Technical Questions in Airline Pilot Interviews

A technical interview is the stage of airline pilot selection that tests what a candidate knows: the systems of the aircraft they fly or will fly, performance and the other ATPL subjects asked as open questions, operating procedures, and scenarios in which a failure is talked through from the first warning to the landing. It usually sits beside the competency or HR interview, which judges behavior (see competency-based pilot interviews); its place among the other stages is described in airline pilot recruitment and selection.

Technical questions are rarely trick questions. Most can be answered from the aircraft manuals or ATPL notes. What the panel listens for is whether the answer is organized, whether the candidate understands why a system or rule is the way it is, and how the candidate behaves at the edge of their knowledge. Where an airline trains to EASA's competency framework, this is the competency it calls application of knowledge, the ninth that EASA adds to ICAO's eight (see competency-based training and EBT).

How technical interviews work

Airlines test knowledge in two main ways. The first is an oral interview with one or more line, training or management pilots, often on the same day as the HR interview: Ryanair's assessment day, for example, includes a technical interview alongside the HR interview. The second is a written or computer-based test, sometimes before any interview. TAP's November 2025 pilot competition set a written aeronautical assessment with a 75 % pass mark, Finnair sets an ATPL technical test, and Cargolux runs its technical stage as a separate pass-or-fail step.

The depth follows the candidate. A pilot already rated on the airline's type can expect its systems, limitations and procedures in detail; others are asked about the aircraft they fly now and about ATPL theory. Ryanair's cadets, for instance, sit a 30-minute technical assessment on current or previous types. In the interview, questions are open rather than multiple choice: "walk me through", "what happens if", "why". A good answer usually draws a follow-up that goes one level deeper, and the panel keeps going until it finds where the candidate's knowledge ends.

The question groups below overlap, and many interviews move freely between them. A systems question can turn into a scenario ("and if that pump fails too?"), and a scenario is often a way of testing procedures and decision making at the same time.

Aircraft systems questions

The classic opener is "walk me through the hydraulic system", or the electrical, fuel, bleed air, pressurization, fire protection or flight control system. A strong answer follows a fixed order:

1. what the system is for;
2. its sources of power or pressure;
3. how that is distributed, and to which users;
4. the controls and indications the crew sees;
5. what happens after a failure, and what remains;
6. what the crew does about it.

On the Boeing 737 NG, for example, the answer names three 3,000 psi hydraulic systems: A and B, each with an engine-driven and an AC electric pump, and a smaller standby system with one electric pump that backs up the rudder, the leading edge devices and the thrust reversers. If A and B are both lost, the ailerons and elevators revert to manual control through cables, while the rudder is powered by the standby system. On the A320 the answer names three independent 3,000 psi systems, green, blue and yellow, with a power transfer unit between green and yellow that lets one pressurize the other without fluid passing between them (see B737 hydraulic system and A320 hydraulic system).

Panels also like the questions in which a system meets its limits or another system: when the RAT deploys and what it powers, what the APU can supply and up to what altitude, the difference between normal and alternate braking, how fire detection avoids false warnings and why the second extinguisher bottle waits 30 seconds. On the 737 a model answer about the packs mentions the limitation that is often asked: with an engine bleed switch ON, the packs are not used in HIGH for takeoff, approach or landing, except when the cargo fire or smoke removal checklist calls for it. Linking a system to its limitations and failure cases shows understanding rather than recitation.

Performance questions

Performance questions take ATPL theory into the operation. Typical ones are "what is V1, and what happens if you reject after it?", "what limits the takeoff mass on a short, hot runway?", "why does an intersection departure change the takeoff?" and "what happens to the cruise level after an engine failure?".

The answers rest on a few definitions. V1 is the highest speed at which the crew can take the first action to reject the takeoff and still stop within the accelerate-stop distance available, and the balanced V1 is the one at which the accelerate-stop distance equals the one-engine-inoperative takeoff distance (see takeoff speeds V1, VR and V2). An intersection departure shortens the runway available, so the takeoff data must be recomputed with the operator's performance tool for the new position before takeoff, and the change briefed; if the margin is poor, the crew can ask for the full length. After an engine failure in cruise the airplane drifts down at maximum continuous thrust to the highest level it can hold on one engine, with terrain and the diversion airport shaping the plan (see one-engine-inoperative en route performance).

Performance answers gain from stating the principle before the number. "The takeoff mass is the lowest of the structural limit and the field, climb, obstacle, brake energy, tire speed and runway strength limits" is worth more than a list of figures, and leads naturally to the follow-up about which limit binds today (see takeoff mass limitations).

