Questions worksheet (behavioral)
Questions worksheet (recruiter-screen)
Remove duplicates in place (Leetcode 26)
Questions worksheet (recruiter-screen)
Remove duplicates in place (Leetcode 26)
Behavioral
Hard
Seen in real interview
How should you prepare for the behavioral session? (see solution for relevant worksheet)
Preparing for the behavioral process will (and should) take a significant amount of time. You should prepare responses for the following questions:
Personally, I find it easier to do this in a spreadsheet, so check out my google sheet template if you are interested in filling in your responses. The worksheet includes columns that will help you employ the STAR method, greatly discussed in the interview prep book by Laakmann (2009).
- Tell me about a project that you led.
- How do you make sure projects and tasks stay on schedule?
- How would you handle disagreements within the team?
- Start with a short overview, describing whether you’ve experienced both technical and incentive-based disagreements
- For technical disagreements, we can try multiple options and fail fast
- On incentive disagreements, I focus on agreeing on principles
- Are there times that you changed your view/adjusted based on feedback/pushback?
- Tell me about a difficult decision you made as a leader (or an unpopular decision)?
- Tell me about a time you faced a leadership challenge and how you overcame it?
- Tell me about a time when priorities were removed/changed/adjusted.
- Trade-offs | Leadership challenge and how I overcame | Competing priorities
- How do you help an underperforming team member improve their work quality?
- How would you advise a team member who complained about a coworker’s behavior?
- Tell me about a project that you discovered.
- Tell me about a project that had a high degree of ambiguity.
- Tell me about your biggest accomplishment.
- Tell me about a time you faced an ethical issue at work.
- Tell me about your biggest setback.
- Tell me how you approached solving a very hard problem.
- Tell me about a time that you lead through a crisis and under pressure.
- Have you ever faced a conflict of interest during a cross-departmental project? What did you do?
- Tell me about your mentoring approach; how do you grow your juniors?
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with a coworker’s idea on a project you were both working on together. How did you express your opposition, and what happened? How would you convince other teams to support your idea?
- Tell me about a time that you had to collaborate with someone you didn’t get along.
- Tell me about a time you gave upward feedback.
- Why do you want to work in XFN role?
- What are your soft strengths?
- What are your technical/other strengths?
- What are your weaknesses? (make sure you mention something that was a real weakness but you worked on it and improved over time)
- Tell me about a time when you were participating in a project with unclear ownership.
- Tell me about a time that you saw an inefficiency and took action proactively.
Do not make the same mistake I did when it comes to behavioral interview prep. One of the most embarrassing interview moments for me happened during my first virtual onsite interview ever when a director of a top-tier company asked me “what are your weaknesses” and “why should we hire you” and I gave him blank stares. Needless to say, I did not get that offer. Put the time and prepare.
This is an AI-enhanced solution that took as input the original solution.
Effective preparation for the behavioral interview process requires a dedicated amount of time. Respond thoughtfully to these questions:
- Describe a project where you took the lead.
- How do you ensure that projects remain on schedule?
- How do you handle team disagreements?
- Provide an overview of handling both technical and incentive disagreements.
- For technical disputes, emphasize attempts and fast failures.
- For incentive-based conflicts, focus on principles.
- Share an example when you altered your view based on feedback.
- Discuss a difficult or unpopular decision you’ve made.
- Explain a leadership challenge you faced and overcame.
- Provide an instance when priorities shifted.
- How do you aid a struggling team member in improving?
- How would you advise someone who’s upset at a colleague’s behavior?
- Share a project you discovered or pioneered.
- Relate a project with high ambiguity.
- What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
- Discuss an ethical dilemma you faced at work.
- Explain a significant setback and its outcome.
- Describe solving a particularly challenging problem.
- Relate leading through a crisis under pressure.
- Have you experienced a conflict of interest in cross-departmental work?
- What’s your approach to mentoring juniors?
- How do you handle opposing project ideas with colleagues?
- Detail working with someone you didn’t get along with.
- Discuss an instance you provided feedback upwards.
- Why are you interested in the XFN role?
- Identify your soft strengths.
- What are your technical and other strengths?
- What weaknesses have you worked on and improved?
- Have you participated in a project with unclear ownership?
- Discuss identifying and addressing inefficiencies proactively.
Do not repeat my error in interview preparation. During a major interview, faced with questions like "what are your weaknesses" and "why should we hire you," my lack of preparation became evident, missing out on the offer due to my unpreparedness. Invest the time to prepare thoroughly.
Consider organizing your answers using a spreadsheet for clarity. See this Google Sheet template for guidance, which utilizes the STAR method.
Discussion prep
- Questions worksheet (recruiter-screen) Medium (Discussion prep, Application prep)
- Choose a project Hard (Discussion prep)
- Questions worksheet (deep dive) Hard (Discussion prep)
- Complex vs. simple deployment Easy (Deployment)
- Baselines Easy (Model evaluation)
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