How do I write good interview questions?

Keep core questions open and non-leading ('Tell me about...', 'Walk me through...'), avoid yes/no and double-barrelled questions, and prepare probes such as 'Can you say more?' or 'What was that like?'. Fewer, richer questions plus good probing beat a long list of narrow ones.

What is a probe in an interview?

A probe is a short, non-leading follow-up that draws out depth without steering the answer — for example 'Can you give an example?', 'What happened next?', or simply silence. Skilled probing does much of the work in a semi-structured interview.

How many interviews do I need?

There is no fixed number; it depends on your approach and how rich the data are. Many qualitative studies reach the point where new interviews stop adding new insight (information power or saturation) somewhere in the range of roughly a dozen or more, but justify your number against your design rather than a rule of thumb.

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How to conduct research interviews

Q: What is a semi-structured interview?

A semi-structured interview follows a guide of open questions covering set topics, but lets the interviewer follow up and reorder as the conversation unfolds. It balances consistency across participants with the flexibility to explore what matters to each — the most common format in qualitative research.

By Dr. Rafiq Muhammad, MD, PhD · Updated June 2026

A research interview is a guided conversation to gather qualitative data. The semi-structured interview — a guide of open questions you can follow and reorder — is by far the most common, because it keeps you covering the same ground across participants while leaving room to chase what matters to each one.

The three types

Structured — fixed questions in fixed order (closer to a spoken survey).
Semi-structured — a topic guide of open questions + probes; flexible order. The default.
Unstructured — a single opening prompt, then follow the participant; most demanding to analyse.

Writing the questions

Open, not closed: “Tell me about…”, “Walk me through…” — not yes/no.
Non-leading: don’t embed the answer (“How stressful was it?” presumes stress).
One thing at a time: avoid double-barrelled questions.
Prepare probes: “Can you say more?”, “What was that like?”, “Can you give an example?” — and don’t fear silence.

Running it well

Open with the purpose, consent, and recording reminder; warm up with easy questions; move through your topics with open questions and probes; close by inviting anything you missed. Build rapport, listen more than you talk, and let pauses breathe. Always get ethics approval and informed consent, anonymise, and store recordings securely.

The free Interview Guide Builder turns your topic and the areas you want to cover into a full semi-structured guide — opening/consent script, warm-up, core questions with probes, and a closing — ready to copy or print.

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Interview-guide templates, consent scripts, and a probing-question bank from QDA with ChatGPT and QualCoder. We’ll email you the download link.

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Frequently asked questions

What is a semi-structured interview?

A guide of open questions on set topics that you can follow up and reorder — consistency plus flexibility. The qualitative default.

How do I write good questions?

Open, non-leading, one thing at a time, with prepared probes. Fewer rich questions beat many narrow ones.

What is a probe?

A short non-leading follow-up (“Say more?”, “An example?”) — or silence — that draws out depth.

How many interviews?

No fixed number — until new interviews stop adding insight (information power / saturation). Justify against your design.

Then code your data → Open the Interview Guide Builder →