hours
Candidates reported the process felt “simpler and more respectful.”

This improved both the applicant experience and hiring speed during high-volume seasons. Create your own job application survey in seconds with TheySaid’s free AI survey generator.

‍Recommended Read: Essential Question Types for Effective Surveys

50 Insightful Questions for Your Job Application Survey

Choosing the right questions is essential to understanding job fit, motivation, and how candidates would perform in real scenarios. Below is a categorized list of 50 ready-to-use job application survey questions you can add to your pre-screening questionnaire, application form, or early-stage hiring workflow. Use these questions to collect clearer insights and standardize your evaluation process.

Pre-Screening Job Application Survey Questions

These questions help you quickly understand eligibility, relevant experience, and whether the candidate aligns with basic job requirements before you spend time reviewing resumes.

Are you legally authorized to work in [Country]?
How many years of relevant industry experience do you have for this role?
Elaborate how this position aligns with your career objectives.
What’s your current employment status? ( Fully employed, part-time employed, freelancing, unemployed)
Briefly describe a recent project or responsibility that shows you’re a fit for this position.

Did you know?

A 2025 field experiment found that candidates in an AI-assisted hiring pipeline passed final interviews at a 54% rate, compared with 34% using traditional screening.

Application Experience Feedback Questions

These questions help you understand how candidates perceive your application process and identify areas where you can improve clarity, speed, and user experience.

How would you rate your overall experience with our application process?
How did you hear about this job?
On which device did you complete the job application process?
Was there any confusing part in the application process?
Rank the following aspects of the application process in order of importance to you
(Ease of use, Transparency, Fairness, Speed, Communication).

Role Interest and Intent Job Application Survey Questions

Use these questions to measure a candidate’s level of interest, long-term intent, and understanding of your company and role.

Are you familiar with our company and its mission?
What excites you most about this job opportunity?
Explain in a single sentence why you are the best fit for this role.
Are you actively looking to change jobs within six months?
How do you see this role contributing to your personal development?

Candidate's Personality Job Application Survey Questions

Use these questions to explore personality traits, working styles, motivations, and what drives the candidate beyond technical skills.

What inspires you at work and why?
What’s something outside of your work that you are passionate about?
What’s your favourite hobby?
Do you consider yourself more introverted than extroverted?
Give an example of your specific personality trait that helped you overcome a difficult situation.

Value-Fit Job Application Survey Questions

These questions help you assess cultural alignment, how candidates handle feedback, and how their values match your company’s core principles.

Share one of the most valuable lessons you learn in your career.
What is your ideal work culture?
What’s the biggest mistake you made in your career and how you handled it?
Which of our company’s core values resonates with you most, and why?
Describe a time you received constructive criticism. How did it help you grow?

Skill Set And Experience-Focused Job Application Questions

Use these questions to understand a candidate’s strengths, relevant training, recent accomplishments, and confidence in performing the role.

What’s your strongest technical or functional skill related to this role?
On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you in performing this job?
Describe a recent project or task you’re especially proud of. What was your role?
What certifications or training programs have you completed relevant to this position?
What does your ideal job role look like?

Cultural Fit Job Application Survey Questions

These help you evaluate how the candidate collaborates, communicates, and adjusts to different working styles and team environments.

What does a respectful workplace look like to you?
How do you handle working with someone with an entirely different working style?
State some non-negotiable cultural values for you
What type of cultural environment helps you to be productive?
Have you ever worked for a company whose values didn’t align with yours?

Industry Knowledge Job Application Survey Questions

These questions show how well the candidate understands your industry, market trends, and your company’s competitive landscape.

Which company or company leader inspires you?
In your opinion, what’s the biggest challenge companies like ours are facing these days?
How would you like to keep up with the latest industry trends?
If hired, what industry trend would you want to explore or lead an initiative?
What’s one recent news headline related to our industry that caught your attention?

Compensation and Benefits Expectations Related to Job Application Questions

These help you understand salary expectations, benefits preferences, and overall compensation priorities early in the process.

What is your ideal total compensation package (salary + benefits)?
On a scale of 1 to 5, how important is salary compared to other factors such as culture and flexibility?
What salary range best describes your expectations?
Have you ever left a job due to unsatisfactory compensation or benefits?
Would you consider a lower salary if offered exceptional benefits?

Practical and Situational Job Application Questions

These scenario-based questions assess decision-making, adaptability, and how candidates think when faced with real-world challenges.

I remain calm and composed under pressure.
A client (or internal stakeholder) isn’t happy with your work. How do you respond?
You have been assigned a task that is outside of your expertise. What would you do?
Describe how you would handle a project with limited directions.
Do you feel comfortable making decisions with limited sight?

Did you know?

A 2025 study found that integrating AI into the hiring process improves screening efficiency, candidate diversity, and cost-effectiveness for employers. Source

Job Application Survey Template For Free

Use this short, ready-to-copy job application survey template to streamline early-stage screening and evaluate candidates consistently. These 9 questions cover experience, motivation, behavior, and culture fit without overwhelming applicants.

