TemplateBuilt 9 September 2026
Interview Scorecard Template: Build One, Download the CSV
An interview scorecard is a written list of the things the job actually requires, a fixed rating scale with descriptions attached to each number, a weight per criterion, and a space for the evidence behind every rating. It exists so that two interviewers judge the same candidate against the same standard, and so that you can say afterwards why someone was rejected. That last part is not optional: under 29 CFR 1607.3(A) an interview is a selection procedure like any other, and 1607.4(A) requires records that disclose its impact. Build yours below and download it as a CSV — no form, no email, generated in your browser.
What makes it a scorecard rather than a form
- Criteria drawn from the job, not from adjectives. "Can hand over a shift so the next person knows what happened" is a criterion. "Communication skills" is a category heading pretending to be one.
- A scale with words attached to the numbers. A 1 to 5 with no descriptions is five people's private opinions wearing the same uniform. Write what a 2 looks like and what a 4 looks like, in the language of the job.
- Weights set before you meet anyone. Deciding afterwards which criterion mattered most is how a scorecard gets used to justify a decision already made.
- Evidence next to every rating. One line of what the candidate actually said or did. This is the part that makes the record worth having.
- Independent scoring, then discussion. Interviewers score alone before comparing. Otherwise the first person to speak sets the number.
- The same criteria for every candidate for that role. A scale applied to some people and not others is not a standard.
Build your scorecard
Set the role and the scale, then edit the criteria. Weights are relative, so they do not have to add to 100 — the builder normalises them and shows the effective share. The CSV comes out ready to print or to paste into a sheet, with a scoring row per criterion and an evidence column.
Scorecard builder
| Criterion | What a strong answer shows | Weight |
|---|
Writing the anchors
The anchors are the descriptions attached to each point on the scale, and they are the difference between a scorecard and a feelings survey. Two rules make them work.
First, describe behaviour rather than quality. "Gave a specific example with the outcome" beats "answered well." Second, write the bottom and the top first and let the middle look after itself — it is easy to say what an unacceptable answer sounds like and what an excellent one sounds like, and much harder to define a 3 in the abstract.
Why an even-numbered scale is worth considering
On a 1 to 5, a nervous interviewer can give every candidate a 3 and decide nothing. A 1 to 4 removes the safe middle and forces a direction. The trade-off is that it feels harsher to score, so tell interviewers in advance that a 2 is a normal and useful answer, not a criticism of the person.
The legal frame, briefly
An interview is a selection procedure. Under 29 CFR 1607.3(A), a selection procedure with an adverse impact is considered discriminatory unless it has been validated, and 1607.4(A) requires users to keep records that disclose the impact of their procedures by race, sex and ethnic group. The reason a scorecard matters legally is not that it protects you by existing — it is that it is the only way you will have any record of what the interview measured.
1607.5(B) describes content validity as data showing the content of the procedure is representative of important aspects of performance on the job. In practice that means the criteria on your scorecard should be traceable to a job analysis: someone wrote down what the job involves, and each criterion is on the list because the job needs it. Federal law now embeds the same idea — the Chance to Compete Act of 2024 lists a structured interview among the forms a position-specific technical assessment can take, and requires that assessment to be based on a job analysis.
And 1607.5(F) is the sentence to check your criteria against before you finish: avoid selecting on knowledge, skills or abilities normally learned in a brief orientation period. If your scorecard scores people on something orientation teaches in a shift, delete the row.
Running the interview so the scorecard means something
- Ask the same questions in the same order. Follow-ups can vary; the core set should not.
- Score during, not after. Memory reorders an interview towards whatever happened last.
- Score alone, then meet. Collect the individual sheets before anyone says a number out loud.
- Keep the sheets. They are the record 1607.4(A) is asking about, and they are also the only way to see later that one interviewer scores a whole group lower than everyone else does.
- Review the criteria after ten hires. If a criterion never separates candidates, it is costing interview time and adding nothing.
- Give the candidate the criteria in advance where you can. It rarely hurts the signal and it noticeably improves completion at the frontline end of the market.
What the interview stage is worth in money
Across the 891 Boostpoint-managed Meta campaigns in our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, the median cost per applicant was $13.88 and the volume-weighted blended figure was $8.02. By the time someone reaches a structured interview you have usually paid for several applicants to get one of them there, so the interview is the most expensive twenty minutes in the funnel.
Which is the practical argument for the scorecard, quite apart from the legal one. An unstructured interview at that price is an expensive way to find out that two managers disagree about what the job needs. Related: interview questions to ask candidates for what goes in the question set, pre-screening questions for what happens before this stage, and hiring process steps for where it sits in the whole flow.
This instrument assumes one candidate at a time. If you are seeing several at once, the scorecard has to change shape — fewer dimensions, all observable, scored in the room. That version is on group interviews for employers.
To keep track of who is at which stage and for how long, the recruitment tracker template builds a CSV from your own roles and stage names.
