Here's a list of common behavioral questions to prepare for. If you prepare well for the general questions and apply the STAR format along with demonstrating qualities, you will be fine.
## General
- Why do you want to work for X company?
- Why do you want to leave your current/last company?
@ -34,9 +36,7 @@ title: Common Questions
- What words would your colleagues use to describe you?
- What would you hope to achieve in the first six months after being hired?
@ -20,3 +20,7 @@ Companies value behavioral skills and do evaluate candidates on them. At the tim
- Discuss why you'd like to make a change
_Source: [Preparing for your Onsite Interview at Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/careers/swe-prep-onsite)_
## Courses
I really don't think one needs to attend a course on behavioral interviews, but your mileage may vary. I've seen candidates get rejected for failing the behavioral round even though they did super well on the coding and system design interviews. If you want to take a course on behavioral interviews, you can check out Educative's [Grokking the Behavioral Interview](https://www.educative.io/courses/grokking-the-behavioral-interview?aff=x23W).
Here are some good questions to ask at the end of the interview, extracted from various sources. The ones in **bold** are the ones that tend to make the interviewer go "That's a good question" and pause and think for a bit.
### General
## General
- **What are you most proud about in your career so far?**
- **What is the most important/valuable thing you have learnt from working here?**
@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Here are some good questions to ask at the end of the interview, extracted from
- What was something you wish someone would have told you before you joined?
- What was your best moment so far at the company?
### Culture
## Culture
- **What is the most frustrating part about working here?**
- **What is unique about working at this company that you have not experienced elsewhere?**
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Here are some good questions to ask at the end of the interview, extracted from
- (If the company is a startup) When was the last time you interacted with a founder? What was it regarding? Generally how involved are the founders in the day-to-day?
- Does the company culture encourage entrepreneurship? Could you give me any specific examples?
### Technical
## Technical
These questions are suitable for any technical role.
@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ These questions are suitable for any technical role.
- There's "C++" (or Python, Swift or any other tech) in the job description. How will you estimate my proficiency in this tech in 3 months?
- How do you think my expertise would be relevant to this team? What unique value can I add?
### Product
## Product
- Tell me about the main products of your company.
- What is the current version of product? (If it is v1.0 or similar - there could be a lot of chaos to work with)
@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ These questions are suitable for any technical role.
- Is the team growing, and what sort of opportunities will there be in the next year/3 years?
- What are your highest priorities right now? For example, new features, new products, solidifying existing code, reducing operations overhead?
### Management
## Management
These questions are suitable for asking Engineering Managers, especially useful for the Team Matching phase of Google interviews or post-offer calls that your recruiters set up with the various team managers.
@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ These questions are suitable for asking Engineering Managers, especially useful
- What opportunities for growth will your team provide?
- What would I work on if I joined this team and who would I work most closely with?
### Leadership
## Leadership
These questions are intended for senior level management, such as CEO, CTO, VPs. Candidates who interview with startups usually get to speak with senior level management.
@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ These questions are intended for senior level management, such as CEO, CTO, VPs.
- Tell me about your reporting structure.
- How does the company decide on what to work on next?
### HR
## HR
- **How do you see this position evolving in the next three years?**
- **Who is your ideal candidate and how can I make myself more like them?**
@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ These questions are intended for senior level management, such as CEO, CTO, VPs.
- Why have the last few people left?
- Have you ever thought about leaving? If you were to leave, where would you go?
@ -16,15 +16,15 @@ The [STAR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation,_task,_action,_result) format
Here's an example of how the STAR format can be used to answer the question: **"Tell me about a time in which you had a conflict and needed to influence somebody else"**.
#### Situation
### Situation
> "I was the team lead of a school project about building a social network mobile web app. Our designer's mid-terms were approaching and didn't have time to produce the mockups. Our front end person was rushing him for the mockups so that he could proceed with his work and that was stressing the designer out. The atmosphere in the team was tense."
#### Task
### Task
> "As the team lead, I had to resolve the tension between the front end developer and the designer so that the team could work together peacefully and complete the project on time."
#### Action
### Action
> "I spoke to the front end developer to ask him why he was rushing the designer for the designs. He said that he wanted the designs early because it would be a waste of time rebuilding if the designer designed something different eventually. I explained to him that the mid-term dates were out of the designer's control and we had to be more understanding about each others' schedules.
>
@ -32,11 +32,11 @@ Here's an example of how the STAR format can be used to answer the question: **"
>
> As someone with some experience in UI/UX design, I came up with wireframe mocks, ran them by the designer for approval, then passed them to the front end developer to start building. I encouraged the front end developer to use placeholders and not be too concerned about the details for now. We could build the non-UI parts first (authentication, hook up with APIs) and tweak pixels and add polish later on. The front end developer agreed and went ahead with the approach. I explained to the front end developer that the designer will pass us the mockups after his mid-term, by <DATE>."
#### Result
### Result
> "When our designer ended mid-terms, he came back with beautiful mockups that fit well into the wireframes. Our front end developer implemented them with great care to detail. We ended up scoring top marks for the project and became a great team."
#### Qualities
### Qualities
Through the above, experienced interviewers can extract the following qualities from the mentioned behaviors.
Yangshun
4 years ago