Barista interview questions
The questions that separate somebody who has made coffee from somebody who has run a bar through a morning. Pair it with the barista job description, which is what the answers are being scored against.
| Question | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| Tell us about the busiest coffee bar you have worked on. | Numbers rather than adjectives: covers an hour, how many on the bar, one machine or two. Somebody who says four hundred a morning and then describes the setup is telling the truth. |
| How do you dial in a grinder at the start of a shift? | A test shot, a time, a weight, and an adjustment. If dialling in means turning the dial until it tastes right, ask how they know when it is right. |
| What do you do when the shots start running fast halfway through a rush? | Grind finer, and a reason: the beans warming up, a new bag, humidity. Listen for somebody who adjusts without stopping the queue. |
| Walk us through texturing milk for a flat white and for a cappuccino. | Different textures for different drinks, a stretch and a spin, and the temperature they stop at. Somebody who describes one method for everything has not been taught. |
| A customer sends a coffee back. What happens next? | No defensiveness. Remake it, find out what was wrong, tell the next person on the bar. Blaming the customer is the answer you are listening for and hoping not to hear. |
| There is a queue of eight and the only other person on is on a break. What do you do? | Triage: get the simple orders out, keep talking to the queue, call for help early. Not standing still and not panicking. |
| How do you keep pours consistent when you are three hours into a shift? | A routine rather than willpower: purge, wipe, check a shot every so often, keep the bar reset between drinks. |
| What does a clean handover look like to you? | Specifics. Bar wiped, hopper filled, grind noted, nothing left for the next person to find. Anybody who has had a bad handover will describe one. |
| How do you work with a kitchen when the floor is loud? | Calling orders clearly, repeating them back, going to the pass rather than shouting across the room. |
| Tell us about feedback you were given about your coffee and what you did with it. | A real example, taken without sulking, and something that changed. Somebody who has never had feedback has probably never been watched. |
| This role is mostly opens, starting at 6:00am. Which mornings can you work? | Specific mornings, not "I am flexible". Flexible usually means they have not thought about it yet. |
| How would you get here for a 6:00am start? | A plan that works at that hour. This is a question about the shift, not about their circumstances, so take the answer at face value. |
| What would you want to learn in your first month here? | Curiosity about something concrete: the house blend, the filter, the cash up. Vague enthusiasm is not an answer. |
| What would you like to ask us? | Questions about the work, the roster or the team. No questions at all is worth noticing. |
What is in the file
- Template, blank, with each section down the side and room for the answer.
- Example, the same sheet filled in for Harbourside Coffee.
- How to use, with the steps and the mistakes below.
How to fill it in
- Read the barista job description first, and cut any question the job does not actually need answered.
- Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order, so the answers can be compared rather than remembered.
- Print the blank sheet and write what each person said beside the question, during the interview rather than after it.
- Score at the end against the job description, not against who you liked talking to.
Common mistakes
- Questions about age, health, pregnancy, family responsibilities, religion, race or union membership, which are not about the job and carry real risk
- A different set of questions for each candidate, which makes the decision impossible to explain later
- Asking about availability and then rostering outside it in the first fortnight
Sources
The official pages this wording was read against, on 21 October 2026.
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Hiring employees
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Protection from discrimination at work
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Job ads
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Find my award
When a spreadsheet stops being enough
The availability question is the one that keeps mattering after the interview. In Roster Flow the person keeps their own availability by the hour, so the mornings they said yes to are the mornings the roster offers them.
Questions
What is on the barista interview questions?
14 sections down the side, running from tell us about the busiest coffee bar you have worked on. to what would you like to ask us?. The example beside them is filled in for Harbourside Coffee: fourteen questions about the machine, the morning run and the handover.
Does the barista interview questions work anything out for you?
No. It is a document with 14 sections to answer in your own words, not a calculator. Nothing on it is a formula.
Can I use the barista interview questions in Google Sheets?
Yes. Open barista-interview-questions.xlsx from Google Drive, or use File, then Import, then Upload with barista-interview-questions.csv. The document and its example come across either way.
Is the wording in the barista interview questions ready to use as it is?
The barista interview questions is a starting point for Harbourside Coffee or any business like it, to adapt rather than sign. The wording was checked against the official sources on 21 October 2026, it is not legal advice, and it has not been through a workplace relations professional.