Analytical skills refer to gathering data, solving problems, and making quick and thoughtful business decisions. A candidate with the right analytical skills can help businesses overcome challenges before it becomes a big issue.

No matter what role you’re hiring, it’s imperative to ask interview questions to assess/test the analytical skills of a candidate. These skills play a vital role in any organization’s success and boost the business’s overall productivity.

During the interviews, you must ask the candidate about their previous organization or how they analyzed and solved a particular business challenge. It will give you a clear insight into the candidate’s working style and help you determine whether the candidate is the right fit for your organization.

Undoubtedly, creating a list of interview questions to assess/test analytical skills can be challenging for recruiters. If you’re the one – struggling to create a list of relevant analytical skills questions, then we’ve got you covered. This article will discuss the top interview questions and analytical skills to look for in a candidate.

Some candidates are good at soft skills but lack technical skills. Analytical skills are also considered hard skills, which refer to brainstorming new ideas to solve a particular issue. Therefore, you must ask relevant interview questions to assess/test analytical skills to get a real sense of how a candidate addresses difficult situations.

Asking the right interview questions will give you a clear insight into how a candidate:

• Gather data
• Address the issues
• Use critical thinking to assess data
• Make informed decisions

That said, here is the list of the top interview questions that will help you assess a candidate’s analytical skills.

Describe A Situation Where You Have Successfully Demonstrated Your Analytical Skills.

This question will give you a clear picture of the candidate’s analytical skills. It will help you assess communication skills, time-management skills, problem-solving skills, and decision-making skills. You can expect a candidate to share their experience with a previous organization and describe a situation where they have successfully used their analytical skills to overcome a business challenge.

Describe The Steps Of Your Problem-Solving Approach.

This question will help you assess the problem-solving skills and the thought process of a candidate. The answer to this question will help you determine whether the candidate uses the right approach which matches your business requirements.

What Was The Toughest Decision You Have Ever Made In Your Previous Organization?

A candidate may speak about different things at this point. If a candidate had some analytical role in the past, this question is the best way to observe how they react to different situations and whether they have landed on a final decision.

If a candidate says that they didn’t decide on their own, and let someone else decide, you’re interviewing the wrong candidate.

How Do You Use Pros And Cons To Make A Business Decision?

This question gauges the candidate’s ability to assess both positive and negative aspects of a situation to improve productivity. The way a candidate answers this question will say a lot about their working style and priorities. You can expect a candidate to describe their working process and how they evaluate the good and bad at work.

What’s The Biggest Issue You Faced In Your Previous Organization?

It is one of the most significant interview questions to assess/test analytical skills as it will also help you assess the behavioral and communication skills of a candidate.

Did they manage to solve the problem alone or need help? What information do they gather, and how do they land on a final decision?

Why Are You The Right Fit For This Job Role?

This question allows candidates to describe their analytical skills and what sets them apart from others. You can expect a candidate to describe their working style and strategies to overcome a business challenge. The way a candidate answers this question will reveal their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

How Do You Solve Real-World Problems At Workplace?

This is a simple question that highlights how a candidate would approach a real-world problem at the workplace. It will also give you a clear picture of how a candidate defines a challenging situation.

So, what analytical skills do you need to look for in a candidate?

Problem-Solving Skills

A candidate who can’t solve a problem independently and needs someone’s help can become a burden on any organization. Every business faces some problems at a point in time, and you must look for someone with the right problem-solving skills to overcome challenges easily.

Decision-Making Skills

The right decision-maker knows how to make the right decision for a business to achieve the desired goals. Decision-making skills constitute of the following skills:

• Teamwork
• Organization
• Emotional intelligence
• Leadership
• Reasoning

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking skills are crucial for every job role, no matter entry-level or senior-level position. A candidate with strong critical thinking skills can provide the ability to question an idea, such as why it can’t be done? Will investing in this technology be worth it? Will time, money, and expertise solve this issue?

Research Skills

Research is an integral part of analytical skills. A candidate who possesses the right analytical skills can perform thorough research for a solution. It also involves knowing what information is essential to solving a particular issue.

Communication Skills

A good communicator can communicate with clients to identify a problem, carry out research, and provide a solution. Communication skills are the key skills in the analytical thinking process.

Analytical skills are crucial to assess when hiring for a technical role, such as developers, data analysts, management analysts, consultants, market research analysts, etc.

If you want someone who can gather the data and solve the problem easily, it’s crucial to ask relevant interview questions to assess/test a candidate’s analytical skills. And while analytical skills matter, you should test other skills because the combination of both hard and soft skills makes a candidate ‘perfect’ for any organization.