Sharing interview topics lets candidates prepare, yields richer answers, and prevents spoilable questions, leading to more reliable hiring decisions.
The core recommendation is to be transparent about each interview stage by providing a one-sentence preview of the topics and format. Candidates can then focus their preparation on the right material, which reduces anxiety and forces them to surface concrete examples rather than generic soundbites.
When an interview can be spoiled, the questions are likely memorized and fail to reveal how a candidate thinks on their feet. A technical interview that simply asks for the definition of garbage collection, or a behavioral question that can be answered with a rehearsed story, provides little signal. Instead, interviewers should design prompts that require trade-off analysis, problem-solving, or reflection on personal experience, such as discussing a real incident where a design decision caused a performance issue.
Transparent previews also make the hiring process more data-driven. Candidates arrive with relevant anecdotes, interviewers collect higher-quality evidence, and teams can calibrate scores across a larger pool without constantly inventing new questions. The result is a more efficient interview pipeline, clearer hiring decisions, and a better candidate experience.
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