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HR Interview Questions

1) The warm-up (who you are)​

  • Tell me about yourself.
  • Walk me through your resume / career so far.
  • What kind of projects have you worked on recently?
  • What are you most proud of in your last role?
  • What are you looking for in your next role?

2) Why this company / why this role​

  • Why do you want to work here?
  • What do you know about our product / mission?
  • Why are you interested in this specific role/team?
  • What attracted you to this job description?
  • What would make you choose us over other offers?

3) Motivation, values, and work style​

  • What motivates you at work?
  • What environment helps you do your best work?
  • How do you like to receive feedback?
  • How do you handle ambiguity?
  • What does “high ownership” mean to you?
  • How do you prioritize when everything feels urgent?
  • What kind of culture do you thrive in?

4) Collaboration and communication​

  • How do you work with product/design/stakeholders?
  • How do you handle disagreements about requirements?
  • Tell me about a time you influenced without authority.
  • How do you communicate technical trade-offs to non-technical people?
  • How do you approach code reviews (giving and receiving)?
  • How do you handle working with a difficult teammate?

5) Delivery, execution, and ownership (behavioral)​

  • Tell me about a time you shipped something under time pressure.
  • Tell me about a time you made a mistake and what you learned.
  • Tell me about a time you prevented a production issue.
  • Tell me about a time you improved a process (CI/CD, testing, docs, rituals).
  • Tell me about a time you had to say “no” or push back on scope.
  • Tell me about a time you handled an incident/outage.
  • Tell me about a time you dealt with a performance problem.
  • Tell me about a time you mentored someone or leveled up a teammate.

6) Growth and learning​

  • What are you learning right now?
  • How do you keep your skills up to date?
  • What’s a hard concept you learned recently? How did you learn it?
  • Where do you want to be in 1–2 years?
  • What does career growth mean to you (IC vs leadership)?

7) Strengths, weaknesses, self-awareness​

  • What are your strengths as an engineer?
  • What’s an area you’re actively improving?
  • What feedback have you received that changed how you work?
  • What’s your biggest professional challenge so far?
  • How do you handle stress or burnout risk?

8) Team logistics (how you work day-to-day)​

  • Have you worked in Agile/Scrum/Kanban? What’s your experience?
  • How do you estimate work and manage expectations?
  • How do you handle multiple priorities or interrupts?
  • What’s your preferred balance of meetings vs focus time?
  • How do you document decisions / share context?

9) Remote/hybrid specifics (very common now)​

  • Have you worked remotely before?
  • How do you stay aligned across time zones?
  • How do you ensure visibility without over-meeting?
  • What’s your home setup like?
  • What hours can you work / any constraints?

10) Reasons for leaving / transitions​

  • Why are you leaving your current role?
  • What are you looking for that you don’t have today?
  • What would your manager say are your biggest contributions?
  • What would you change about your last team/company if you could?

11) Compensation & level alignment (HR core section)​

  • What are your salary expectations?
  • What’s your current compensation (if you’re comfortable sharing)?
  • Are you considering other offers? Where are you in the process?
  • What level are you targeting? (Mid/Senior/Staff)
  • What benefits matter most to you (remote, equity, PTO, learning budget)?

12) Availability & logistics​

  • When could you start? What’s your notice period?
  • Do you need visa sponsorship / work authorization?
  • Are you open to relocation or travel?
  • Do you have any upcoming time off planned?
  • Can you provide references?

13) Culture, integrity, and trust​

  • Tell me about a time you received tough feedback.
  • Tell me about a time you had an ethical concern. What did you do?
  • How do you handle confidential information?
  • What does “quality” mean to you?
  • How do you balance speed vs reliability?

14) “Tricky” questions (how they often appear)​

  • If you disagree with your manager, what do you do?
  • Tell me about a conflict you had at work.
  • What would you do if you realized you were behind schedule?
  • Describe a failure.
  • Why should we hire you?
  • Why shouldn’t we hire you?
  • What’s something your last team would say you need to improve?

15) Questions you should ask HR (strong signal)​

  • How is performance evaluated here?
  • What does success look like in the first 30/60/90 days?
  • How are engineering levels defined (Senior/Staff/etc.)?
  • How do promotions work? How often are reviews?
  • What’s the team’s working model (remote/hybrid/on-site)?
  • How do you handle on-call and incidents?
  • What’s the interview process and timeline?
  • What are the benefits and equity details (vesting, cliff, refreshers)?

16) Quick answer frameworks (optional but useful)​

  • STAR for behavioral: Situation → Task → Action → Result (add “Learning” if you can).
  • Trade-off framing: “Option A vs B, constraints, risks, decision, outcome.”
  • Impact bullet: “What I did + how I did it + measurable impact.”

17) Notes on inappropriate/illegal questions (good to know)​

These topics are commonly not appropriate for recruiters to ask in many places: age, family plans/pregnancy, religion, political views, medical conditions, etc.
If something uncomfortable comes up, a safe redirect is:

  • “I’d prefer to keep that private—happy to focus on how I can perform in this role.”