Some common behavioral questions

Here are some common behavioral interview questions based on my personal experiences. While there’s no definitive right or wrong answer, how you respond should reflect your own experiences and perspectives. It’s important to provide authentic answers, as interviewers can easily detect generic or copied responses. You can look at others’ answers for inspiration, but make sure your response is genuinely your own. Sharing personal stories and opinions is key to leaving a lasting impression.

Below are some questions and my answers.

1. How do you handle disagreements with team members?

Disagreements often arise from having different perspectives on the same issue. For example, as a manager, I may want to deliver a new feature within the current quarter and communicate this to the technical team.

However, it’s common for the tech team to push back due to various reasons. In these situations, I ask them to provide data points to support their concerns. They may raise points such as:

• The team is already committed to existing tasks.
• Additional resources are needed to take on this new task.
• The team lacks the necessary skills for the new feature.

Taking their concerns into account, I discuss the situation with the business team and either present the tech team’s points or ask the tech team to estimate what portion of the feature can realistically be completed within the quarter.

Ultimately, after open discussions with both teams, we work together to find a solution that everyone agrees on.

2. How do you handle a team member who isn’t performing well?

If someone is part of the team, it means they’ve already passed the hiring process and are generally capable of doing the job. However, there could be several reasons for under performance, such as:

• Difficulty understanding the tasks
• Hesitation to seek help from the team
• Lacking the necessary skills to complete the work
• Disinterest in the type of work assigned
• Struggling with the team’s work style
• Personal issues affecting performance

In such cases, I have a one-on-one conversation to understand their concerns and share my observations. This open discussion usually helps identify the root of the issue and, most of the time, leads to improved performance.

3. How do you handle a production issue after releasing a feature?

• Fixing a production issue requires a careful approach, often involving multiple approvals, environment changes, and configuration updates.
• Rather than rushing into a fix, I follow these steps:
• First, assess the business impact of the issue and decide on the next steps based on its severity.
• If the impact is significant and a feature toggle is available, disable the feature to ensure the application continues running smoothly.
• Focus on diagnosing and fixing the issue.
• Once the fix is ready, deploy it gradually, either to selected regions or a subset of users.
• This approach ensures the fix works correctly and minimizes potential impact if further problems arise.

4. How do you onboard a new team member?

The main goal of on boarding is to help the new team member understand the project, the team’s work style, and the overall culture. Here’s the process I follow:

• Provide all relevant documentation about the current project to give them a solid foundation.
• Assign a senior team member as their buddy or point of contact (POC) for the first 1–2 months.
• The buddy should hold weekly 1-on-1 meetings with the new member to check on their progress, address any concerns, and offer guidance.

This approach ensures the new hire feels supported and integrates smoothly into the team.

5. What is your approach to remote work and different time zones?

Remote work has become common, and often team members are spread across different locations and time zones. To manage this effectively, I follow these steps:

• Establish fixed working hours that are comfortable for you and feasible for team collaboration.
• Split your time into two parts: when most of the team is available and when they are not.
• Use the common available time for team discussions, meetings, and clarifying doubts.
• Reserve the time when others are unavailable for focused, independent work.
• Update your working hours in your status or profile so team members know when you’re online. This helps with better coordination and communication.

6. What makes you happy as an employee?

• A good work-life balance is crucial, and proper planning is key to achieving it.
• Sprint planning is an effective way to manage tasks and avoid frequent ad-hoc issues.
• While occasional urgent issues are expected, they shouldn’t be a regular occurrence; frequent issues suggest that planning needs improvement.
• Flexible work hours also make a significant difference, allowing for better personal time management and contributing to overall job satisfaction.

7. How do you handle a task with no details provided?

This situation happens in my current project. While the task creator is good at assigning tasks during sprint planning, sometimes the ticket lacks detailed descriptions.

Here’s how I handle it:

• First, I ask the task creator to update the ticket with the necessary details.
• After analyzing the issue, I double-check my understanding with the team to ensure we’re aligned.
• If the task requires any new tools, I share this information with the team and gather the needed documentation and dependencies.
• Once everything is clear, I move forward with implementing the fix.

8. How do you communicate with your team/manager, and ensure the information is received as expected?

• With so many communication channels today — email, Teams, Slack, WhatsApp, etc. — it can be hard to ensure messages are received.
• When I send an important email, I recognize that people might not check their inbox frequently due to their workload.
• To ensure they don’t miss it, I follow up with a 1-on-1 message referencing the email.
• If I don’t get a response, I send a reminder through a direct message to ensure the information reaches them and gets the necessary attention.

9. Do you prefer being a back-end or front-end engineer?

• For me, it’s not about whether it’s front-end or back-end.
• What’s important is solving problems and understanding their impact on the product and the business.
• If there’s an issue in the front-end, I’ll investigate and fix it if needed, and the same applies to the back-end.
• The ultimate goal is to solve problems effectively, regardless of the technology involved.
• This question is often meant to gauge your flexibility and willingness to adapt to new technologies.

10. Which technology or language do you prefer to work with?

• This question is similar to the one about front-end vs. back-end preferences.
• I don’t view technology or language as a primary skill since they can evolve over time.
• What’s more important is having a strong grasp of fundamental principles and architecture/design.
• These fundamentals are applicable across different technologies and languages.
• With a solid foundation in these basics, you can quickly adapt to new technologies or languages as they emerge.

11. Do you prefer working alone or with team members?

• It’s not strictly about working alone or with the team; it’s about finding the right balance.
• When you’re new to a team, it’s essential to collaborate closely with team members to understand the product and project better.
• Given the challenges of remote work and different time zones, finding overlapping times for meetings and discussions is crucial.
• I use these opportunities to clarify doubts and discuss potential solutions with the team.
• For actual implementation, I might work independently.
• This approach combines both collaborative and solo work to effectively complete tasks.

Happy Learning!!