Operations and procedures questions

Procedure questions check that the candidate thinks like a line pilot: how to brief a takeoff, how the pilot flying and pilot monitoring share the work in a departure, when to fly by hand, what the stabilized approach criteria are, how a go-around is flown, how to respond to a TCAS resolution advisory. The model answers share a pattern: the rule, the reason for it and the action. A stabilized approach answer, for example, gives the gate (in the Flight Safety Foundation version, 1,000 ft above airport elevation in instrument conditions and 500 ft in visual conditions), the criteria at that gate, and the action when one is not met: a go-around, not a correction near the ground (see stabilized approach). A TCAS answer says that a resolution advisory is followed promptly, even against an ATC clearance, because it may be coordinated with the other aircraft, and that ATC is told afterward.

A scenario question sets up a situation and asks what the candidate would do: an engine failure with a loud bang at V1 minus 5 kt, cabin smoke at FL370 over the ocean, all alternates below minima 30 minutes from destination, a pack failure followed by a second one in the climb. The strong answers share a structure:

• fly the aircraft first, at a safe height and on a safe path;
• identify the problem and confirm it with the other pilot;
• run the memory items, then the checklist;
• decide with a structured model such as DODAR (diagnose, options, decide, assign, review) or FORDEC once the airplane is safe;
• communicate with ATC, the cabin crew, the passengers and the company.

View full schematic

The diagnosis often matters more than the procedure. Asked about a 600 kg fuel imbalance at FL380 in a 737, whose limit for a random imbalance is 453 kg, a candidate who opens the crossfeed at once has missed the key question: is fuel leaking? If it is, the fuel leak checklist forbids the crossfeed, because it would feed the good tank's fuel to the leak, and the flight ends at the nearest suitable airport (see managing non-normal situations and diversion).

Type-specific questions

A candidate rated on the airline's type is expected to know its limitations and memory items without hesitation. On the 737 that means figures such as the 10 kt tailwind limit, the autoland wind limits and the APU's altitude ceilings for bleed air and electrical load, and the recall items of the QRH (see B737 limitations and B737 memory items). These questions have a right answer, and a wrong figure counts against the candidate in a way a vague description does not.

Pilots changing between manufacturers meet comparison questions. "Describe the 737 NG flight controls; what is the difference from an Airbus?" expects the point that the NG is not fly-by-wire (the 737 MAX adds fly-by-wire spoilers): the controls are connected by cables to hydraulically powered control units, with no control laws and no flight envelope protection, so the stick shaker and the overspeed clacker warn, but avoiding a stall, an overspeed or excessive bank is the pilot's job. "What is the 737's equivalent of ECAM?" expects the answer that there is none: the 737 NG has neither ECAM nor EICAS, and failures are identified from the master caution, the annunciator panel and the displays, then handled from the QRH. Boeing divides the takeoff roll at 80 kt for reject decisions where Airbus uses 100 kt.

Answering when you do not know

Every candidate reaches the edge of their knowledge, and panels expect it. The way to handle it:

• Say so plainly. Panels generally score honesty first, then reasoning, then raw knowledge. A confident wrong answer is the worst outcome, because it suggests a pilot who would guess in the aircraft.
• Show what you do know. Give the principle, reason toward the answer aloud, and say where you would find it: the FCOM, the QRH or the operations manual.
• Do not invent figures. A limit or speed that is not certain is better described than quoted.
• Correct yourself. If a mistake becomes clear later in the interview, saying so is evidence of the self-monitoring the airline wants on the flight deck.
• Ask when the question is unclear, rather than answering a different question.

Afterward, the question goes on a list to look up, both for the next interview and for the line.

Preparation plan

Preparation starts from what the airline publishes: its selection stages, the type it flies and, for cadets, the format of any technical test. A workable plan then has four parts:

1. The aircraft. For each major system of the aircraft flown now, and of the airline's type if rated on it, a one-page summary in the six-step order above, plus the limitations and memory items learned by heart.
2. ATPL theory. Performance, meteorology, air law, navigation, mass and balance and human performance, revised as explanations rather than multiple-choice answers.
3. Procedures and scenarios. Standard operating procedures, the stabilized approach, the go-around, TCAS and windshear, then scenarios practiced aloud with a partner who asks "why?" and "what next?".
4. Delivery. Answers kept short, structured and honest about their limits, then stopped, so that the panel can ask the next question.

The same preparation serves the simulator assessment, where the procedures and callouts learned for the interview are put into practice.

Library articles are written for study and exam preparation. They do not replace your aircraft's approved documentation, your operator's procedures or the regulations themselves.