Posts Tagged ‘traditional interview questions’

Behavioral interview questions are interview questions about your past experience. They usually start with “Tell me at time…” or “Give me an example…” They are very popular at most every company, especially medium to large corporations.

Hypothetical interview questions revolve around fictitious scenarios that could happen in the future. It’s a way to evaluate what you would do in the future, if you were placed in a similar situation.

Traditional interview questions are typically questions that do not fit the behavioral or hypothetical categories. They’re typically common interview questions such as:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why do you want to join this company?
• What’s your biggest weakness?

Usually, traditional interview questions are meant to gather background information about a candidate.

Examples of traditional, behavioral, and hypothetical interview questions

Traditional Questions

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why did you leave your last company? Did you get fired?
• What have you been doing since you left the company 8 months ago?
• Where do you see your career in 5 years? How about 20 years?
• What’s your biggest weakness?
• Why should we hire you?

Behavioral Questions

• Tell me a time when you had to meet an aggressive deadline.
• Tell me a time when you disagreed with a co-worker.
• Tell me a time when you solved a difficult problem.
• Tell me a time when you had to complete a task with limited guidance.
• Tell me a time when you made a mistake.

Hypothetical Questions

• What would you do if you had an upcoming deadline you feel is too aggressive?
• What would you do if you disagreed with a co-worker?
• What would you do if you had to complete a task with limited guidance?