Interview questions worth actually preparing for.

HR + Behavioural + Technical, with the meta reason each one gets asked.

Updated October 2026 · By the ClaudeCV Editorial Team

HR / Screening (they're testing baseline fit)

• "Walk me through your resume." — Signal: can you tell a coherent story with a throughline?
• "Why us?" — Signal: did you do 15 minutes of homework?
• "Why leaving current role?" — Signal: mature framing, not blame.
• "Salary expectations?" — Signal: are you researched and self-aware?
• "When could you start?" — Signal: logistics + integrity in existing commitments.
• "Have you applied elsewhere?" — Signal: are you serious about the search?
• "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" — Signal: intentionality, not ambition olympics.
• "What's your biggest weakness?" — Signal: self-awareness. Please, no "perfectionism".

Behavioural (STAR method eats these for breakfast)

• "Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager."
• "Tell me about a time you failed."
• "Tell me about a difficult teammate."
• "Tell me about your biggest professional win."
• "How do you handle tight deadlines?"
• "Describe a time you had to persuade someone."
• "When did you take initiative without being asked?"
• "When did you receive tough feedback? How did you react?"

Technical — Software

• Explain HTTPS vs HTTP.
• What's the difference between SQL and NoSQL?
• Explain event loops in JS.
• How would you scale a URL shortener to 1B URLs?
• Explain caching layers (browser, CDN, app, DB).
• Diff between processes and threads.
• What's the CAP theorem?
• Explain OAuth 2.0 in one minute.

Reverse (questions YOU should ask)

• "What does success look like in this role at 6 months?"
• "How is performance measured here?"
• "What's the team's biggest current challenge?"
• "Why is this role open?"
• "How would you describe the manager's style?"

How to answer behavioural questions with the STAR method

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result. It gives your story a clear shape so the interviewer can follow it in under two minutes. Describe the situation briefly, explain your specific task, spend most of your time on what you personally did, and finish with a measurable result and what you learned.

Example for "Tell me about a time you failed": "In my last role I was leading a website update with a fixed launch date (situation and task). I underestimated the testing time and we had to delay the launch by a week (what went wrong). I told my manager straight away, rebuilt the schedule with the team and added a testing checklist (action). Since then every project I have led has included a testing buffer, and our last three launches were on time (result)." Notice that the answer takes responsibility, shows action and ends with a lesson.

Answering the most common screening questions

• "Walk me through your resume": give a two-minute story that links your past roles to this one. Start with your current role, briefly cover earlier steps and end with why this job is the logical next move.
• "Why do you want to work here?": mention a specific product, value or challenge you researched, and connect it to your skills.
• "Why are you leaving your current role?": focus on what you are moving toward, such as growth or new challenges, and never criticize your employer.
• "What is your biggest weakness?": choose a real but manageable weakness, explain what you are doing to improve it and give a short example of progress.
• "Where do you see yourself in five years?": describe the skills and responsibility you want to grow into, in a way that fits the company.

Preparing for technical questions

Technical interviews test both knowledge and thinking. Interviewers often care less about a perfect answer than about how you reason: whether you clarify the problem, state assumptions, consider trade-offs and explain your choices. If you do not know something, say so, then explain how you would find out or reason toward an answer. Practice explaining concepts aloud in plain language, since being able to teach an idea is a strong sign that you understand it.

A simple preparation plan

• Read the job post and list the five skills it stresses most.
• Prepare one STAR story for each of those skills.
• Research the company: products, recent news, competitors and values.
• Prepare three thoughtful questions to ask at the end.
• Practice aloud, ideally with a friend or by recording yourself.
• Test your camera, microphone and connection if the interview is online, and plan your route and arrival time if it is in person.

Prep the story, not the script. Interviewers can smell rehearsed answers a mile away.