Internships bridge the gap between academic learning and real-life work experience, allowing companies to nurture future talent. While interns bring fresh ideas, enthusiasm, and potential long-term value, selecting qualified candidates who are eager to learn, adaptable, and aligned with company values can be challenging.
A critical factor in hiring the right intern involves asking the right interview questions. Since most interns have limited work experience, evaluating qualities like communication, problem-solving, teamwork, motivation, and work ethic is even more important. In this article, we’ve compiled 28 essential internship interview questions to help you assess candidates effectively, understand their potential, and find the best fit for your organization.
To begin…
Why do interview questions matter for internships?
Interview questions are more than formalities in the internship hiring process because they serve as key decision-making tools for recruiters to identify candidates who will thrive in an organization. By focusing on the right questions, you can assess various skills and qualities, ensuring a more insightful and effective selection process. Let’s explore some reasons why internship interview questions are crucial.
1. Uncover potential
Since internship candidates have little to no professional experience, resumes and academic achievements reveal an incomplete picture of their capabilities. To get a robust understanding of candidates’ skills, well-crafted interview questions provide insights into their thought processes, adaptability, curiosity, and willingness to learn.
For instance, behavioral or situational interview questions about handling challenges in hypothetical scenarios can show how potential interns think, react under pressure, and solve problems. Asking specific questions about group projects, academics, or volunteer work can help you obtain information about their possible impact in a professional setting. Additionally, candidates’ responses showcase their proficiency in soft skills, such as communication, leadership, and teamwork.
As a long-term hiring strategy, internships are a stepping stone to full-time roles. That’s why over 50% of interns get full-time job offers, according to The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). This means that you shouldn’t hire interns for just temporary roles, but see it as an avenue for building the future workforce of your organization. Therefore, well-structured interview questions help recruiters identify candidates with long-term promise, ensuring they bring in talent that can grow with the organization.
2. Assess culture fit
To find interns who fit well and contribute positively, ask about their values, desired work style, and mindset. Understanding these preferences is important, as someone who would rather work in a highly structured environment may struggle in a fast-paced startup, while a creative, independent thinker may not thrive with such structure. When carefully assessed, culture fit helps match interns to the right environment and fosters a more engaged team.
Additionally, interview questions benefit both employers and interns by ensuring a positive and mutually beneficial experience. Culture fit questions help identify candidates with growth potential while fostering diversity and fresh perspectives by focusing on a “culture add” approach. By integrating these questions into the interview process, companies can build more inclusive, innovative teams that drive long-term success.
For example, if teamwork is important, questions about group projects and conflict resolution can help assess their fit. Additionally, if a company values innovation, they might ask about a time the candidate introduced a new idea or adapted to change.
3. Validating skills and experience
Candidates may list skills and experiences in their resumes, but they don’t tell the whole story. After identifying indicators of skill in a candidate during the initial screening, prioritize evaluating them to see if they translate into practical, real-world scenarios.
Internship interview questions at this stage move beyond surface-level responses and focus on proof of capability. Employers often ask targeted questions that require candidates to demonstrate their skills in action, usually through:
- technical assessments
- problem-solving exercises
- discussions about past projects
This approach ensures that candidates who seemed promising earlier in the process can actually deliver on their potential when faced with real tasks.
28 essential internship interview questions & what to look for
The right interview questions go beyond assessing skills to revealing how candidates think, adapt, and approach challenges.
To this end, the following questions will help you uncover qualities like initiative, creativity, and resilience, ensuring you find interns who can learn quickly and make real impact in your organization.
5 general interview questions for background, experience, and motivation
This category of questions typically opens the interview, providing insight into past experiences, skills, and reasons for applying for the internship. Some examples include:
- “Tell me about yourself”: Helps recruiters understand personality, background, and communication skills.
- “Can you walk me through your resume?”: This question helps you evaluate the interviewee’s ability to articulate their experiences and skills coherently. Pay attention to how they connect their background to the internship role.
- “Why are you interested in this internship, and how does it align with your goals?”: With this question, you can figure out how much passion an applicant has and their understanding of the role.
- “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”: This shows you a candidate’s honest self-assessment and awareness of areas for improvement.
- “What skills or experiences do you hope to gain here?”: Allows recruiters to determine a candidate’s growth mindset and alignment with the opportunities they’re offered.
4 behavioral interview questions to assess candidates’ past experiences and behaviors
Behavioral interview questions help interviewers understand how a candidate has handled situations in the past to predict how they might behave in the future. Such questions typically feature in the middle or later part of the interview, and they include:
- “Tell me about a time you learned something new”: Helps recruiters assess a candidate’s curiosity, attitude to learning, and ability to acquire new skills.
- “Tell me about a time when you received negative feedback on your work”: With this question, you can evaluate a candidate’s openness to feedback and their ability to apply constructive criticism to improve their work.
