Important Facts
College Vidya Team Oct 18, 2024 3.3K Reads
Cracking an interview is not a piece of cake! Recruiters and HRs are fully prepared to get you through a roller coaster of questions. So, you should be equally prepared to give quick and relevant responses to any questions the interviewer shoots with confidence and slays the interview.
So here are the top questions asked in interviews and answers to get you all set and prepared for your big day!
An interview is the most important and hence the most difficult stage of any job recruitment process. The type of questions asked in a job interview has always been a concern for many. You are worried about losing confidence in case you face an unfamiliar question. This fear makes you wonder, wouldn’t it be so good if you knew exactly what questions you would face?
Well, the questions asked in an interview will definitely depend on the type of job, industry, and post and will vary accordingly. However, there are some basic questions that are common to all job interviews and are important, especially to the HR of the company.
The blog further lists 50+ questions asked by HR in job interviews along with answer examples. However, we do not recommend you learn answers to some particular questions and go to the interview. The examples are only for reference, and you must first understand the intent behind the question and then answer it according to your situation.
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With this blog, you will be able to know the mindset with which HRs ask questions and what these hiring managers are looking for in your responses. You will also understand what it takes to show that you are the right fit for the job.
So now, let us jump right into the questions and answers. Stay tuned with the blog as in the end we will also be discussing other key factors needed to keep in mind while preparing for a job interview.
This is the most common job interview question and is probably asked by every recruiter. It is quite a simple one yet the most important question of all. Here, you do not have to go into detail explaining your personal or professional background. This question is a chance for you to pitch yourself in a brief that is compelling and highlights why you’re the perfect fit for the job. For instance, you can go like-
This question is quite a popular job interview opener. For this question, rather than speaking about your skills and qualities, you must answer by telling your career story by grouping your qualifications around your past jobs.
You can either go from present to past or you could start chronologically. Your focus should be to highlight the experiences and accomplishments that are most relevant to this job that you are interviewing for and why it should be the next addition to your CV.
This question could be a very good opportunity for you to show your admiration and passion for the company. You do this by telling them not just how you heard about the job but also elaborating on how excited and thrilled you were to find out about this opportunity and what caught your eye regarding this job role.
This might seem like an easy question but it is a bit tricky as you might give out a generic answer thereby missing the opportunity to stand out. Most of the candidates might prepare a generic answer applicable to all companies. You must not do that at all! Before going for the interview, do your research about the company and note down a few things that appeal to you.
You could point out how the organization has opportunities for future growth and how can you contribute to it and learn from it at the same time. You must be specific so that the recruiter knows that you have made efforts to research the company.
Recruiters look for candidates who are passionate about the job and are pursuing it not just to earn some cash. In this question, you have to answer why the job role is perfect for you and not the other way around. Once you are done elaborating why you love the job role, then you can share why you like the company.
This is a question that most people might find intimidating but you are actually in great luck if this question comes across you. This is the perfect time for you to sell yourself and showcase your skills and qualifications relevant to the job in the best possible way.
You need to ensure you craft an answer about how you can also deliver results and not merely work, how you’re better than the other contenders, and finally how you can easily fit in with the team and culture of the company.
With this question, the hiring managers wish to know what else can do for the company apart from the accomplishments already achieved by the company. They want to know if you are aware of the challenges faced by the company and if you can contribute to help in any way.
For this, you should conduct good research about the company, then read the job description to understand why you’re being hired and what issue you’ll be solving once hired. Once you understand this, then you just have to connect your skills and qualifications to exactly what the company needs.
This is quite a common question to pop up in any job interview. This is a chance for you to let the recruiters know why no candidate other than you is best for the job. But you must be quite specific with your answer. Instead of blabbering a huge list of adjectives, just pick a few qualities that are relevant to the job role you are applying for.
You can even narrate past stories or situations that are examples of your greatest strengths. This is because stories are more effective and memorable as compared to general answers.
This is more of a psychological question and hence you must tackle it carefully. Actually, the purpose of this question is not only to know your weaknesses but more importantly to know if you are self-aware and honest or not. It is a tricky question where you must avoid giving extreme answers.
For instance, you should neither say that you can’t meet deadlines often nor you should say that you’re perfect and that you do not have any weaknesses at all. Both these answers are big red flags and can easily backfire. You should mention something that does not affect your work negatively.
As an example, if you are going for a job interview for the post of software engineer, you could say that you are not good at English or public speaking.
