# Predict interview questions from a job description

> You can predict most interview questions from job description lines. Each required skill suggests a technical question, each main duty a question about a time you did it, and the employer's own description a motivation question. List six to eight likely questions, match each to a real example, and prepare the answer in the STAR shape.

Source: https://zorlya.com/blog/predict-interview-questions-from-a-job-description

By Zorlya. Published 2026-09-14. Using Zorlya. 8 min read.

You can predict most interview questions from job description lines: each required skill suggests a technical question, each main duty a question about a time you did that work, and the employer's description of itself a question about why you want to join. List six to eight likely questions, match each one to a real example from your work, and prepare the answer in the STAR shape.

A job description is the part of a posting that sets out the duties, the requirements and the employer. The interviewers are hiring for those same lines, so the lines are your most direct guide to what they will ask.

## Which lines in a job description turn into questions?

Read the posting once for meaning, then a second time with a pen, marking each line by the kind of question it is likely to produce:

| Line in the posting | Question it suggests | An example |
|---|---|---|
| A required skill or tool | A walk-through of real use | "Walk me through a report you built in Excel from raw data." |
| A main duty | A time you did it | "Tell me about a time a supplier missed a delivery date. What did you do?" |
| Seniority words such as lead, manage or senior | Scope and leadership | "How many people did you manage, and how did you set their priorities?" |
| A desirable line | Whether you have it | "Have you worked with donor reporting before?" |
| The employer's description of itself | Motivation | "Why do you want to work for us rather than a similar organisation?" |
| Conditions such as travel, shifts or location | Practical fit | "The role involves travel two weeks a month. How does that suit you?" |
| A line your resume does not cover | A probe on the gap | "I do not see procurement on your CV. Where have you done it?" |

The last row matters most. An interviewer who has read your resume against the posting is likely to notice the same gaps you do, and gaps are where follow-up questions come. [How to read a job posting](/blog/how-to-read-a-job-posting) helps you separate the required lines from the desirable ones before you start.

## How do you turn likely questions into answers?

A list of questions is only half the work. The answers need real examples, and the examples need to be ready before the interview, not found during it:

1. **Mark the lines.** Use the table above, and aim for six to ten lines.
2. **Write one question per line.** Phrase it the way an interviewer would: "Tell me about a time...", "Walk me through...", "Why...".
3. **Pick one example from your record for each.** A real situation, with your own part in it and an outcome you can describe. One example can serve two questions if it fits both.
4. **Outline each answer in the STAR shape.** Situation, task, actions and result, with most of the time on the actions. [STAR method interview answers](/blog/star-method-interview-answers-for-competency-based-questions) shows the structure.
5. **Prepare the gap answers.** For each requirement you do not meet, write a short, honest answer: what you have done that comes closest, and how you would close the gap.
6. **Say the answers aloud.** Time each one. If an answer runs well past three minutes, cut the situation first and keep the actions.

### A worked example: one posting, six questions

Take an illustrative posting for an operations coordinator at a health NGO. It asks for "two years in logistics or procurement", "advanced Excel", "managing relationships with suppliers", "supervising two drivers", "willingness to travel to field sites" and, as a desirable line, "experience with donor reporting". The applicant's resume shows procurement and Excel, but no donor reporting and no staff supervision.

From those lines come six questions:

1. "Walk me through how you would compare three supplier quotes for the same order." (required skill)
2. "Tell me about a time a supplier let you down. What did you do?" (main duty)
3. "Show us how you would track fuel use for a fleet in Excel." (required tool)
4. "You would supervise two drivers. Have you supervised anyone before?" (gap)
5. "Have you written reports for a donor?" (desirable line, and a gap)
6. "Why this organisation, and why the field?" (motivation)

Questions 4 and 5 need the most preparation, because they are the gaps. An honest answer to question 4 might name the time the applicant trained two new colleagues and checked their work for a month, and say plainly that it was not formal supervision.

## How does Zorlya predict interview questions?

For a role in your Zorlya feed, interview prep does a version of this for you. It reads the job title, the company and up to the first eight required skills Zorlya found in the posting, and the three parts of your resume closest to that posting. Then it writes exactly eight questions in a fixed order:

- **Questions 1 to 3, behavioural:** past situations such as leadership, failure and recovery, conflict, and working across teams.
- **Questions 4 to 6, technical:** walk-throughs of how you solved a problem with one of the listed skills. The instructions tell the model not to ask about any skill the posting does not list.
- **Questions 7 and 8, culture and motivation:** why this company, how you work, and where your career is going.

Each question has a difficulty of easy, medium or hard, a STAR outline and a note called the interviewer probe, which says what the interviewer is really assessing beneath the question. The outline suggests which situation from your resume to draw on, the task, three or four actions to describe and the kind of result to aim for, such as a number or a timeline.

Use it as a starting list, not a script. The outlines are drawn from your resume, so check every suggested situation against what really happened, and rewrite the answers in your own words. Then add the questions it cannot know about: the practical conditions in the posting and any line your resume does not cover.

## What are the limits of Zorlya's interview prep?

Four, and each one tells you what to add yourself:

- **Only the first eight skills.** If the posting lists more, the later ones get no technical question. Check the rest of the list by hand.
- **Only the listed skills.** The technical questions come only from the skills Zorlya found in the posting. A posting that names few skills gets thin technical questions, so build the duty questions yourself from the table above.
- **Only three parts of your resume.** If Zorlya has no resume text to draw on, the model is told that no resume context is available, and the outlines will be general. A fuller resume gives it more to draw on.
- **A technical framing.** The instructions describe the model as a coach who has prepared candidates at tech companies. For roles outside tech, lean on the behavioural and motivation questions and add duty questions of your own.

The keyword check on the same job page shows which of the posting's skills your profile matches and which it misses. The missing ones are your gap questions. [What an ATS does with your resume](/blog/what-an-ats-does-with-your-resume) explains that check, and [pricing](/pricing) shows what each plan includes.

## Questions people ask

### Can a job description tell me the exact interview questions?

No. It tells you the topics: the skills, the duties and the conditions the employer cares about. The exact wording is the interviewer's, so prepare examples you can adapt, not word-for-word answers.

### How many questions should I prepare for?

Six to eight, covering every required line and every gap. Most real examples can answer more than one question if you know which part to stress.

### What if I do not meet one of the requirements?

Prepare an honest answer before the interview: what you have done that comes closest, and how you would learn the rest. An interviewer who has read your resume is likely to ask.

### Does Zorlya's interview prep work for any job?

It works for a role in your Zorlya feed. Its technical questions use the skills Zorlya found in that posting, and its outlines use your own resume.

## What we know and what we do not

The description of interview prep was checked against Zorlya's code: the route that runs it and the instructions it sends to the model. The method in the first half of this post, from posting lines to likely questions, is our own way of reading a posting, not the result of a study, and no posting tells you its questions in advance. Zorlya prepares you, and you take the interview. [How Zorlya scores a job](/blog/how-zorlya-scores-a-job) explains the score on each role in your feed.