Behavioral

✅ General Tips to succeed in Behavioral Interviews

Understand the STAR Method: Familiarize yourself with the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for structuring your responses. This helps you provide clear and concise answers and keeps your answers focused.
Listen attentively: Pay close attention to the interviewer’s questions and follow-up prompts. Make sure your responses directly address what’s being asked.
Be concise: Keep your answers short and to the point. Don’t go off-topic.
Ask Clarifying Questions: If you’re unsure about a question, ask for clarification to ensure you understand what the interviewer is looking for It’s ok to tell the interviewer you want time to collect your thoughts.
Avoid Negative Language: Refrain from speaking negatively about past employers, colleagues, or experiences.
Stay professional and constructive: You don’t want to be disrespectful, offensive, arrogant, mean, confrontational.
Highlight your strengths: Frame your responses in a positive light. Even when discussing challenges or failures, focus on what you learned and how you improved.
Ask thoughtful questions: Interviewing is a two-way street. Ask questions to learn more about the company, culture, etc..
It’s ok to not have answer to every question: If you are asked a question which you can’t recall from past experience you can tell the interviewer “I think I don’t actually have this experience but I would love to tell you how I would react in this situation”
Highlight you are a Team Player: Strike a balance between highlighting your qualities and your ability to work in a team and help others. Talk about stories that reflect qualities and team work (both your qualities and team work).
Be Honest: If you don’t know the answer to a question, it’s better to admit it than to make something up.
Prepare ahead of time: Preparing before the interview will help you remember things more easily and frame answers better.
Practice common questions: Best way to prepare is to go through common interview questions and think about how you would answer them.

🌟 STAR Framework

The STAR framework is a structured method for answering behavioral interview questions effectively.

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

Situation (S): Begin by describing the specific situation or context you were in. Set the stage for your story. Provide enough background information to help the interviewer understand the scenario.
Example: “In my previous role as a software engineer at XYZ Company, we were working on a project to improve the performance of our e-commerce platform.”
Task (T): Next, explain the task or challenge you were faced with. What were the goals or objectives you needed to achieve in that situation?
Example: “The task was to reduce page load times and increase the overall responsiveness of our website to enhance the user experience.”
Action (A): Describe the actions you took to address the task or challenge. This is the most critical part of your response. Be specific about the steps you took, your responsibilities, and your thought process. Focus on your actions, not the team’s actions.
Example: “To address this challenge, I first conducted a performance analysis to identify bottlenecks in the code. Then, I collaborated with the front-end and back-end teams to implement code optimizations, including browser caching, image compression, and code minification. I also introduced lazy loading for non-essential content.”
Result (R): Finally, share the results or outcomes of your actions. Be quantitative whenever possible. Describe the impact of your actions on the situation or task.
Example: “As a result of our optimizations, we achieved a 30% reduction in page load times and a 20% improvement in overall website performance. This led to a 15% increase in user engagement, as measured by longer session durations and higher conversion rates.”

Here are a few more common behavioral interview questions along with STAR-based responses:

Tell me about a time when you had to solve a complex technical problem.
Situation: “While working as a software engineer at Company X…”
Task: “I was tasked with resolving a critical performance issue…”
Action: “I began by analyzing the codebase and identifying the root cause of the problem…”
Result: “As a result of my efforts, we saw a 40% improvement in system performance, leading to faster response times and increased customer satisfaction.”
Describe a situation where you had to work as part of a team to achieve a common goal.
Situation: “During my tenure as a member of the development team at Company Y…”
Task: “Our goal was to deliver a major software release on schedule…”
Action: “I collaborated closely with my team members, participating in daily stand-ups, code reviews, and pair programming sessions…”
Result: “Thanks to our teamwork, we successfully delivered the release on time, resulting in positive feedback from stakeholders and increased user adoption.”
Can you share an example of a time when you had to adapt to a rapidly changing project requirement?
Situation: “While working on a mobile app project at Company Z…”
Task: “The client requested several last-minute changes to the app’s user interface design…”
Action: “I quickly organized a meeting with the design and development teams to discuss the changes and their feasibility within the timeline…”
Result: “We successfully implemented the design changes without delaying the project, and the app received positive reviews from users.”

⚙️ Behavioral Interview Preparation Grid

This format is inspired by the book “Cracking the Coding Interview” by Gayle Laakman McDowell.

I found it really helpful during my preparation.

Create a sheet and list down common questions and their answers for each project.

You can clone the Notion page and fill this sheet based on your experience. Interview Preparation Grid

？Questions you can ask the interviewer

What brought you to this company? What has been most challenging for you?
Can you share some insight about the day-to-day responsibilities of this position? What’s a typical day like?
Can you tell me about the opportunities for career advancement at [company name]?
What are some of the challenges [company name] is facing right now and how could I contribute to overcoming it?
How has the organisation changed since you’ve joined?
What is the code and design review process like?
What is the day-to-day responsibility for someone in this role?
Could you talk little about your work?
What is the ratio of testers to developers to program managers? What is the interaction like? How does project planning happen on the team?
What is a typical career path at [company name] for someone in the role that I am interviewing for?
What are the most exciting projects you’ve worked on here?
What is the onboarding process like for this role?
What do you like most about working here?
Can you describe the [company name]’s overall management style and the type of person who usually does well here?
What excites you the most about the [company name]’s future?
I’m very interested in scalability, and I’d love to learn more about it. What opportunities are there at this company to learn more about this?

📇 Other Resources

Amazon Leadership principles