4 Categories of Interview Questions

Have you ever been blindsided by an interview question?

You're sitting in an interview and it's going well, and then you get a random question that seems obscure and impossible to answer.

Like "how many golf balls can fit in a school bus?" or "why are manhole covers round?"

It's the kind of question that makes you want to end the interview.

Interviewers at Google used to ask these types of questions, but I don't think they ask them anymore, t god.

What's more common though is getting a valid but hard question you weren't prepared to answer.

Maybe your mind went blank when you respond, or you rambled on and on.

It happens to the best of us, so give yourself grace.

Luckily, interviews are mostly straightforward and somewhat predictable.

You will never know exactly what questions you'll get, but you can make an educated guess based on the stakeholder and stage of the interview.

Today's tip is about the 4 categories most interview questions will fall into.

Use this framework to appropriately prep and ace your next interview.

Most interview questions will fall into one of the following categories:

☝🏽 Screening - Questions that cover who you are and what you are looking for in a new role.

• "Tell me about yourself."

• "What interests you about our company?"

✌🏾 Skill Based - Questions related to your experience, achievements, and hard skills.

• "Have you worked with enterprise customers before?"

• "What is your knowledge of Figma and Sketch?"

🤟🏼 Situational - Hypothetical questions that show how you might respond in a specific scenario.

• "How would you respond to a difficult customer interaction?"

• "What would you do if you had competing project deadlines?"

🖖🏿 Behavioral - Questions that show your approach to certain tasks based on past experience.

• "Tell me about a time you've received critical feedback?"

• "Tell me about when you closed an enterprise customer?"

These 4 types of questions will show up throughout the interview process.

Perfect your answers to each type of question for optimal success. 

You want to have an arsenal of career stories that are specific and relevant to your target role.

As you move through the stages of an interview, typically the line of questioning will follow the same order as listed above.

Meaning typically:

• Recruiters will focus mostly on screening questions

• Hiring managers will ask skill-based questions

• On-site interviews will have lots of situational and behavioral questions.

So don't just prepare for any interview questions, think about who you are talking to and what stage of the process you are in when prepping.

And then practice your responses until you are blue in the face so your delivery is crisp, clear, and compelling.

Hint: Mock interviews are a really great way to improve your game face.

That's the tea folks. Practice, practice, practice.

P.S. ICYMI - I was featured in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.