'interview-based' originates from Modern English, specifically the compound of 'interview' and 'based'. 'interview' itself comes from Old French 'entrevue' (from 'entre-' meaning 'between' and a form of 'voir' meaning 'to see'), and 'based' is the past participle of 'base', from Old French 'baser' ultimately from Latin 'basis' meaning 'base or foundation'.

'interview' changed from Old French 'entrevue' into Middle/Modern English as 'interview' to mean a meeting or formal question-and-answer session; 'base' entered English from Old French and Latin and produced the participle 'based'; the modern compound 'interview-based' developed in Modern English to describe something founded on interviews.

Initially, 'interview' referred to a meeting to see one another and later came to mean a formal question-and-answer exchange; 'base' originally meant a foundation, and in the compound 'based' evolved to mean 'founded on' — together the compound now means 'founded on interviews' or 'derived from interviews'.