- “Walk me through how you’d approach (hypothetical job-related challenge)”: This allows you to evaluate creativity and critical thinking skills in a prospective intern.
- “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a conflict at work. What was the outcome?”: This question evaluates conflict resolution skills, communication, and the ability to maintain positive relationships in challenging situations. It allows you to see how an interviewee handles disagreements and works toward constructive outcomes.
5 culture fit interview questions to determine work style and team fit
Determining if an internship applicant fits into your team and work culture is highly necessary. Usually, these questions arise during the middle-to-late stages of an interview process. With that in mind, here are some culture fit interview questions you can ask:
- “What type of work environment helps you thrive?”: This enables you to tell if the candidate’s ideal work environment aligns with what your organization offers.
- “How do you handle feedback or constructive criticism?”: This question assesses the candidate’s emotional intelligence and openness to growth.
- “What type of management style helps you do your best work?”: This aims to get an idea of an applicant’s preferred management style to ensure they thrive in the work environment.
- “Do you prefer working collaboratively or independently, and why?”: This question directly addresses a candidate’s preference for teamwork or individual work and their reason behind it.
- “What are you passionate about?: Guides you in understanding the interviewee’s interests and how they align with the company culture and role requirements.
5 STAR interview questions to evaluate past behavior and predict future job performance
STAR interview questions are essential because they encourage candidates to give clear, detailed answers rather than vague or generic responses. In turn, the interviewer will understand how candidates approach challenges and execute tasks. STAR interview questions are typically asked in the middle of the interview, and some of them include:
- “Have you ever volunteered for a task outside your comfort zone? What motivated you, and what did you learn?”: This question helps you identify an applicant’s curiosity and willingness to embrace challenges like leading a group project.
- “Tell me about a time you had to learn something new quickly. How did you approach it?”: Allows you to evaluate the interviewee’s learning speed, adaptability, and ability to apply new skills to real-world tasks.
- “Describe a time when you noticed a problem or inefficiency and took steps to address it. What was the outcome?”: This question lets you evaluate a candidate’s independent action, motivation, and problem-solving capabilities.
- “Give an example of a goal you set for yourself that required persistence. How did you stay motivated?”: This question allows you to assess a person’s resilience and self-direction. Here, you may find evidence of grit, such as overcoming setbacks and balancing priorities like work and school.
- “How do you handle situations where priorities or deadlines change unexpectedly?: This question helps you evaluate flexibility and composure under pressure.
5 skill-based interview questions to assess key competencies
Making a huge part of the final stages of the interview, these questions, often part of assessments or practical exercises, help employers make a hiring decision by verifying measurable skills. Check out some of them below:
- “Describe a project where you collaborated with a team. What was your role?”: This question gives you an insight into an applicant’s attitude to teamwork and level of accountability.
- “How do you prioritize your workload?”: Enables recruiters to evaluate time management, organizational skills, and a candidate’s ability to handle multiple tasks.
- “Can you give an example of a time when you had to explain a complex concept to someone unfamiliar with it?”: Shows an applicant’s ability to convey information clearly and adapt their communication style as required.
- “How do you approach troubleshooting technical problems?”: Allows a recruiter to understand an interviewee’s method for identifying issues and testing solutions to ensure they can efficiently resolve problems, especially in high-pressure or complex situations.
- “Can you walk me through a complex project you’ve worked on and the tools you used?”: Helps assess the prospect’s problem-solving, technical skills, and ability to manage tasks.
4 interview questions for insight on future career goals
With the following questions, interviewers can identify a promising prospect. It’s appropriate to ask these questions toward the end of the interview to understand how the internship fits into the candidate’s broader career path.
- “What industries or roles are you exploring, and how might this internship help you decide?”: Allows you to evaluate a person’s openness to exploration and decision-making. Additionally, you get an insight into their curiosity about the field.
- “How do you plan to continue growing professionally after this internship ends?”: Gives you an idea of a candidate’s commitment to continuous improvement and their proactive plans, like networking, certifications, and mentorship.
- “What are your short and long-term career goals?”: Helps you ensure the candidate’s goals align with the opportunities the internship or company provides.
- “Where do you see yourself in five years?”: With this question, recruiters can tell if a potential intern envisions a long-term role within the organization. It also shows whether they see the internship as a stepping stone towards a broader career path.
Pro Tip: Pair these questions with Vervoe’s skill-based assessments to accurately validate candidates’ abilities. With a huge library of questions and customizable templates, you can simulate real internship challenges — like adjusting a project plan after a sudden deadline change — to see candidates in action.
5 key qualities to look for in interviews based on responses
While arming yourself with internship interview questions keeps you a step ahead in the hiring process, knowing what qualities to look out for is what makes the difference. As such, here are five key qualities you must assess based on candidates’ responses.
1. Communication
Communication is a necessary soft skill because it shows that candidates can express themselves clearly and concisely. According to Hays, 84% of hiring managers have listed communication among the top skills they will need going forward. So, if a candidate articulates their ideas clearly, avoids jargon, and structures their responses logically, they have a stronger chance of being considered.
