Avoid anything about personal characteristics and circumstances that are not job requirements: family plans, health, religion, age, immigration background beyond work authorisation, and in many places salary history. Ask about the ability to do the job instead. Rules differ substantially by country, so confirm your list with qualified local advice rather than copying another company's.
Questions about personal circumstances that have no bearing on the work. Family situation and plans to have children. Age or graduation year used as a proxy for it. Health, disability and medical history. Religion and religious practice. Marital status. National origin or immigration background beyond confirming the right to work in the location. Political affiliation. In many jurisdictions, previous salary. The common thread is that none of these describes whether someone can do the job, and asking creates both a fairness problem and a documented record of having asked. This is general guidance rather than legal advice, and the specific prohibitions vary widely between countries, so check with qualified local counsel.
Almost every risky question has a legitimate version that asks directly about the job requirement. Instead of asking about children or care responsibilities, state the actual travel or shift pattern and ask whether the candidate can meet it. Instead of asking about health, describe the physical or attendance requirements of the role and ask the same question. Instead of asking where someone is from, ask whether they are authorised to work in the location and whether they need sponsorship. Instead of asking what they earned, share your range and ask if it works. The rewrite is usually one sentence, and it produces a more useful answer as well as a safer one.
This is where most problems actually start. Unstructured small talk at the beginning of an interview drifts into family, background and personal life with no ill intent, and once heard, that information influences judgement whether or not it appears in the notes. So-called culture questions can act as proxies too, since asking what someone does at weekends or whether they would enjoy the team's social routine filters on lifestyle rather than capability. The practical defence is structure: a fixed question set, notes tied to competencies, and interviewers who know the boundary. Running [structured interviews](/interview-questions) removes most of the exposure without making the conversation cold. Keep the opening small talk brief and neutral, then move to the first prepared question early.
Short, concrete and repeated. A list of prohibited topics is quickly forgotten. What sticks is a set of paired examples showing the risky question and its job-related replacement, plus a rehearsed answer for when a candidate volunteers personal information. That last one matters: if someone mentions their pregnancy or their health unprompted, the interviewer should acknowledge it briefly, avoid follow-up questions, and keep it out of the written record and the debrief. Refresh the training whenever new interviewers join and whenever you begin hiring in a new country, since the boundaries move. Keep the question sets and the scorecards in your [applicant tracking system](/ats) so the same approved set is used every time.
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