Behavioral Interview Sample Questions

BEHAVIORAL QUESTIONS 

1. Tell me about yourself?
2. What gets you out of bed in the morning?
3. What are you most passionate about?
4. Tell me about your side hustle.
5. Tell me about a time when you had to give a presentation to people who disagreed with you.
6. Tell me about a time when you had to sell another person or team on your idea.
7. Tell me about a time when you influenced a team.
8. Tell me a time when you influenced engineering team to build a particular feature?
9. Tell me about a time when you reached a goal that was important.
10. Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty.
11. Tell me about a time when you had to work across teams to accomplish something. OR Tell me about something you’re proud of accomplishing.
12. What was a time where you worked with a team and how was the experience?
13. What was a time where you worked with a team and how was the experience?
14. How has your course work prepared you for this internship? 
15. Why PM/Engineering/Sales/etc?
16. Why did you decide to move from ie engineering to product management? (for career changers)
17. Where do you see yourself in five years?
18. Why did you choose your major?  
19. Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision quickly or with insufficient data.OR Tell us about a time you used data to make a decision.
20. What kind of programming experience do you have? 
21.  Describe a situation in which you went against the status quo?
22. What types of people have you found it difficult to work with?
23. How has your tolerance for mistakes changed over the years?
24. What kinds of people do you like to work with?
25.  Who has inspired you in your life and why?
26.  What would you say to your boss if he is crazy about an idea, but you think it stinks?
27. What motivates you to do a good job?
28. Looking back, what would you do differently in your life?
29. How do you define success and how do you measure up to your own definition?
30. What is something that you had to fundamentally change about yourself to be successful? self-development
    1. Weaknesses:
    2. Strengths:
31. How would your teammates describe you?
32. what do you do in your spare time:
33. What’s the difference between management and leadership?
34. Would you lie for the company?
35. What have you learned about saying no?
36. Which do you like first the good news or the bad news?
37. What aspects of PM do you find the least interesting and why?
38. What would somebody do to lose your confidence?
39. Tell me about a setback you had and how you handled it.
40. What’s a technology trend that you’re excited about?

NOTE

Key areas to emphasize: the customer problem, the technology trend or solution that will address that problem, and a convincing discussion around feasibility including technical, cost, and consumer adoption.

41. Do you manage people from different functions differently? If so, how?
42. What’s your approach to hiring?

Leadership/Influence

43. Tell me about a time you had to use emotional intelligence to lead.
44. Tell me about a time when you showed initiative. OR Tell me about a time when you had to build a team.
45. Tell me about a time when you had to motivate a team.

Failures

46. Tell me about a time when you improperly analyzed a situation.
47. Tell me about a time when you were disappointed with yourself.
48. What is one of the worst ideas you have ever had? Biggest product mistake?
49. Tell me about a mistake you made. What happened, and what did you learn from it?/ Tell me about a difficult failure you experienced.
50. Tell me about a time when you were unable to juggle all your responsibilities. 

Challenges

51. What was the toughest challenge you faced? How did you overcome it?
52. Describe a major change that occurred in a job that you held. How did you adapt to this change?
53. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with changing priorities. How did you handle it?
54. Tell me about a time when you handled a risky situation.
55. What was the toughest programming challenge you have ever faced?
56. Tell me about a time when you weren’t able to reach a deadline.
57. Who is the hardest person you ever worked with? What made the relationship difficult?
58. How did you address that situation? If I called them up today, what would they say about your time together?

Successes

59. Tell me a specific insight you gained from something outside of work.
60. What is one of the best ideas you have ever had? 
61. Tell me about a time when you solved a problem a creative way.
62. Tell me about a time when you had to show innovation.
63. What is innovation to you? Please provide an example of a project you worked on that displayed Innovative thinking/ Give me an example of your creativity.
64. Tell me about a time when you had to make a tough decision. OR Tell me about a time when you had to compromise. OR Describe a time when you resolved a situation before it became serious. 
65. Name a time you had to make an unpopular decision.
66. Tell me about a time when a team didn’t gel. Why do you think that happened and what have you learned?

Teamwork

67. Tell me about a time when you had a challenging interaction with a coworker. OR Tell me about a time when you had to do something you didn’t want to do. OR Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement at work.
68. Tell me about a time when you mentored or aided a coworker.
69. Is consensus always a good thing?
70. How do you get a team to commit to a schedule?
71. Tell me about a time when you had to resolve a conflict.
72. Have you ever been in a situation where your team has let you down and you’ve had to take the blame?

Cross-functional Roles

73. How have you learned to work with sales?
74. How do you know when design is on the right track?
75. How should a product manager support business development?
76. What’s the best way to work with executives?
77. What is the best way to interface with customers?
78. What makes marketing tick?
79. What have you learned about managing up?

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