How to Answer Situational Interview Questions in a Tech Interview

If you’re interviewing with a tech company, you’ll likely be asked situational interview questions. Learning how to effectively answer them can mean the difference between landing the role and receiving the dreaded “We’ve moved forward with more qualified applicants” email.

What is the purpose of a situational interview?

For starters, it’s important to understand why prospective employers ask situational interview questions. Tech companies often use situational interviews to gain an understanding of how you would hypothetically handle a future situation in the workplace. However, when answered strategically and with intention, you can also weave your past experiences and career wins into the answer rather than strictly sticking to hypothetical scenarios, a common mistake that less experienced interviewees make.

Importantly, situational interview questions are often just one type of question to expect when interviewing with a tech company. You can also experience behavioral questions that focus on your behavior and successes and skills-based questions.

Additionally, you can expect technical questions if you’re interviewing for a technical role. And, if you’re interviewing for a management role, you’ll be expected to answer questions about your leadership style, your ability to motivate and inspire employees, and how you advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

How do you prepare for a situational interview?

Now, how do you prepare for a situational interview and the range of questions you might be asked?

You want to follow a three-step process:

Get acquainted with the company and culture.
Outline your key talking points.
Rehearse your responses to common interview questions.

Let’s break each of these interview preparation steps down further:

Conducting your interview due diligence

For starters, you want to conduct your research and get a sense of what to expect in the interview. I recommend you begin by speaking with your recruiter, as they are there to help you ace your interview. Many recruiters are evaluated on the interview-to-offer rate of the candidates they put forward, so it’s in their best interest if you perform well when interviewing.

A client of mine recently interviewed for a role with Google and received a multiple-page guide from their recruiter with the types of questions to expect in each round of the interview process and links to YouTube videos to help them prepare. Their recruiter also met with them before their interview to ensure they were ready.

You can also use the Blind community to learn more about a company and its culture, and sometimes even insights into the dynamics of specific leaders and their teams. Additionally, users will often share sample questions from their interviews.

Develop your key interview talking points.

Once you have a good sense of the company and culture, you want to develop key talking points. This is an important step, as it’s impossible to prepare for every possible interview question you may be asked, so you want to be able to revert to your talking points.

An anonymous source also provided me with a recent version of Amazon’s current interview bank, which consisted of hundreds of questions primarily arranged based on Amazon’s leadership principles and additional questions for those interviewing for a management role with the company. Moreover, many of the questions included follow-up questions, so be sure to have additional details and metrics ready during your interview.

Whether you’re interviewing at Amazon or another tech company, you want to be able to speak to the company’s mission, values and culture.

Practice responding to common situational interview questions – and curveball questions.

Finally, you want to practice responding to the common types of situational interview questions these tech companies ask by using your interview talking points. Importantly, you’re bound to be asked a question you haven’t practiced, so it’s good to get used to responding to questions on the fly.

What are examples of situational interview questions?

What types of situational interview questions can you expect when interviewing with a tech company?

Importantly, every tech company is unique regarding the types of situational interview questions they ask candidates. Moreover, your functional area, position, and level can also impact the interview questions you’re asked.

That said, Tejal Wagadia, a sourcing recruiter, says that there are four common themes to situational/behavioral interview questions:

A customer problem
A colleague disagreement
A time you succeeded
A time you failed

So, what do these types of questions look like in practice?

While companies are constantly evolving their question banks based on their hiring needs and goals, here are some of the types of situation-based interview questions clients have been asked in the past by tech companies:

Examples of situational interview questions

How would you deal with a difficult customer?
How would you gain buy-in from a manager who strongly disagreed with you on something you deemed very important to the business?

Examples of behavioral interview questions

Can you tell me about when you went above and beyond your duties? What were the results? How would you implement this at [Company name]?
Can you tell me when you took a big risk and failed? What did you learn? What would you do differently in the future?

How do you answer situational interview questions?

There are several strategies you can deploy to respond to situational interview questions.

Many career experts recommend using the traditional STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) formula, yet Wagadia suggests also talking about the impact of your efforts:

Situation: What was the situation?
Task: What tasks were you assigned or did you take on?
Action: What actions did you take?
Result: What were the results?

Impact: What was the impact, and who were the players impacted by resolving this scenario?

Wagadia says it’s important to “focus on what you did as much as what the team did.”

As an interview coach, I find a lot of candidates inadvertently switch between using “We…” and “I…,” which makes it challenging to understand the interviewee’s specific role in the project or initiative.

Wagadia also recommends sharing what you learned and what you would do differently. “Take ownership of your mistakes, even if you don’t believe you made any mistakes,” she says. “Nothing sours an interviewer more than a job seeker punting the blame on others consistently.”

Because the tech industry is so competitive, I further advise weaving your “fabulousness” into your answers. In other words, consider what sets you apart from the hundreds, or even thousands, of people applying for the same position, and then share it with the interviewer.

How do you handle difficult situational interview questions?

When interviewing with a tech company, you will likely be asked a tricky situational interview question. Rather than respond with the first thought that comes to mind, you want to remain calm and stick with your interview talking points. You also want to remember that this is a conversation, not an interrogation.

Before answering the question, Wagadia suggests taking a breath. “This might sound cheesy or cliche, but you need to gather your thoughts and remember the story in your head to organize it better,” she says. “I’ve seen candidates that don’t do this and end up rambling through their answers.”

As an interview coach, I also recommend treating the interview like a meeting since the company isn’t merely evaluating your ability to answer curveball questions but also what it would be like to work with you day in and day out.

If you are caught off guard in a meeting, you might try one of the following:

Ask for a few moments to gather your thoughts and think about your response.
Request that you move on to the next question and revisit the question at the end of the conversation.
Follow up afterward with your response once you’ve had more time to collect your thoughts.

Remember that at the end of the day, an interview with a tech company is a two-way conversation to determine whether there’s a mutual fit. While easier said than done, try to remain calm and confident. You’ve got this!

Dr. Kyle Elliott is a founder, tech career coach and interview coach behind CaffeinatedKyle.com. As a result of working with Dr. Elliott, senior managers and executives have landed jobs at Meta, Amazon, Google, and nearly every other tech giant you can imagine.