There Are No Throwaway Interview Questions
I conducted an interview recently and it went pretty well.
The candidate had solid experience, not directly in the role, but adjacent. They were looking to pivot careers. They seemed invested. Motivated. Thoughtful. I was leaning towards being interested in carrying the candidate forward.
And then, as I always do at the end of an interview, I asked my “throwaway” question.
I adopted this habit after watching a colleague wrap every interview with something light:
What’s your favorite movie?
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
My “throwaway” question became:
If you could choose any superpower in the world, what would it be and why?
To me, it was a tone reset. We value culture. We value levity. Ending on a playful note always felt right.
Over the years, I’ve heard great answers.
Teleportation, travel is SO expensive but they love it.
Flying, because they’re obsessed with aviation.
Mind reading, so they’d better understand expectations and where they stand.
Fun. Insightful. Sometimes surprisingly revealing.
This candidate said: Time travel.
Not to visit ancient civilizations.
Not to see the future.
Not to spend more time with loved ones who have passed.
His reason?
“I live with a lot of regrets. I would change my mistakes.”
And just like that, my “light” question wasn’t light anymore. It landed like a weighted blanket that no one asked for.
Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with that answer. It was honest. Vulnerable, even.
But interviews are all about data intake and collection. And here’s the truth that I learned: even a playful question equals valuable data.
What I heard wasn’t growth. What I heard was fixation.
I wasn’t hearing reinvention. I was hearing revision.
I want someone who can say:
“Hey, I goofed. Here’s what happened. Here’s how I’d fix it. What do you think?”
I want ownership. Forward motion. Repair, not rumination. Mistakes are inevitable. Living in them is optional.
And well, my preliminary interest cooled.
Not because he admitted imperfection but because his instinct wasn’t to learn and move forward. It was to rewind.
Here’s the real lesson. Every question you ask in an interview is a data point.
If this had been the first time I asked that superpower question, it might not have stood out.
But I’ve asked it hundreds of times.
When you consistently ask the same questions, patterns emerge and signals bounce off of your internal antenna.
You start seeing neon green flag answers that showcase self-awareness, strength, humor, optimism, and capability. Yellow flag answers that simply land as standard, acceptable.
And occasionally, of course the red flag answers too.
This is what I think of as building a data tree. You cluster responses. You identify patterns. You create your own internal baselines.
Suddenly, interviews aren’t just vibes. They’re comparative insights.
In order to set your baseline, you need a core set of questions you always ask.
Not trendy ones. Not “Top 10 Google Interview Questions”. Yours.
Questions that:
Reflect the culture you’re building
Surface the traits you value
Reveal how someone thinks
When you establish your baseline, you give yourself something more concrete than, “I liked them.”
You can assess: Green? Yellow? Red?
And you walk away with structured, valuable instinct instead of guesswork.
There are no throwaway questions. Even the silly ones. Especially the silly ones.
Because how someone plays often reveals how someone works.
So to end this blog post on a light note…
If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?(Choose wisely. I might be adding it to my data tree.)
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