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Interview Question Checker

Which interview questions are illegal?

It depends on the country. In the UK, health and disability questions before a job offer are unlawful (Equality Act s.60). In the US, disability questions before an offer (ADA) and family medical history (GINA) are unlawful, and pay-history questions are banned in many states. In the EU, the Pay Transparency Directive bans pay-history questions. In Pakistan, few questions are banned for private employers outright, but sex and gender-identity discrimination in hiring is unlawful, and disability discrimination is unlawful in Islamabad.

Most "illegal interview questions" lists are American and say everything is illegal. It is not, and in Pakistan most of these questions are not banned at all.

Paste your questions and choose the country. Each one comes back as unlawful, risky or fine, with the reason and a lawful way to ask for what the job actually needs.

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Built by Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Structured, job-related questions are also the ones that predict performance best, which is the selection-psychology reason to drop the rest.

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The same question can be banned in one country and simply unwise in another.
Example questions are filled in; replace them with yours. Nothing you paste leaves this page.

    Unlawful, risky, fine: the three answers

    Unlawful means asking is prohibited in itself, whatever you do with the answer: health questions before an offer in Great Britain, disability and genetic questions in the US, pay history in the EU once the Directive applies. Risky means asking is allowed, but the answer has no job reason, so if the candidate is rejected the question becomes the evidence that the answer counted. Fine means lawful, sometimes with a better way to ask.

    Most questions fall in the middle category everywhere. That is why the honest answer to "is this illegal?" is so often "no, and you still should not ask it".

    Pakistan: what the law covers, and what it does not

    Article 27 of the Constitution forbids discrimination on race, religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth in appointments to the service of Pakistan, meaning government posts. It does not bind a private company. For private employers, three laws reach hiring:

    • The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018, s.9(3): unlawful for an employer to discriminate on sex, gender identity or gender expression in deciding who is offered employment.
    • The ICT Rights of Persons with Disability Act 2020, s.10: no public or private employer in Islamabad may discriminate on disability in employment.
    • The Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010, as amended in 2022: harassment now includes discrimination on the basis of gender. Whether a job applicant counts as a complainant is not settled.

    Nothing bans a private employer from asking about marriage, children, religion, sect or age. That is a gap in the law, not permission: the questions still predict nothing about the job, and they are what a complaint, a journalist or a multinational's compliance team will quote.

    Why the psychology says drop them anyway

    Decades of selection research find that structured interviews, where every candidate gets the same job-related questions scored against the same anchors, predict job performance far better than conversational ones. Personal questions are what fill an unstructured interview. They add nothing to prediction and they invite the interviewer's assumptions to do the scoring. The legal risk and the validity problem have the same cure.

    Before you rely on this

    What this will not tell you

    This is a word-matching checker, not legal advice. It catches the usual phrasings and will miss a question asked indirectly ("tell me about your family") or flag an innocent one that happens to use a matched word. US rules here are federal: states and cities add more (salary history, criminal record timing). EU member states add their own grounds. Pakistan's provinces have their own disability and labour laws. Nothing you paste leaves your browser.

    Questions

    Questions people actually ask

    Is it illegal to ask if someone is married in Pakistan?

    Not for a private employer: no statute bans the question. In government service sex is a forbidden ground under Article 27, and a question asked only of women can amount to gender-based discrimination under the 2022 amendment to the workplace harassment law. There is no job reason to ask.

    Can an employer ask about my health before offering me a job in the UK?

    Generally no. Section 60 of the Equality Act 2010 bars health and disability questions before an offer, except to arrange adjustments for the interview, to check a function intrinsic to the job, for diversity monitoring or for positive action.

    Can an employer ask my current salary?

    In Pakistan and Great Britain, yes. In about 20 US states, DC and many US cities, no. In the EU, the Pay Transparency Directive (Article 5(2)) bars employers from asking about pay history.

    Is it illegal to ask my age in the US?

    Not in itself. The regulations say asking date of birth is not by itself a violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, but such questions are closely scrutinised, and using the answer against someone aged 40 or over is unlawful.

    What should I ask instead?

    Ask every candidate the same job-related questions: whether they can meet the hours and travel, whether they have the right to work, whether they can carry out the essential tasks with or without adjustments, and what salary they expect.

    Where every rule comes from

    Sources

    Checked against the text of the law on 16 October 2026. Laws and notified rates change; if a source below has moved on, the source wins over this page.

    1. Constitution of Pakistan, Articles 25 and 27: https://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/constitution/part2.ch1.html
    2. Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018 (Act XIII of 2018), s.9: https://lpr.adb.org/sites/default/files/2024-07/pakistan-transgender-persons-protection-and-rights-act-2018-act-no-xiii-of-2018.pdf
    3. ICT Rights of Persons with Disability Act 2020, s.10: https://lpr.adb.org/sites/default/files/2024-07/pakistan-ict-rights-of-persons-with-disability-act-2020.pdf
    4. Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Act 2022: https://www.na.gov.pk/uploads/documents/620cba6d676bf_127.pdf
    5. Sindh Terms of Employment (Standing Orders) Act 2015, s.11: https://www.sindhlaws.gov.pk/Setup/Publications_SindhCode/PUB-NEW-18-000108.pdf
    6. Equality Act 2010, s.4 (protected characteristics): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/4
    7. Equality Act 2010, s.60 (enquiries about disability and health): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/60
    8. EHRC Employment Statutory Code of Practice, para 16.62: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/employercode.pdf
    9. EEOC, prohibited employment policies and practices: https://www.eeoc.gov/prohibited-employment-policiespractices
    10. EEOC, pre-employment inquiries and marital status or number of children: https://www.eeoc.gov/pre-employment-inquiries-and-marital-status-or-number-children
    11. EEOC, pre-employment inquiries and religious affiliation or beliefs: https://www.eeoc.gov/pre-employment-inquiries-and-religious-affiliation-or-beliefs
    12. EEOC, pre-employment inquiries and arrest and conviction: https://www.eeoc.gov/pre-employment-inquiries-and-arrest-conviction
    13. EEOC, pre-employment inquiries and citizenship: https://www.eeoc.gov/pre-employment-inquiries-and-citizenship
    14. 29 CFR 1625.5 (age questions): https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/1625.5
    15. 29 CFR 1630.13 (ADA pre-offer disability questions): https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/1630.13
    16. 29 CFR 1635.8 (GINA genetic information): https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/1635.8
    17. Directive (EU) 2023/970 (Pay Transparency), Article 5: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/celex/32023L0970
    Citation

    Cite this tool

    Free to use and free to quote. If a figure here is useful in something you are writing, a link back is all that is asked.

    Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Interview Question Checker. Shahzeb Speaks. https://www.shahzebspeaks.com/interview-question-checker/

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    Want interviews that predict performance as well as stay lawful?

    The Structured Interview Kit is a competency question bank, anchored scoring sheets and a calibration process: the job-related questions that replace the personal ones, and a way to score them consistently.

    See the Structured Interview Kit