Questions to Ask an Architect in an Interview
Twenty questions for interviewing an architect for a role in a practice, covering authorship of portfolio work, detailing and site experience, registration status, coordination with engineers, cost decisions and record-keeping.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Take me through one project in your portfolio and tell me exactly which parts were yours.
Why ask it
Portfolios are shared credit by convention, so this is the fairest way to establish scope of contribution. A candidate who says plainly that they drew the stair and the bathrooms is easier to trust than one who claims the whole scheme.
Which project did you take furthest through construction?
Why ask it
Concept work and construction administration are different skills, and many portfolios stop at planning. Someone who has stood on site during a pour and issued a site instruction knows things that cannot be taught in the office.
What is your registration status, and where are you in the process?
Why ask it
Ask directly, since titles are legally restricted in most places and the answer affects what work you can assign. For a candidate mid-examination, ask what remains and what support they would need.
Which drawing package are you fastest at, and which slows you down?
Why ask it
A candidate who names a weakness, detailing, schedules, stair sections, will usually be honest about their progress later too. Anyone equally strong at everything has not been checked closely by a previous employer.
What software do you work in, and how well do you handle a shared model?
Why ask it
Naming a tool is easy; working in a federated model with other consultants without breaking it is not. Ask about worksets, clash detection and who managed the model on their last project.
Show me a detail you drew that you are proud of and tell me why.
Why ask it
This is the most reliable technical test in an architecture interview. Listen for water, movement, thermal bridging and buildability, and for whether they know what the contractor did with it.
Tell me about a time a detail failed on site.
Why ask it
Everyone has one. What matters is whether they found out, what they changed afterwards, and whether they can describe it without blaming the contractor for everything.
How do you find out what a client actually needs, as opposed to what they asked for?
Why ask it
You are testing whether they interrogate a brief. Strong candidates describe observing how a space is used, asking about routines, or presenting options to expose an unstated priority.
What do you do when a client asks for something you think is wrong?
Why ask it
Answers reveal whether they will protect the practice's reputation or simply comply. Look for a described sequence: understand the reason, offer an alternative, put the risk in writing if overruled.
How do you keep a design compliant while it is still moving?
Why ask it
Fire strategy, means of escape, accessibility and structural coordination all bite late and expensively. Ask which code or regulation they have read most recently and what it changed in their drawing.
What accessibility requirement do you find most often gets missed?
Why ask it
A specific answer, turning circles, threshold levels, door approach clearances, visual contrast, shows someone who has designed rather than only rendered. A vague commitment to inclusive design shows the opposite.
How have you handled a project where the tender came back well over budget?
Why ask it
Cost is where architectural careers are made or damaged. Look for concrete moves: reduced envelope area, simplified structure, substituted materials, phased scope, rather than a general willingness to compromise.
Describe a time you disagreed with a structural or services engineer.
Why ask it
Coordination conflict is constant and the resolution style matters. You want someone who went to look at the constraint rather than defending the drawing by email.
What would you do in the first week if a project came to you halfway through, with drawings you did not produce?
Why ask it
This is closer to real practice than a green-field question. Good answers involve reading the consents, checking the drawing register against what is issued, and finding out what has already been built.
How do you present work to someone who cannot read a plan?
Why ask it
Most clients and many committee members cannot. Physical models, sections at eye height, a walk-through, simple sketches, all beat a wall of technical drawings, and knowing that is a professional skill.
What is the last thing you learned that changed how you design?
Why ask it
Better than asking about continuing professional development in the abstract. Answers about post-occupancy feedback, an embodied carbon assessment, or a building they visited carry more weight than a certificate.
How do you record decisions on a live project?
Why ask it
Meeting minutes, drawing revisions, an issued instruction and an email trail are what protect a practice when a dispute arrives two years later. Casualness here is a genuine risk.
What kind of work do you want to be doing in three years, and does this role lead there?
Why ask it
Asked plainly, this saves both parties eighteen months. Someone who wants housing and is being hired for fit-outs will leave, whatever they say in the interview.
What do you want to ask me about how we work?
Why ask it
The questions a candidate asks are a better sample of their judgement than their answers. Ones who ask about team structure, who checks drawings and how overtime is handled are thinking about doing the job.
What would make you turn this job down?
Why ask it
Late but useful. Honest answers, commute, no route to registration, no site exposure, salary, give you something you can address, and evasion tells you they have already decided.
Running an architect interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Set the interview up properly
Ask for the portfolio in advance and read it
Send your questions about specific pages rather than asking the candidate to present cold. You get better answers and a shorter interview, and you can tell who has drawn what before they walk in.
Have someone technical in the room
A principal alone will assess design sensibility and miss detailing ability. Include whoever will actually check this person's drawings.
Decide what the role needs before you meet anyone
Concept design, technical delivery and contract administration draw on different strengths, and few candidates are strong in all three. Interviewing without deciding which you need is how practices hire an impressive designer who cannot get a package out.
Ask the same core questions of everyone
Comparison is impossible otherwise, and it is the main protection against interviewing on rapport alone.
During the interview
- Anchor every question to a real project. 'What is your approach to X' produces rehearsed answers; 'show me where you did X' produces evidence.
- Spend a full ten minutes on one drawing. Depth on a single detail tells you more than a tour of six schemes.
- Ask about the thing that went wrong before you ask about the thing they are proud of. It is easier to be honest early than after a run of good answers.
- Let silence sit after a technical question rather than helping. Watching someone think through a detail is the point.
- Note whether they distinguish their own work from the team's without being pushed.
- Leave real time for their questions, and treat what they choose to ask as part of the assessment.
Common mistakes
Hiring the portfolio rather than the person
Beautiful images are frequently produced by a visualiser and directed by a principal. Establish authorship for every project you are impressed by.
Only assessing design taste
Drawing production, coordination, code knowledge, cost awareness and record-keeping determine whether projects finish. Interviewing on aesthetics alone tends to produce a studio that cannot deliver.
Skipping the site experience question
A candidate who has never attended a site meeting will need supervision on construction stages for a year. That may be fine, but you should know it before the offer, not after.
Talking more than the candidate
Selling the practice for forty minutes leaves twenty for assessment. Describe the role briefly, then spend the time listening.
After the interview
Score against the requirements you wrote down beforehand rather than against each other, and record the reasons in writing. Take up references with a specific question, whether the candidate's drawings needed heavy checking, since that is the answer most likely to be given honestly. If you offer, be exact about salary, review timing, support towards registration and the type of work in the first year: architecture has a long-standing problem with unpaid overtime, and being explicit about hours is now a competitive advantage rather than a concession.