1. How many years of relevant experience do you have for this role?
A. 0–1 year
B. 2–4 years
C. 5–7 years
D. 8+ years

2. What specific skills or tools make you a strong fit for this position?
Open-ended

3. Why are you interested in this role and our company?
Open-ended

4. Describe a recent project or responsibility that best demonstrates your strengths.
Open-ended

5. How do you prefer to work with others (communication style, collaboration, feedback)?
A. I prefer structured communication and clear guidelines
B. I prefer collaborative, fast-moving teamwork
C. I prefer independent work with periodic check-ins
D. A mix of both collaborative and independent work

6. How would you handle a situation where you had to complete a task with limited direction?
A. Seek clarification immediately
B. Research and attempt to solve the task independently
C. Combine independent research with light manager check-ins
D. Prioritize the task and take action based on my best judgment

7. What type of work environment helps you do your best work?
A. Remote
B. Hybrid
C. On-site
D. No preference

8. What are your salary expectations for this role?
Open-ended or range selection

9. How would you rate your experience with our application process?
A. Excellent
B. Good
C. Average
D. Needs improvement

Thank you for taking the time to complete this application survey. Your responses help us ensure a fair, consistent, and thoughtful hiring experience for every candidate.

Read: Job Application Form: Definition, Examples, Free Template, And Tips

TheySaid: A Modern AI Platform for Job Application & Employee Surveys

As companies move toward data-driven hiring and employee experience, AI survey tools have become essential. TheySaid is one of the leading platforms in this space, designed to help HR teams build job application surveys, job satisfaction surveys, and other feedback workflows with accuracy and speed.

Import & Improve Existing Surveys

TheySaid allows teams to upload any existing questionnaire. The system automatically analyzes the survey, flags unclear or biased questions, and suggests improvements aligned with current hiring and HR best practices.

AI-Assisted Survey Creation

Using natural language input, hiring managers can describe the type of survey they want (pre-screening, experience feedback, role-specific assessments, or employee satisfaction). TheySaid then generates a structured, ready-to-use survey that follows behavioral science and DEI principles.

Conditional Logic & Adaptive Flow

The platform supports conditional logic, allowing surveys to adapt based on responses. This reduces survey fatigue and surfaces more relevant insights, whether in job applications or employee feedback cycles.

AI-Generated Follow-Up Questions

TheySaid can generate follow-up questions automatically, helping teams gather deeper context and uncover insights that would normally require an interviewer or HR professional.

Instant AI Summaries & Insights

Instead of manually analyzing responses, TheySaid provides AI-powered summaries that highlight:

Key themes
Strengths and risks
Cultural alignment signals
Candidate motivations
Employee sentiment patterns

These summaries help teams move from raw feedback to decisions more quickly.

Trend Analysis & Continuous Improvement

TheySaid identifies patterns across responses, helping organizations understand where processes are working well and where improvements are needed. This creates a built-in feedback loop for hiring and employee engagement.

Try TheySaid for free!

Key Takeaways

Job application surveys help hiring teams create a more structured, fair, and data-driven screening process. By using well-crafted behavioral, situational, and experience-based questions, recruiters can assess job fit, motivation, and communication style long before the interview. This improves candidate experience, reduces unconscious bias, and strengthens overall decision-making across the hiring funnel.

Modern AI-powered survey platforms like TheySaid make this even easier by allowing teams to import existing surveys, generate new ones with AI, apply conditional logic, ask adaptive follow-up questions, and instantly summarize responses using advanced analytics. With automated insights, trend detection, and built-in feedback loops, companies can continuously refine their hiring workflow, enhance the application process, and gather richer, more predictive candidate data, all with far less manual work.

FAQs

What is a job application survey?

A job application survey is a short set of structured questions candidates answer during the early stages of hiring. It helps employers gather consistent information beyond the resume, such as skills, motivation, and work preferences, to improve screening accuracy and overall candidate evaluation.

How do job application surveys improve hiring?

These surveys help teams collect deeper insights about candidates, reduce unconscious bias, and make early-stage screening more consistent. By capturing information on experience, behavior, and culture fit upfront, hiring teams can shortlist more effectively and speed up the decision-making process.

What is the best tool for job application surveys?

For many HR teams and hiring managers, TheySaid is currently the best tool for job application surveys. TheySaid combines AI-powered survey creation, conditional logic, adaptive follow-up questions, and instant response analysis all in one platform

How do you design a job application survey?

Start by identifying what you want to learn, such as experience, skills, cultural alignment, or problem-solving style. Keep questions clear and concise, mix multiple-choice with open-ended items, and avoid leading language. Using AI tools like TheySaid can help you generate or refine survey questions quickly and accurately.

When should you send a job application survey?

Most teams send job application surveys early in the hiring process either right after a candidate applies or before reviewing resumes. Early surveys help filter candidates quickly and can also be used after the application to gather feedback on the candidate experience.

‍