For startup founders reading, I would not recommend following this hiring approach. Others have already mentioned in the comments the implicit bias these questions introduce. The other issue is that this type of interview is neither repeatable as the company scales nor does it create a positive candidate experience.

At AWS, we have a fairly rigorous hiring process, one that has enabled us to scale the organization from tens to tens of thousands globally. We have been able to do this because we tie our interviews directly to our leadership principles, we ask behavioral questions meant to solicit how a candidate thinks as it relates to our principles, and use the STAR technique to pull details about the candidate’s specific contributions to the outcomes of a particular situation.

This process is teachable, metrics focused, and scalable as the organization grows. It enables us to remove bias and focus on what matters most as it relates to the role and their ability to thrive at AWS. And most importantly, it is designed to create a positive hiring experience as they do not feel the surprised or throw by gotcha type of questions.

And if that is not enough to convince you, I have also asked startup founders from well-known unicorn startups about their hiring process, and while there are nuances, the core of how they structure the hiring process and candidate experience is similar to what I shared above. I am glad to chat with any startup founder that is curious about how to setup their recruiting and hiring process.