Active listening is also a major aspect of communication. People who pause to process questions, ask clarifying follow-ups, or reference earlier parts of the conversation are active listeners. Remember to pay attention to non-verbal cues like eye contact and body language, as they give insight into a candidate’s comfort level and potential fit within your organization.
2. Teamwork and collaboration
Willingness to work with a team is a trait to look out for when evaluating an applicant’s responses because collaboration brings different perspectives, creates stronger solutions, and allows employees to cover each other’s blind spots. Ultimately, it fosters job satisfaction as nearly 90% of respondents in a Statista study consider teamwork important for job satisfaction, whether within or across departments.
During an interview, strong candidates will show they can collaborate, resolve conflicts, and adapt to different roles in their responses. Hiring interns with these skills ensures they integrate well, support their teams, and help drive the company forward. This is beneficial as it often translates into improved communication, better employee engagement, and a more productive work environment for organizations.
3. Adaptability
Adaptability is a non-negotiable trait in the workplace, enabling employees to handle change, solve problems, and stay productive. It’s a critical skill, especially in fast-paced industries like finance, IT, and manufacturing, where evolving demands require flexibility. However, the Hays report highlights a common skill gap in adaptability in these fields. Therefore, prioritizing this trait in hiring ensures you select interns who can adjust quickly, contribute effectively, and grow with your organization.
The best way to test for this quality is to prompt candidates to provide examples of how they’ve pivoted in challenging situations or adjusted to new circumstances. You can ask about experiences where they had to learn new technologies or handle sudden problems to see if they can adapt similarly within your organization.
4. Initiative and motivation
Prospective interns who have identified opportunities on their own, like in a student club or at a part-time job, show proactiveness and initiative by going beyond assigned tasks. Additionally, self-motivated interns seeking learning opportunities are more likely to grow and contribute to their team and the organization.
By focusing on initiative and motivation, you can identify interns who will most likely succeed and positively impact your company.
5. Cultural alignment
An intern who doesn’t align with your company’s culture may struggle to connect with the team and may not fully embrace the values that drive the organization’s success. In fact, 74% of employees feel demotivated by poor culture fit, which can lead to disengagement and collaboration challenges. On the other hand, those who share the company’s values are more likely to work well with the team and contribute positively.
So, look for candidates who show that they understand your company’s values through their past experiences and motivations. Ask about times they adapted to a company’s culture or worked in teams with shared goals. Strong candidates will show enthusiasm for your mission, provide concrete examples of embracing similar values, and ask thoughtful questions about team dynamics and workplace culture.
Red flags to look out for in interviews based on responses
Below are some red-flag responses to look out for when screening candidates to avoid hiring an unqualified intern.
- Lack of curiosity about the role/industry: Candidates who show little interest in researching your company or the industry may not be invested in the role or motivated to learn. A genuine desire to understand the field and the company is key to finding someone who will thrive and contribute meaningfully.
- Blaming others for setbacks: Responses that focus on blaming others for failures may suggest an inability to take responsibility. For example, saying “in my last group project, we failed because my teammates didn’t do their part. I had everything organized, but they just didn’t follow through” shifts accountability away from the candidate.
- Reluctance to step outside routines: A potential intern who expresses a preference for sticking to their usual tasks and avoiding new challenges may not be flexible. In fast-paced environments, adaptability and a willingness to embrace change are crucial for growth and success.
- Limited understanding of teamwork or collaboration: Teamwork is essential for most roles, and the ability to collaborate is key. So, when a prospective intern says, “I prefer working alone and don’t need a team” or struggles to give examples of teamwork, they may have trouble integrating into your team.
- Overemphasis on personal gain: A potential intern focused only on what they can gain rather than how they can contribute to the company might not be ready to fully engage with the organization. A balanced approach, where both the intern and the company benefit, is essential for a successful experience.
While these are a few potential red flags to watch for, they don’t automatically disqualify a candidate but help assess if their mindset fits your company’s values and needs. At the same time, recognizing these warning signs early saves you time and resources while ensuring a more productive internship experience for everyone involved.
Bolster your internship hiring with Vervoe
Targeted interview questions ensure you select interns who bring value to your organization, maximizing the return on investment in your hiring process. By asking the right questions, you can identify candidates with the skills, mindset, and cultural fit needed to thrive in your organization. However, it’s best to reduce the chances of candidates lying during the interview by administering skills tests earlier, ensuring that only those qualified actually get to the interview stage.
Thankfully, Vervoe’s skill-based assessments are a reliable way to filter out unqualified candidates and simplify your internship hiring process. Our AI-powered platform features a robust assessment library with numerous questions and tests, an assessment builder, and expertly created job simulations to help you accurately test prospective interns on the skills that matter most.
So, what are you waiting for? Schedule a demo today to streamline your internship hiring with Vervoe.
