Translator interview questions and agency test tips
Translators are rarely hired on interviews alone. Agencies use a test translation, a vendor form about your pairs, tools, specialisms and rates, and sometimes a short call with a vendor manager. In-house roles add a conversation about workflow and deadlines.
Here are the questions that come up, with answers from a Nigerian translator's point of view.
Updated October 2026 by the WorkRemote careers team
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About the role and your experience
Openers that check you understand the job and have done the work.
What are your language pairs and which direction do you translate?
Why they ask
Agencies match work to your strongest target language.
How to answer
Name each pair and direction clearly and be honest about which language you write best.
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French into English is my main pair, and I translate English into Yoruba for health and NGO clients. I don't take English into French, because my French writing isn't at the level I'd want a client to publish.
What subjects do you specialise in?
Why they ask
Specialists get the better-paid, steadier work.
How to answer
Name one to three fields, with the background that supports each (degree, previous job, volume of work).
How many words a day can you translate?
Why they ask
Agencies plan deadlines around your capacity.
How to answer
Give a realistic figure for new translation, post-editing and review, and say how subject matter changes it. Don't overpromise.
What are your rates?
Why they ask
Vendor forms always ask.
How to answer
Give rates per word for translation, MTPE and review, and an hourly rate for small tasks, in dollars or euros. Know your minimum and stick to it.
Technical questions
What you know and how you'd do the work, often with a live task or test.
Which CAT tools do you use?
Why they ask
They need to know you can open their files and use their translation memories.
How to answer
Name the tools and versions you actually use and what you do in them: TMs, termbases, QA, handling tags. Say if you can work in their cloud platform.
How do you handle a term you can't find in any glossary?
Why they ask
Terminology research separates professionals from bilinguals.
How to answer
Check client references, official sources and parallel texts, choose a well-supported term, flag it in a comment for the client, and add it to your termbase.
What's the difference between light and full post-editing?
Why they ask
A lot of agency work is MTPE.
How to answer
Light: correct meaning errors and make the text understandable; style isn't a priority. Full: publishable quality, equivalent to human translation in accuracy, terminology and fluency. Mention you follow the brief.
How do you check your work before delivery?
Why they ask
Agencies keep translators whose files arrive clean.
How to answer
Self-review against the source, read the target alone for fluency, run QA in the CAT tool or Xbench for numbers, tags and terms, and spell-check.
Behavioural questions
Past situations. Answer with a real example: what happened, what you did, what changed.
A reviewer changed your translation and you disagree. What do you do?
Why they ask
Shows professionalism.
How to answer
Accept changes that are fair. For those you disagree with, reply politely with sources or style-guide references, and let the project manager decide.
Why should we add you to our vendor database?
Why they ask
Agencies have many translators in common pairs.
How to answer
Point to your niche: a less common pair, a specialism, availability in a useful time zone, fast turnaround or a strong test result.
Situational questions
Hypotheticals about problems you'd meet in the job.
The source text is ambiguous. What do you do?
Why they ask
Good translators query rather than guess.
How to answer
Check context and references, send a concise query to the project manager with the options, and if there's no answer by the deadline, choose the most likely meaning and leave a comment.
How would you translate a health leaflet from English into Hausa for rural readers?
Why they ask
Common in NGO and health work in Nigeria.
How to answer
Plain, everyday Hausa rather than formal or very Arabic-influenced terms where readers might not understand them, consistent medical terms agreed with the client, and a check with native readers if possible.
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I'd avoid literal medical terms that most people in a village wouldn't use, and explain them in simple Hausa the first time. I'd agree a short glossary with the health team, and if the budget allows, test the draft with five or six women from the target community before printing.
Remote work questions
How you'll work from Nigeria with a team elsewhere: hours, power, internet, communication.
How do you protect confidential documents?
Why they ask
Legal, medical and corporate texts are confidential; agencies make you sign NDAs.
How to answer
Work only in the client's platform or encrypted folders, never paste confidential text into public machine translation tools, and delete files when the job ends if required.
Can you meet a deadline of 3,000 words by 9am Paris time tomorrow?
Why they ask
Tests time-zone awareness and honesty.
How to answer
Convert the time first: 9am in Paris is 9am in Lagos in winter and 8am in summer, when France moves its clocks forward. Accept only if your capacity and power situation allow, and offer a partial delivery if not.
Remote interview tips
Treat the test translation as the interview. Read the instructions twice, follow the style guide, research every term, and deliver early. Add short comments where you made a judgement call.
Keep your CV to one or two pages: pairs, specialisms, tools, credentials, sample clients or projects, and rates.
Check the agency's payment record before accepting the first job, and confirm the payment method works from Nigeria.
Questions people ask
Do translation agencies give a test?
Most do. Expect a short test of a few hundred words in your pair and subject, sometimes paid. Your result largely decides whether you get work.
What do agencies look for in a translator's CV?
Clear language pairs and direction, specialist subjects, CAT tools, credentials, experience and rates. Long lists of every subject and every pair look unprofessional.
Can I pass agency tests for Nigerian languages?
Yes, if you write the language well. Demand is smaller than for European languages, but there are fewer skilled translators, so strong test results stand out.
Should I do unpaid tests?
A short unpaid test is normal. If the test is more than a few hundred words or looks like real client work, ask for payment or decline.
Updated October 2026 by the WorkRemote careers team
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