tech-interview-handbook/non-technical/behavioral.md

Behavioral

Learn the STAR format. From Wikipedia:

• Situation - The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenge and situation in which you found yourself.
• Task - What were you required to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation. Some performance development methods[1] use “Target” rather than “Task”. Job interview candidates who describe a “Target” they set themselves instead of an externally imposed “Task” emphasize their own intrinsic motivation to perform and to develop their performance.
• Action - What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what the alternatives were.
• Results - What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your objectives? What did you learn from this experience and have you used this learning since?

General

• Why do you want to work for X company?
• Why do you want to leave your current/last company?
• What are you looking for in your next role?
• Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker.
• Tell me about a time in which you had a conflict and needed to influence somebody else.
• What project are you currently working on?
• What is the most challenging aspect of your current project?
• What was the most difficult bug that you fixed in the past 6 months?
• How do you tackle challenges? Name a difficult challenge you faced while working on a project, how you overcame it, and what you learned.
• What are you excited about?
• What frustrates you?
• Imagine it is your first day here at the company. What do you want to work on? What features would you improve on?
• What are the most interesting projects you have worked on and how might they be relevant to this company's environment?
• Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with your manager.
• Talk about a project you are most passionate about, or one where you did your best work.
• What does your best day of work look like?
• What is something that you had to push for in your previous projects?
• What is the most constructive feedback you have received in your career?
• What is something you had to persevere at for multiple months?

Airbnb

Source: Glassdoor

While loving to travel or appreciating Airbnb's growth may be good answers, try to demonstrate the deep connection you have with the product.

• What does "belong anywhere" mean to you?
• What large problems in the world would you solve today?
• Why do you like Airbnb?
• If you had an unlimited budget and you could buy one gift for one person, what would you buy and who would you buy it for?
• If you had an unlimited budget and you could go somewhere, where would you go?
• Share one of your trips with us.
• What is the most challenging project in or out of school that you have worked on in the last 6 months.
• What is something that you don't want from your last internship/job?
• Give me an example of when you've been a good host.
• What's something you'd like to remove from the Airbnb experience?
• What is something new that you can teach your interviewer in a few minutes?
• Tell me about why you want to work here.
• What is the best gift you have ever given or received?
• Tell me about a time you were uncomfortable and how you dealt with it.
• Explain a project that you worked on recently.
• What do you think of Airbnb?
• Tell me something about yourself and why you'd be a good fit for the position.
• Name a situation where you were impressed by a company's customer service.
• How did you work with senior management on large projects as well as multiple internal teams?
• Tell me about a time you had to give someone terrible news.
• If you were a gerbil, which gerbil would you be?
• What excites you about the company?
• How does Airbnb impact our guests and hosts?
• What part of our mission resonates the most with you?

Amazon

Source: Glassdoor

• How do you deal with a failed deadline?
• Why do you want to work for Amazon?
• Tell me about a situation where you had a conflict with a teammate.
• In my professional experience have you worked on something without getting approval from your manager?
• Tell me a situation where you would have done something differently from what you actually did.
• What is the most exceedingly bad misstep you've made at any point?
• Describe what Human Resources means to you.
• How would you improve Amazon's website?

Dropbox

Source: Glassdoor

• Talk about your favorite project.
• If you were hired here what would you do?
• State an experience about how you solved a technical problem. Be specific about the diagnosis and process.

Hired

Source: Glassdoor

• Tell me about yourself.
• What is your biggest strength and area of growth?
• Why are you interested in this opportunity?
• What are your salary expectations?
• Why are you looking to leave your current company?
• Tell me about a time your work responsibilities got a little overwhelming. What did you do?
• Give me an example of a time when you had a difference of opinion with a team member. How did you handle that?
• Tell me about a challenge you faced recently in your role. How did you tackle it? What was the outcome?
• Where do you want to be in five years?
• Tell me about a time you needed information from someone who wasn't responsive. What did you do?

Lyft

Source: Glassdoor

• Tell me about your most interesting/challenging project to date.
• Why Lyft? What are you looking for in the next role?

Palantir

Source: Glassdoor

• How do you deal with difficult coworkers? Think about specific instances where you resolved conflicts.
• How did you win over the difficult employees?
• Tell me about an analytical problem that you have worked on in the past.
• What are your three strengths and three weaknesses?
• If you were in charge of picking projects for Palantir, what problem would you try to solve?
• What is something 90% of people disagree with you about?
• What are some of the best and worst things about your current company?
• What is broken around you?
• What would your manager say about you?
• Describe Palantir to your grandmother.
• Teach me something you've learned.
• Tell me a time when you predicted something.
• If your supervisors were to rate you on a scale of 1-10, what would they rate you?
• What was the most fun thing you did recently?
• Tell me the story of how you became who you are today and what made you apply to Palantir.

Slack

Source: Glassdoor

• Tell me something about your internship.
• Why do you want to join Slack?
• Tell me about your past projects.
• Explain me your toughest project and the working architecture.
• Apart from technical knowledge, what did you learn during your internship?
• If someone has a different viewpoint to do a project like different programming language, how would handle this situation?
• What are your most interesting subjects and why?
• Did you find any bugs in Slack?
• What is your favorite feature and why?

Stack Overflow

Source: Glassdoor

• What have you built?
• What is the hardest technical problem you have run into?
• How did you solve it?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
• Why do you want to work here?
• How do you handle disagreements with coworkers?

Stripe

Source: Glassdoor

• How do you stay up to date with the latest technologies?
• Explain a project that you worked on recently that was difficult.
• Where do you see yourself in five years?

Twitter

Source: Glassdoor

• What would your previous boss say your biggest strength was?