Be confident with this answer and do not shy away from mentioning any and every achievement of your past jobs or college/school. Again, it is better to narrate it like a story by first elaborating on the situation that you faced followed by the task you were allocated.
This will build a background for the interviewer who will know the intensity of the situation. Now describe how you performed the task and the results that you achieved.
This can be a difficult situation as you might not be comfortable speaking about conflicts at work while giving an interview for another job. However, if you face this question, it is wise to answer honestly and not pretend as if you were never in such a situation.
However, just explain the situation you faced and do not get carried away as you might unconsciously vent and that would be a huge red flag.
You should professionally explain the story and speak more about how the situation was resolved than the conflict itself. This will show that you can face such situations professionally and that you are more towards coming to a resolution.
If you think that only fancy titles like Team Lead will demonstrate your leadership qualities. You can think of any small projects you handled or even the smallest of initiatives you took in difficult situations or helped motivate your team members to complete a tough task at hand. All of this counts as leadership qualities.
You can even go further back in time and narrate stories from college or school. But be sure to connect all the dots of your story so that it makes sense. And how you are going to do this by being to the point and clear about why you are narrating this story.
You have to be very clever while answering this question because it is no easy task to win someone over by talking about your mistakes, especially in the case of a job interview. But if you do it right, it can be a great advantage for you. All you have to do is be honest and try not to blame others.
Explain the mistake and then what you learned from it for the future. If possible, also mention what you did afterward to ensure you do not repeat the mistake. Recruiters ask this question to ensure that their employees are self-aware people, can take critique, and work better by learning from their mistakes.
This question is similar to the one above and should be answered similarly. You must narrate an actual incident of failure. But before that, you must be clear about how you define failure and the same must be reflected in your answer so that the interviewers know your perspective on failure.
Then you can continue with the story by that definition. Your answer should reflect what you learned from the entire situation because that is actually what interests the recruiter. Again, do not be too confident to say that you never faced failure because that might backfire big time.
This is the question that you will definitely face in any job interview and it is a tough one. You must ensure to keep things positive about your previous organization. You can frame things in a way that shows you want to take on new/different opportunities.
For instance, you can say you wish to explore more in the field or that you want to switch to a different role. It is a really bad idea to badmouth the previous organization.
Even if you are resigning because there is something negative to do with the company, do not mention it in a negative light. Instead, keep the focus on how you wish to try new things.
If you are a working professional, then you must be fully aware of the current situation of layoffs worldwide. If you have lost your job due to a layoff, then you can just say that unfortunately your department or your position was eliminated.
However, there might be another case where you were fired from the job for performance reasons. If such is the case, the best option is to be honest because if you lie, you might get caught if the recruiter goes for a background check from the previous organization.
You can do your best by framing the situation as a learning experience with the help of which you have grown. Try to portray this growth as an advantage for the next job and your work is done.
If you have a gap or multiple gaps in your resume, then you should be ready for this question. You need to be honest here but to a certain limit. You must honestly give the reason for the gap but at the same time you must frame the answer in a way that justifies the gap and that the gap does not become a weak point for you.
For instance, you can speak about any skills that you gained or maybe honed the existing ones. These skills need not necessarily be work-related. It can be any life skill that can help you be better at work. Again, you can talk about situations or incidents that helped you gain these qualities.
If the change of career is the case for you, then definitely be prepared for this question in advance. There is no need to be intimidated by the question. You just need to justify the career choices that you have made in life and how that has worked out for you.
However, it is very important to portray how your previous role is connected to the new one. You can impress the interviewer big time by showing how even your seemingly irrelevant experience is very much relevant to the new role.
You could consider this as one of HR’s favorite questions. It is better not to directly tell your current CTC/salary. You can rather frame the answer around your expectations for the salary.
You could go like, “I’d like to know a little bit more about the role before discussing the salary. If the role is the right fit for me, then certainly we will be able to agree on a package which suits both parties.”
You can also directly share your current salary in case you think it is okay too and that things will work in your favor.
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This question is not something to be feared. You just need to explain the one thing you like the most about your current job.
However, you still need to be careful here. Do not go into too much detail about how much you love your current job because the interviewer might follow up with a question asking why you are leaving the job and you might get flustered here.
Instead, you can pick something that is common in both your current and new job roles. You can frame your answer around saying that you like something about your current job and you wish to explore more into that niche which is exactly what the new job role is offering.
This is a question you must wish to not get across, but if you do, then you need to answer it carefully. You might get taken aback so it is better to prepare it beforehand. Be careful to not let your answer turn into a rant about how bad your previous/current company is or how terrible is your boss or colleague. The best way to answer this question is to find something that your new job role offers but not your current/previous one. Keep the answer positive and show excitement for the new job role.