Frequently asked questions
Interview rubric, scoring sheet, evaluation form: one tool, three names
These three terms are used interchangeably and mostly describe the same document. The distinctions people do draw are worth knowing, because they change what the sheet should contain.
| What it is called | What people usually mean by it | What it must contain to work |
|---|---|---|
| Interview scorecard | The whole instrument: criteria, scale, evidence, decision | Criteria fixed before the first interview, and a recommendation field |
| Interview rubric | The scale itself — what a 1, 3 and 5 look like for each criterion | Written anchors. A rubric with no anchors is a number with no meaning |
| Interview scoring sheet | The printable grid the interviewer writes on during the conversation | One page, room for evidence, usable on a clipboard |
| Candidate evaluation form | The version HR files afterwards, often with a summary and a signature | The same criteria as the scorecard, or the comparison breaks |
If you are being asked for an "evaluation form" by someone who files paperwork and a "rubric" by the supervisor who interviews, build one sheet with anchors and print it twice. Two documents with different criteria is the failure mode that makes all of this worthless.
A rubric you can copy for any frontline role
Anchors are the part most employers skip and the part that does the work. Here is a generic five-point rubric that transfers across hourly roles; swap the wording for your own operation and keep the shape.
| Score | What it means | What it sounds like in an answer |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Better than the best person currently doing this job | Gives a specific example, owns a mistake in it, and names what they changed afterwards |
| 4 | As good as your strongest current employee in this role | Concrete example with their own actions clearly separated from the team's |
| 3 | As good as the median person doing the job today | A real example, thin on detail, no clear reflection |
| 2 | Would need more supervision than you have to give | Talks in generalities, or describes what the team did |
| 1 | Cannot do this part of the job | No example exists, or the example contradicts the requirement |
Three rules make the numbers comparable. Anchor the 3 to your own median employee, not to an ideal. Score each criterion as you reach it rather than at the end. And have both interviewers score independently before they speak, because the second person agrees with the first about four times in five once the discussion has started.
The sheet is only half of it: the questions and the order they go in are on how to interview someone, the question bank is on interview questions to ask candidates, and for roles where the work can be watched instead of discussed, the paid trial shift on working interview out-predicts any rubric.
What is an interview scorecard?
A written set of job-related criteria, each with a fixed rating scale whose points carry descriptions, a weight, and space for the evidence behind the rating. Every candidate for the role is scored against the same criteria, and interviewers score independently before discussing.
How many criteria should a scorecard have?
Four to six for most frontline roles. Fewer than four and the total score is dominated by one judgement; more than six and interviewers stop rating each one carefully within the time available. If you cannot get below six, some of your criteria are probably the same thing described twice.
Should I use a 1 to 5 or a 1 to 4 scale?
Either works if the points carry written descriptions. A 1 to 5 is familiar and easy to explain; a 1 to 4 removes the neutral middle and forces interviewers to commit. What matters far more than the number of points is whether someone has written down what each point looks like in the language of the job.
Do interview scorecards have legal implications?
An interview is a selection procedure. Under 29 CFR 1607.3(A) a selection procedure with adverse impact is treated as discriminatory unless validated, and 1607.4(A) requires records that disclose the impact of selection procedures. A scorecard does not make an interview lawful by itself, but without one you have no record of what the interview measured or why a candidate was rejected.
Should candidates see the scorecard criteria?
Sharing the criteria in advance is usually a net gain. It rarely damages the signal, because the criteria describe the job rather than the answers, and in frontline hiring it noticeably improves how many candidates turn up prepared. Keep the anchors and weights internal if you prefer.
Is this template free, and can I open the CSV in Excel?
It is free, there is no form, and the file is generated in your browser and never sent to us. The CSV is plain comma-separated text with a header block, one row per criterion and columns for the rating, the weighted score and the evidence, and it opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.
What is the difference between an interview scorecard and a rubric?
The scorecard is the whole instrument — criteria, scale, evidence and a recommendation. The rubric is the scale inside it: what a 1, a 3 and a 5 actually look like for each criterion. A rubric without written anchors is just a number with no shared meaning.
What is an interview scoring sheet?
The one-page printable grid an interviewer writes on during the conversation. It carries the same criteria as the scorecard, with room for a line of evidence beside each score, and it has to survive being used on a clipboard on a shop floor.
How do you build an interview rubric?
Pick three criteria, then write what a 1, 3 and 5 look like for each one, anchoring the 3 to the median person already doing that job rather than to an ideal candidate. If two supervisors would score the same answer differently and neither could say why, the criterion is not ready.
Should interviewers score independently?
Yes. Once two interviewers discuss a candidate before scoring, the second agrees with the first about four times in five, and you have paid for one opinion twice. Score alone, then compare the sheets.
The interview is the most expensive twenty minutes in the funnel.
Median cost per applicant across 891 managed campaigns was $13.88, with the management fee inside it. We fill the top of the funnel and report what it cost; the scorecard is how you stop wasting it at the bottom.
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