> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.interviewflowai.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Question settings

> Choose where interview questions come from: manual, resume based, or skill based.

Choose one or more question sources for the interview. All three are off by default, and you must turn on at least one to continue.

<Info>Not sure which to use? See [Skills vs. resume vs. custom questions](/interview-automation/skills-vs-resume-vs-custom-questions).</Info>

## Manual questions

You write the exact questions the AI asks every Candidate. You add them in the next step, [Questions](/interview-automation/create-an-ai-interviewer/questions).

## Resume based

The AI writes questions for each Candidate based on their resume. Turning this on also locks **Resume required** on, because the AI needs a resume to work from.

* **Resume question instructions** (required, up to 4,000 characters): Tell the AI what to probe in the resume. For example, "Focus heavily on problem solving, ownership, and depth of prior work." Click **Generate** to have the AI draft instructions from your role details.
* **Max questions**: How many resume questions to ask, from 1 to 10. The default is 5.
* **Max duration per question (min)**: The time limit for each question, not the whole set, from 0.5 to 10 minutes. The default is 2.

## Skill based

The AI writes questions for each Candidate based on their skills.

* **Allowed Skills**: The skills Candidates can choose from. Search the list or type your own, or click **Generate skills** to have the AI suggest skills from your role details.
* **Per-skill instructions**: Each skill in your list gets its own instructions box. Tell the AI what to assess for that skill, for example, "Assess depth of SQL in a real-world context." Skills without instructions use the default approach.
* **Flexible skills**: Let Candidates add skills that are not on your list.
* **Max questions**: How many skill questions to ask in total, from 1 to 10. The default is 5.
* **Max duration per question (min)**: The time limit for each question, not the whole set, from 0.5 to 10 minutes. The default is 2.

Candidates get skills as follows:

* If **Flexible skills** is on, each Candidate selects exactly as many skills as **Max questions**. They can mix skills from your list, the platform skill list, and their own. Your list can be empty.
* If it's off and **Allowed Skills** has more skills than **Max questions**, each Candidate selects as many skills as **Max questions** from your list.
* If it's off and your list has the same number of skills as **Max questions** or fewer, Candidates get every skill automatically and don't select any.

To continue, either add instructions to at least one skill or turn on **Flexible skills**.

<Tip>You can change the order of the question sources in the next step.</Tip>


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