Here you need to say ideally the same things that the new job role is offering. You should be specific about those things. Once you have listed them all, now you can elaborate as to why you are looking for them in particular.
Most people think of this question as an unimportant one, which is not the case at all. This is why many of them end up answering that they do not get stressed out or they just push through it somehow.
That is not how you answer this question. You must tell your go-to strategy that you use when you get stressed out generally whether at work or outside of it. It could be anything, deep breathing or meditating or distractions or anything.
It would be great if you could give an example of any real-life event where you handled a stressful situation.
You need to be honest here with your answer. This is because if you do get selected, then HR will be calling your former colleagues and bosses for references. You can talk about all the good things you have heard about yourself at work. It can be things like your strong work ethic, your work management style, or your leadership qualities and readiness to pitch in for new opportunities.
If you are going for a managerial role, then you must reflect your best managerial skills in your answer. You must show your leadership qualities and how strong you are but at the same time how flexible you are. You can explain it better with a few example situations when you were at your best.
For example, how you managed to complete an urgent project within a tight deadline when you grew your team or when you trained a newbie into one of the company’s best employees.
This is not a mandatory question but is often asked in interviews. This is for the hiring managers to know you better or to know what are the things you give time to outside of work hours. This is a good chance for you to reflect on your personality in the best way possible. You should be honest here, but at the same time be professional and mindful of what you answer because you should not just focus on answering about something that is not related to work.
Any employer would want an employee who is super organized and maintains order at work. This is because a disorganized employee does not just affect themselves but also others on the same team and that ultimately affects the work assigned to the entire team.
So, this is a common question for recruiters to know that you will be able to handle the workload and multiple tasks at hand. You can discuss a particular pattern or method that you use at work and explain how it works for you. The best part will be if your answer is as organized as you explain your work.
With this question, the interviewer wants to see if you know how to manage time, make quick judgments, and if you are flexible enough to shift gears whenever you need be. You can start by discussing the strategies you use to organize and prioritize work. It could be a to-do list of work or a color-coded spreadsheet.
You can also tell a situation if there is anywhere you had to make unexpected changes in your priorities at the last minute and then how you managed to get the work done.
This is also one of those questions with which the hiring manager wants to know you better. You can play clever here by discussing something that aligns with the work that you will be doing at this new job.
For instance, if you are applying for the role of a content writer, you can describe your passion as reading or writing poetry or anything similar to your role.
However, if you have a hobby that is not relevant to your work, then you must talk about it. This will be a plus point for you in terms of your dynamic and versatile personality. You might get brownie points if you can still connect irrelevant hobbies to your work in some way.
This is not some question to test your existential perspective but rather a question for the employer to know if you are excited about the role that they have to offer at their company. The employer wants to know if your passions and motivations to succeed align with the success of the company or not.
So, you can answer by telling me what was the one thing that kept you going in your previous roles and what made you excited when you read the job description for the job you are interviewing for.
You can do something relevant to either your job role or the company you are applying to. You can portray a story around this to better clarify your point.
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Pet peeves are something in particular that annoys you. Now this could be something or even a person. You should know why the interviewer is asking this question so that you can answer it accordingly. Most probably, the recruiter wants to know if you can deal with conflicts at work and how.
You should be honest here but you must carefully think of something that does not contradict with the work ethic at the new company you are interviewing for.
You should also discuss the solutions you devised to deal with such situations. It is better to keep this answer sweet and short, for it is not a good thing to dwell on things that annoy you.
You need to answer this question in a very positive tone. The purpose behind this question for the interviewer is to look for the right candidate from the perspective of the company as well as yours. You can pick a few good points bout your former bosses that kept you motivated and helped you grow in your career.
You can also speak about something that you would want in your new manager/boss which you could not find earlier. But be sure to frame this in a positive tone.
This is a tricky question and usually, the one that makes you uncomfortable. But you can mold these questions and answer them in a way that portrays how you are an excellent fit for this job role.
Your answer needs to be optimistic so, firstly answer with a YES! You can elaborate by mentioning a few professional achievements from the past (it would be great if they’re relevant to this new job role).
You must also explain why you consider yourself successful while highlighting your achievements. You can end with the aspirations you have for the future and the goals that you have set.
