How should you respond to interview questions that are potentially illegal?

A variety of federal,state,and local laws prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race,ethnicity,gender,age (at least if you're between 40 and 70),marital status,religion,national origin,or disability.Interview questions designed to elicit information on these topics are potentially illegal.If an interviewer asks a potentially unlawful question,consider your options carefully before you respond.You can answer the question as it was asked,you can ask tactfully whether the question might be prohibited,you can simply refuse to answer it,or you can try to answer "the question behind the question." Even if you do answer the question as it was asked,think hard before accepting a job offer from this company if you have alternatives.Was the off-limits question possibly accidental (it happens)and therefore not really a major concern? If you think it was intentional,would you want to work for an organization that condones illegal or discriminatory questions or that doesn't train its employees to avoid them?