Knockout questions are the yes-or-no application questions that can end your candidacy instantly: work authorization, required licenses or certifications, shift availability, willingness to relocate. They are the main real auto-screen in hiring software. Your resume formatting cannot auto-reject you; these answers can.
Employers use them for requirements that are legal or logistical lines, not judgment calls. If the role requires a license you do not hold, no phrasing on your resume changes the outcome, and the system is doing exactly what it was told.
Treat the questions with the same attention as the resume. Read them slowly, answer accurately, and notice when an answer is a dealbreaker before you spend an evening tailoring documents for a role you are screened out of on page one of the application.
“The dropdown asking about your license is the whole security system, and people keep frisking the font instead.”
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