This is quite a common interview question as the recruiters would like to know the future goals and aspirations of the candidate to see if that aligns with the goals of the company as well or not. The recruiters want to see if you have any ambitions at all and if there are any then are they realistic or not? To answer this question, you should carefully think about where this position that you’re applying for will take you in the future, and then answer along those lines only. Try to be specific and as realistic as possible.
Also, it is completely okay to say that you are not sure what the future has in store for you, but that you can see this particular position as an important part in helping you decide your near future.
Having career goals is important because it shows prospective employers that you are ambitious and that you will work hard to achieve those ambitions. This is what exactly employers look for, in an employee. It also shows that you tend to think ahead and are organized in terms of your career.
Now, just having career goals is not good enough. The cherry on the cake would be if you have a plan to achieve them. This will show them how goal-oriented you are.
Additionally, if you can prove from past experiences that you were able to accomplish goals that you set for yourself, then it would be a great demonstration of your ability to follow what you set to do. This will be an indication that by doing so, you just not achieve goals for yourself but help others in your team and your boss grow.
Another thing is to try to focus on 1 or 2 goals in detail and how they are meaningful to you. It will be best if these align with the growth of the company as well.
Recruiters ask this question to verify if your aspirations and ultimate career goals are actually in line with the position that this company is offering you. You have to talk about your dream job and career goals but it is also very important to speak about why and how this job will help you get closer to that dream.
This is again a tricky situation because you wish to show enthusiasm for this job but at the same time you do not wish to tell them that there is no other company you have applied to as this will give them even more leverage than they already have.
The recruiter wants to know how serious you are about your career or they are probably trying to check who else is there in line to hire you. You can talk about applying to a few companies for a similar role.
However, you can stress how this particular company is the best fit among all and that you are really looking forward to it.
You should not make the mistake of dodging this question with a generalized answer because trust me, the recruiter genuinely wants to know your USP. Your answer must give the recruiters a reason to hire you over the other candidates. However, your USP must be relevant to the job role you are applying for.
For instance, you being particularly good at a sport will not help you get a job in the IT sector. You must come up with something that will help you get an edge over others in competition. You can focus on just one or two qualities and elaborating them with evidence would be great.
If you can not make out what makes you unique, then you can take help from former colleagues or you can carefully think about the feedback you receive or think of something for which people usually turn to you for help.
Do not get confused by the tone of this question. It is good if your interviewer is asking you this question. This shows that the interviewer is interested in you and might be considering you for the role.
To answer this question, you can speak about some of your positive traits or a hobby outside of work. You can play well by somehow connecting them to your job role. You can even tell a story or describe an incident that can reveal a little more about your personality and experiences.
This question intends that the interviewer wants to know if you have conducted proper research before coming to the interview. They also want to judge by your answer whether you have prepared yourself on how you will get started at work or that will you be able to take initiative if hired.
To be able to answer this question, you should read the job description carefully and understand what the work that the employer expects you to do. You can do thorough research on what kind of projects the company takes over and accordingly you can guess a project that you think you might get to work on when you get the job.
You could be wrong, but that is OK because the recruiters are not looking for the right answer here they just want to see if you are actually serious, excited, and motivated about the job or not. So, just answer anything you can guess from the research you have done.
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This is a mandatory question for any job interview so you should be prepared with an answer ahead of time. You can get help from sites such as PayScale, Glassdoor, etc. to know what is the average salary for a similar role as yours.
However, do not blindly go by these sides, take into account your experience, skills, and academic background as well as reach out to your peers and your professional network to get more insights about the same.
After you are done with the research, give the hiring manager a number that is above your expectations because they will surely negotiate on whatever you suggest. The key here is to not settle below your expected value.
This is again a very tricky question. You have to be very careful while answering this question because you will have to be mindful of not insulting the company.
You can be diplomatic with your answer here. How? You can start by mentioning something positive about the company or any specific project/product and then you can follow up with constructive feedback of your opinion/perspective on it. You must back up your answer with an explanation of why you think what you think could be a better option.
A really good tip here is that you can end your response with a question relevant to the conversation you just had. This will highlight your curiosity and seriousness towards the company, which is something that the recruiters are seeking.
The answer to this question completely depends upon your current situation. If you are unemployed, then you can tell the company that you will be able to join within a week. In case, you are already working at a certain company, you will need to serve a notice period there. The recruiter understands this and will respect your situation, so you do not need to be afraid at all.
Also, if you want to take a break between switching jobs, you can say that you have some important commitments to attend to and at the same time you can mention that you can try to be a little flexible if they urgently need someone for the position.
