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Common Behavioral Questions

Tell Me About Yourself

Framework

Present → Past → Future (60-90 seconds)

  1. Present: Current role + key technologies (1-2 sentences)
  2. Past: Relevant experience + achievements (2-3 sentences)
  3. Future: Why this role/company (1-2 sentences)

Example: "I'm currently a backend developer at XYZ, where I build microservices with Spring Boot and Kafka serving 2M daily users. Before that, I worked at ABC where I led the migration from monolith to microservices, reducing deployment time by 80%. I'm excited about this role because I want to work on larger-scale distributed systems and contribute to your payment infrastructure."

Why This Company?

Framework

Show genuine research. Cover: product, technology, culture, growth.

"I've been following your engineering blog, especially your article on migrating to event-driven architecture. I'm passionate about distributed systems, and your scale — processing millions of transactions daily — is exactly the kind of challenge I want to tackle. I also appreciate your culture of ownership and your commitment to open-source."

Why Are You Leaving?

Framework

Always be positive. Focus on what you're moving toward, not away from.

✅ "I'm looking for more complex distributed systems challenges." ✅ "I want to grow into a tech lead role, and your team structure supports that." ❌ "My manager is terrible." ❌ "I'm underpaid."

Conflict & Disagreement

Common Questions
  • Tell me about a time you disagreed with a teammate.
    • Show: Listen → Understand → Present data → Reach consensus
  • Tell me about a time you received critical feedback.
    • Show: Open to feedback → Reflected → Improved
  • How do you handle a team member not pulling their weight?
    • Show: Private conversation → Understand situation → Offer help → Escalate if needed

Technical Challenges

Common Questions
  • Most challenging technical project?
    • Focus on: complexity, YOUR decisions, trade-offs, outcome
  • A time you improved performance?
    • Include: metrics before/after, how you identified the bottleneck
  • A time you dealt with a production outage?
    • Include: how you identified root cause, fixed it, prevented recurrence

Failure & Growth

Common Questions
  • Tell me about a time you failed.
    • Show: Accountability → What you learned → How you changed
  • What would you do differently if you could redo a project?
    • Show: Self-awareness → Specific improvements
  • What is your biggest weakness?
    • Be genuine but show growth: "I used to struggle with X, so I started doing Y."

Questions to Ask the Interviewer

Good Questions
  • What does a typical day look like for this role?
  • What are the biggest technical challenges your team faces?
  • How does code review work on your team?
  • What does the on-call rotation look like?
  • How do you measure success in this role?
  • What's the team's tech stack and what's on the roadmap?
  • What opportunities are there for growth and learning?