Here is a list of questions i prepared for

Behavioral/Googlyness/Leadership interviews:

1. Talk a little bit about yourself (The general ice-breaker)

2. Why do you want to work at “Company name”?
3. What is your favorite “Company name” product, and how
would you improve it?
4. Tell me about something you’ve done that you’re proud of.
5. Tell me about a time you helped a team member accomplish
their task.
6. How do you handle a situation when someone you’re
working with does not agree with the recommended
approach to fulfilling the task?
7. When was the last time you made a wrong decision?
8. How do you prioritize your tasks?
9. Tell me about a time you took leadership in a task you were
not expected to.
10. Tell me about one of the technical challenges you might
have faced.
11. What do you do to gain commitment from your team?
12. Discuss a time when you went above and beyond for a
customer?
13. Discuss a time when you had a difficult interaction with a
customer. How did you deal with it? What was the outcome?
How would you handle it differently?
14. Talk about a time when you were able to anticipate a
customer need that they did not know they needed yet. How
did you know they needed this, and how did they respond?
15. Talk about the time when you asked for customer
feedback. How did you leverage feedback to drive innovation
 or improvement? How did the customer and your team
respond?
16. Talk about a time when you evaluated the customer
experience of your product or service. What was the result,
and what did you do next? Sometimes customers make an
unreasonable request; talk about a time when you had to
push back or say no to a customer request. How did the
customer respond? Would you have done anything
differently?
17. Describe the time when you had to work outside of the
comfort area. How did you identify what you need to be
successful, how did you go about building the expertise to
build your goal, and were you able to meet your goal?
18. Talk about a time when you realized you needed a deeper
level of subject matter expertise to do your job well. What did
you do about it, what was the outcome, and was anything
that could have been done differently?
19. Talk about a time when you did not know what to do next
or how to solve a challenging problem. How do you learn
what you did not know, what were the options you
considered, how did you decide the best path forward, and
the outcome?
20. We all have things about ourselves that we want to
improve at work. Give an example of something you have
worked on to improve your overall work effectiveness and
the process and impact.
21. Give an example of a project when you were able to deliver
a project with a tight deadline, the sacrifices you needed to
make, and how it impacted the final deliverable and the
outcome.
22. Talk about a time when you had a significant,
unanticipated obstacle to overcome in achieving a goal. What
was the obstacle, and were you eventually successful?
23. Talk about a time when you not only met a goal but
exceeded expectations. How did you do it, what challenges
did you face, and the results?
24. Talk about a time when your team was working towards a
mission, or a goal that you did not think was achievable.
What did you do, and what was the impact?
25. Talk about a situation that required you to dig deep for a
root cause. How did you know you were focusing on the right
thing. What was the outcome, and is there anything you
could have done differently?
26. Talk about a time when you were trying to understand a
complex problem, and you had to dive into the details to
figure it out, who did you talk with, and where did you have
to look to find the most valuable information.
27. Walk me through any big problem or issue which you had
to solve. What were your contributions, and what was the
impact?
28. Talk about a critical piece of feedback you have ever
received. What was it, and What did you do about it?
29. Describe when you needed to influence a college that had
a different opinion about a shared goal. What did you do,
and what was the outcome?
30. Talk about a time when you were not able to meet a
commitment? What was the commitment, and what were the
obstacles? what was the impact on customers and your
teammates?
31. Give an example of when you uncovered a significant issue
with your team or product. What was it, and how did you
communicate? What did you do to address the problem?
32. Talk about a time when you improved morale or
productivity within your team.
33. Example of time when a team member was struggling to
keep up or fit in, and you decided to step in and help out.
Why did you think that he was struggling? Why did you
decide to step in and support, and how did it impact your
work. What was the outcome?
34. Tell me about a time you had to disagree with your
manager. How did you manage the situation? Would you
have done anything differently?
35. Self-reflection is a key to becoming a great engineer. Can
you reflect and discuss something you are weak and how you
plan to work on it?
36. What is an area that you have worked to improve over the
last year? Why is this area/skill important to you? How did
you identify this goal? What steps have you taken to improve
this/what is your action plan?
37. Imagine you are working on a project with four other team
members. Everyone participates equally in the work, but
when the project ends you realize that one person has
presented the results to others and is taking all the credit.
What would you do?
○ follow up - What factors would you consider before
○ taking further action?
○ follow up - If this continues to happen, how could this
impact the team?
○ follow up - What steps can you take to prevent this from
recurring?
38. Imagine you are leading a team working to complete a
project due in 2 weeks when suddenly one of the team
members goes on sick leave. How would you handle the
situation?
○ follow up - How can you ensure the project doesn't fall
behind?
○ follow up - How would this sudden change impact the
○ project and the team as a whole?
○ follow up - How can you ensure the remaining team
stays motivated to produce results?

39. Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with

someone. What would you do differently now?

40. How do you ensure you're considering different

perspectives at work?
Follow-ups:
○ What steps have you taken to meet this challenge?
○ What do you see as the most challenging aspect of a
diverse working environment?

41. Challenges working on a distributed team with only junior

engineers in candidate's location?

42. Tell me about a time when you advocated for yourself or

others to help them fit in with a team at work or school. Did
you attempt to change the individual or the situation? How
did you view the differences; negatively or positively? What
did you learn from your experience? What can you do at
 work to make sure that this doesn't happen to others in the
future?

43. Imagine you worked for a company that was known for a
poor culture (for example; coworkers who don't work hard,
teammates who don't get along, or the team struggles with
work-life balance).
○ What steps could you take as an individual contributor
to change that?

44. How can you make a work environment more inclusive

without huge, sweeping, high-level change?
○ Now imagine you were a Senior Manager or Director,
how would you address this problem from that
viewpoint?
45. Tell me about a time when you had to make a quick
decision that was going to have a significant impact on the
organization?
46. Tell me about a time when you found a simple solution to
a complex problem?
47. Describe a situation when you had to work with
incomplete data or information?
48. Tell me about a time when you had to take a calculated
risk at work?
49. Tell me how you would complete a project or task if you
had limited time or resources?
50. Tell me about a time when you experienced conflict
within a team?
51. Give me two examples of when you have gone above or
beyond what was expected?
52. When have you had to overcome a challenging situation at
work?
53. When have you had a disagreement at work, either with a
work colleague or a manager?
54. Give me a situation where you have previously shown
Leadership Principles at work?
55. Tell me about an unpopular decision you had to make at
work?
56. Give me one thing you will like the most about being a
leader with “Company name”, and one thing you will dislike?
57. Tell me a time when you had to give bad news to a
member of your team?
58. Give me an example when you led a team of people to
achieve an organization’s goal or objectives?
59. Tell me about a time when you had to persuade someone
to follow your course of action?
60. When did you have to overcome a difficult challenge at
work?
61. Give me an example at work where you improved how you
did something to achieve a better outcome?
62. Tell me about a time when you learned something new
that was outside of your comfort zone?
63. Tell me about a time when you received criticism from a
manager or a work colleague? How did you react to the
feedback?
64. Tell me about a time when you analyzed information
carefully to overcome a challenging task or project?
65. Tell me a time when you had to make an effective decision
under pressure?
66. Tell me about a time when you took a risk that benefited
your employer.
67. Tell me about a time when the organization you were
working for adopted one of your ideas.
68. Tell me about a time when you used a radical approach to
solve a problem.
69. Tell me about a time when you used information or data to
make a decision.
70. How do you use data and information to create or develop
a strategy?
71. Tell me about a time when you had to delve deeper into
information or data to come up with a suitable solution to a
problem.
72. Tell me about a time when you had to balance speed of
delivery with quality.
73. Give an example of a time when you didn’t see eye-to-eye
with a work colleague.
74. Describe your most difficult customer and how you
handled them.
75. Give an example of a time you went above and beyond to
meet a deadline.
76. Tell me about a time when you helped a team or company
save money.
77. Tell me about a time when you experienced a steep
learning curve.
78. What is your favourite leadership principle?
79. How did you resolve any conflicts between your team?
80. Tell me about one time you worked on a project/task and
it failed?
81. What is the most challenging project you have worked on?
82. What is the project that you enjoyed most?
83. What is your greatest strength/Weakness?
84. What is the hardest bug that you solved?
85. Why should we hire you?

Amazon leadership principles:

● customer obsession
● Ownership
● Invent and simplify
● Hire and develop the best
● deliver results
● Earn trust, Dive deep
● Are right, a lot
● Learn and be curious
● Have backbone; disagree and commit
● Insist on the highest standards
● Think big
● Bias for action
● frugality