This question is much more than a simple yes or no situation. There is no problem at all if you are open to relocating and if you think that this opportunity is worth it. But in cases when you can not move to a different location, what you can do is reiterate how enthusiastic you are for the opportunity.
You can briefly explain your situation and the reason why you can not relocate. You can also offer alternatives if the employer is flexible like working remotely or from a local office if available.
This open-ended question is quite a common one which is usually asked towards the end of the interview. But there is nothing to worry about this question. This could be an opportunity for you to end the interview on a high note. You can do so in multiple ways like
if you haven’t had the chance to mention something you wanted the recruiters to know or if there is something that is not on your resume but seems relevant to the recruiters, then this is your chance to do so.
An interview is a two-way communication and not a viva for the interviewer to bombard you with questions. The interview will already cover a lot about the company, department, and position, so if you are asked to ask any questions, then you must be prepared with a few uncommon questions.
You can specifically target the interviewer with a question like, “Sir/Ma’am what is it that you like the most about working here?”.
This is a question that can easily demotivate anybody so if it is the case with you that you do not have sufficient experience for the role, then you must definitely prepare an answer for such a situation.
You can try and answer in a way that convinces the interviewers that your skills and qualities can compensate for the years of experience that you do not have. You can mention qualities like quick grasping power or any skill relevant to the job and of course, do not forget to back up everything with examples or evidence.
This question is kind of a trick played by the interviewer to check your attitude and perspective. This is why it is really important to sound firm but humble at the same time.
For instance, you can go like, “In my opinion, one can not be perfect and one can never stop learning, so you might think I possess more than needed for the job, but I feel there is always something yet to learn which can help me grow for myself as well as my team.”
This is the kind of question that has the potential to throw you off the chair. However, you do not need to be flustered at all. You have to be honest here and the answer should be professionally relevant. You must avoid giving in and instead.
This is kind of a trick question that an HR might ask you to know your perspective and mindset. Although it is just an HR round, you must be careful with what you say to advance to the next rounds.
For this particular question, you can answer in a way that shows you respect a person irrespective of their age. You could say that professionally you acknowledge a person superior to you based on their experience and talent and not their age.
So, it does not matter if you are reporting to a younger person, and in fact, you would be happy to work with a company that acknowledges and prioritizes talent over age.
This is the kind of question asked to test the confidence of the candidate. You must be careful not to give in and answer accordingly. You can be a little diplomatic here and say something like experiences are enriching, whether good or bad, they help you learn something in life and hence help you grow both personally and professionally. And so you wouldn’t want to change anything in your journey to date.
This is another tough and tricky question. The HR here wants to test you on what you would choose between loyalty and honesty. When you are at a crossroads like this one, then you must choose integrity over anything. A possible answer to such a question could be
The answer to this question might be the decision maker of your selection for the job. Your answer must not be negative. You must first discuss the most challenging part of your work but then for sure, you must mention how you tackled it.
This is because the interviewer might think that you would face the same challenge again which could be a negative impact. So, be sure to mention something that you did face difficulty with but you also were able to tackle it in the end.
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We all have learned about all the possible interview questions along with their answers. But have you ever thought about why are these HR interviews conducted during a hiring process? What is the need for conducting these HR interviews?
The answer is the HR interview is conducted in view to examine the candidate and whether he or she is perfectly suitable for the job profile or not. The individual could be able to perform all the relevant assigned tasks with efficiency or not. In short, the HR interview is conducted to analyze the individual personality for a particular job profile and tasks. And also other aspects of the individual personality to determine whether he or she would be able to engage in the company’s work culture or not.
The HR interviews are solely conducted to identify the most suitable candidate not only on their work skills and field knowledge but also on their personality aspects.
We have learned about all the possible HR interview questions but what about the preparation of the HR interviews? How to prepare for these HR interviews? Here are some preparation tips for an individual to crack any HR interview effectively:
Now, these are the questions that are commonly asked in a job interview by an HR. If not exactly these, the questions will be along the same line so you just need to understand the intent of the question and what the interviewer is asking out of you.
One thing that is quite clear from this blog is that before going to any job interview, you must research well about the company as well as the job role to be able to answer all the questions effectively. Another important thing is for you to prepare questions to ask the interviewers for that killer's first expression.
However, a job interview is not just about questions and answers, there are certain other things that you must keep in mind as well. You must go to the interview nicely groomed and in decent formal attire. Next, you must carry a hard copy of your resume, a pen, and a notebook. You should try to reach the venue at least 15 minutes before your designated time. Lastly, be professional and try to address everybody formally and with respect.
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