Common interview questions and how to answer them

What interviewers are actually testing

An interviewer has maybe forty minutes to answer three questions of their own: can you do the work, will you be workable with, and do you actually want this job rather than any job. Almost every question you will be asked is a way of getting at one of those three.

That is why the questions repeat across industries and countries. Harvard’s career services office explains the premise behind the experience questions plainly: employers ask them because “past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior”. The opening and closing questions, meanwhile, are mostly about motivation and fit.

So do not learn answers. Learn which of the three things each question is reaching for, and have real material ready for each. The table below maps the main families to the guides on this site.

Opening questions: tell me about yourself, and why this job

The first few minutes are usually “tell me about yourself”, “why do you want to work here” and “why should we hire you”. They feel like small talk. They are not: they set the frame the interviewer uses to interpret everything that follows.

For the opening question, give a short present-past-future answer: what you do now, the two or three steps that got you here, and why this role is the sensible next one. Sixty to ninety seconds is plenty. The full version is in the tell me about yourself guide.

For “why us”, you need something specific that could not be said about a competitor. The UK’s National Careers Service suggests researching the employer and then showing “what you’ve learned about the company throughout the interview”, not only when asked directly. One concrete detail, such as a product change, a recent funding round or how they describe their customers, does more than a paragraph of enthusiasm.

For “why should we hire you”, pick two or three points from the job description and say what you have done that matches each. Resist the temptation to list everything you are good at.

Questions about your strengths and weaknesses

“What are your main strengths?” is an invitation to be relevant rather than impressive. The National Careers Service advice is to “plan your answers around 2 or 3 examples that are relevant to the job”, which is the difference between a claim and an answer. Say the strength, then spend most of the time on the example that proves it.

Weaknesses are harder because the question has an obvious trap at each end. Claim perfection and you look evasive; confess something central to the role and you talk yourself out of the job. The workable middle is a real limitation that you are visibly managing, with the fix described in more detail than the flaw. National Careers Service gives “I struggle with time management on projects” as the kind of honest starting point that then needs the improvement attached to it.

There are two fuller treatments here: weaknesses for a job interview if that single question is what worries you, and strengths and weaknesses if you want to prepare the pair together.

"Tell me about a time you…": questions about your experience

This family takes up the middle of most interviews and is where offers are won or lost. The wordings vary (“when have you faced a challenging situation?”, “have you ever taken the initiative?”, “have you ever failed at a task?”) but they all ask for one specific episode from your own past.

Two things go wrong here. The first is answering in general terms: “I always stay calm under pressure” is not an answer to “tell me about a time you were under pressure”. The second is telling a story with no visible outcome, so the interviewer cannot tell whether what you did worked.

The fix for both is a structure. The STAR method gives you one: situation, task, action, result, with most of the answer spent on what you personally did. MIT’s career office recommends weighting the action at roughly 60 percent of the response.

The themes these questions draw on are limited, which is what makes preparation possible. The guide to behavioral interview questions sets out the main ones, including conflict, failure, leadership, teamwork, pressure and initiative, and what each is testing.

Situational and role-specific questions

Some questions are hypothetical rather than historical: “how would you handle a client who refuses to sign off?”, “what would you do in your first ninety days?”. Here the interviewer wants your reasoning, so narrate the thinking rather than jumping to an answer. Say what you would find out first, what you would weigh, who you would involve, then commit to a decision. Ending on “it depends” is the one answer to avoid.

After the general round, most processes add a role-specific one. Project management interview questions tend to probe scope, stakeholders and what you did when a plan slipped. Sales rounds ask about pipeline and lost deals. Technical rounds test the tools in the posting. Nursing and other clinical interviews combine scenario questions with questions about patient safety and escalation.

The preparation is the same everywhere: read the job description line by line and write down the question each requirement invites. If the posting stresses stakeholder management three times, you will be asked about it, whatever the job title.

The awkward ones: leaving a job, gaps and salary

“Why are you leaving?” is a composure test more than a curiosity. Answer forwards rather than backwards: name what you want next that your current role cannot give you, and keep criticism of former employers out of it. If the split was not your choice, say so briefly and without drama. National Careers Service suggests that someone dismissed from a role should “explain why your standards dropped, what you’ve learned and how you’ve improved since the experience”, which is a reasonable template for any difficult exit.

Gaps in a CV need one or two sentences, not a defence. Say what the gap was for (caring, study, illness, redundancy, a move) and what you did to stay current. Interviewers mostly want to know the gap is explained and closed.

Salary questions are easier if you have a range before you walk in, based on what similar roles advertise in your market. If you are asked first and would rather not anchor, it is normal to ask what range the role is budgeted at. Avoid naming a single number you have not thought about.

The questions you ask at the end

When the interviewer says “do you have any questions for us?”, the interview is still running. National Careers Service describes this as “a good chance to show your interest in the company and your enthusiasm for the job”, and advises writing your questions down before the interview, because the good ones rarely arrive on demand.

Ask about the work rather than the perks: what the first few months look like, how the team decides priorities, what makes someone successful in the role, what changed recently. Two or three questions is enough, and it is fine to say that something has already been covered.

Before you leave, confirm the process. Harvard’s career services office suggests asking “When might I expect to hear from you?”, which also tells you when a follow-up would be reasonable. The questions to ask the interviewer guide has more options by situation, and the thank-you email guide covers the message you send afterwards.