Discovery and biotherapeutics

Drug Discovery interview questions

Evidence and decisions from target hypothesis through lead optimization.

6 questions, each with a worked answer

What distinguishes target validation from hit identification? Fundamentals Concept
How would you prioritize two active compounds with different potency and solubility? Intermediate Scenario
What evidence makes a target biologically and therapeutically credible? Intermediate Scenario
How would you confirm a hit is not an assay interferent? Intermediate Scenario
How do potency, efficacy and selectivity differ? Advanced Concept
How would you interpret conflicting cell-based and biochemical assay results? Advanced Scenario

About Drug Discovery

Drug discovery is the work of turning a hypothesis about a disease target into a molecule worth testing in people. It runs from target validation through screening, hit confirmation and lead optimisation to a candidate. At each step teams weigh potency against selectivity, safety, pharmacokinetics and whether the molecule can be made.

Most programmes fail, so the skill is making decisions on incomplete evidence and knowing which experiment would change them.

Fundamentals: 1
Intermediate: 3
Advanced: 2

What these questions test

Assess discovery candidates: Prioritize hits or leads across activity, selectivity and developability.

References

NCBI Bookshelf. National Library of Medicine. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books.
nature.com/articles/nrd4051.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53196.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK615088.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/books/NBK91993.
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2472555222065509.

Practice material written by TheBench.Bio and checked against the references above, reviewed October 23, 2026. Written to practise with, not collected from real interviews.