60 Behavioral Interview Questions

What it reveals

Influence skills, ability to motivate without direct reports, persuasion, and collaboration across teams.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you get buy-in from others?
• •What would you do differently?

What it reveals

Courage, decision-making under pressure, ability to communicate difficult messages, and standing by convictions.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you communicate the decision?
• •How did people respond?

What it reveals

Investment in others' growth, teaching ability, patience, and leadership potential beyond their own work.

Follow-up questions

• •What was the outcome for that person?
• •What did you learn from the experience?

What it reveals

Emotional intelligence, motivational ability, empathy, and how they handle team morale challenges.

Follow-up questions

• •What specifically did you do?
• •How did you measure if it worked?

What it reveals

Self-awareness about delegation, accountability, how they handle mistakes in leadership, and learning from failure.

Follow-up questions

• •What did you do when you realized it wasn't going well?
• •What did you learn?

What it reveals

Advocacy skills, communication with executives, ability to synthesize information, and political awareness.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you prepare?
• •What was the outcome?

What it reveals

Talent identification, investment in succession, willingness to develop others who may eventually surpass them.

Follow-up questions

• •What potential did you see?
• •How did you help them grow?

What it reveals

Comfort with ambiguity, decision-making with incomplete information, how they provide stability for others.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you make decisions without all the information?
• •How did you communicate with your team?

What it reveals

Strategic thinking, initiative, execution ability, and impact beyond immediate responsibilities.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you get resources and support?
• •What was the measurable impact?

What it reveals

Adaptability, self-awareness, understanding that different situations require different approaches.

Follow-up questions

• •What prompted the change?
• •How did your team respond?

What it reveals

Courage, feedback skills, ability to have difficult conversations with people who are otherwise succeeding.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you approach the conversation?
• •How did they receive it?

What it reveals

Vision-setting, communication, ability to create meaning and direction, and inspirational leadership.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you communicate the vision?
• •How did you know people were inspired?

What it reveals

Problem-solving depth, analytical thinking, creativity, and how they define and approach complexity.

Follow-up questions

• •Walk me through your approach.
• •What made it complex?

What it reveals

Decision-making under uncertainty, risk assessment, comfort with ambiguity, and judgment.

Follow-up questions

• •What information did you have vs. what you wished you had?
• •How did it turn out?

What it reveals

Attention to detail, critical thinking, willingness to question assumptions, and proactive problem identification.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you notice it?
• •What did you do about it?

What it reveals

Persistence, learning from failure, iteration, and resilience when first attempts fail.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you approach the problem differently?
• •What did you learn?

What it reveals

Creativity within limitations, resourcefulness, prioritization, and working within real-world constraints.

Follow-up questions

• •What constraints did you face?
• •How did you work around them?

What it reveals

Analytical skills, data-driven decision making, ability to find signal in noise, and methodical approach.

Follow-up questions

• •What tools or methods did you use?
• •What insights did you find?

What it reveals

Creativity, innovative thinking, ability to see problems differently, and thinking outside conventional approaches.

Follow-up questions

• •What made your approach creative?
• •How did others respond to your solution?

What it reveals

Prioritization, judgment, ability to assess impact and urgency, and working under pressure.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you decide what to prioritize?
• •What happened with the problems you didn't prioritize?

What it reveals

Business impact orientation, ability to quantify value, and connecting problem-solving to outcomes that matter.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you quantify the impact?
• •How did you identify the opportunity?

What it reveals

Communication skills, ability to simplify, empathy for different perspectives, and bridging knowledge gaps.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you adapt your explanation?
• •How did you know they understood?

What it reveals

Proactive thinking, risk identification, foresight, and ability to anticipate issues before they become crises.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you identify the potential problem?
• •What did you do to prevent it?

What it reveals

Cross-functional collaboration, influence without authority, coordination skills, and navigating organizational complexity.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you coordinate across teams?
• •What challenges did that create?

What it reveals

Adaptability, tolerance for different approaches, ability to find common ground, and collaboration skills.

Follow-up questions

• •What was challenging about it?
• •How did you adapt?

What it reveals

Team contribution, self-awareness about role, ability to work toward shared goals, and what they value in teamwork.

Follow-up questions

• •What made the team successful?
• •What would you do differently?

What it reveals

Empathy, willingness to support others, team orientation over individual achievement, and interpersonal skills.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you approach them?
• •What was the outcome?

What it reveals

Ability to build relationships quickly, adaptability, making the best of circumstances, and professionalism.

Follow-up questions

• •What was challenging?
• •How did you build trust?

What it reveals

Team orientation, ability to prioritize collective success, selflessness, and understanding of bigger picture.

Follow-up questions

• •What did you give up?
• •How did you feel about it?

What it reveals

Initiative, continuous improvement mindset, willingness to speak up, and making team better beyond individual work.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you propose the idea?
• •What was the impact?

What it reveals

Dependency management, trust in others, communication about needs, and recognition that work is interdependent.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you manage the dependency?
• •What did you learn?

What it reveals

Awareness of team dynamics, conflict navigation, contribution to team health, and interpersonal sensitivity.

Follow-up questions

• •What made the dynamics challenging?
• •What did you do to improve them?

What it reveals

Openness to peer feedback, ego management, growth mindset, and ability to maintain relationships after difficult conversations.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you respond?
• •Did you act on the feedback?

What it reveals

Investment in team success, knowledge sharing, patience, and creating inclusive environments.

Follow-up questions

• •What did you do to help them?
• •What did you learn from the experience?

What it reveals

Ability to work across disciplines, communication with different functions, and understanding of how their work connects to others.

Follow-up questions

• •What was your role?
• •What was challenging about the cross-functional aspect?

What it reveals

Disagree-and-commit ability, team orientation, professionalism, and understanding when to advocate vs. support.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you express your disagreement?
• •How did you support the decision once made?

What it reveals

Conflict resolution skills, emotional intelligence, directness, and ability to maintain working relationships.

Follow-up questions

• •What caused the conflict?
• •What would you do differently?

What it reveals

Neutrality, facilitation skills, ability to understand multiple perspectives, and bringing people to resolution.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you stay neutral?
• •What was the outcome?

What it reveals

Assertiveness, ability to say no professionally, prioritization, and managing expectations.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you communicate your pushback?
• •How did they respond?

What it reveals

Emotional regulation, professionalism under pressure, ability to respond constructively to unfair treatment.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you determine it was unfair?
• •What did you do about it?

What it reveals

Professionalism, ability to work effectively despite interpersonal challenges, and protecting yourself while collaborating.

Follow-up questions

• •Why didn't you trust them?
• •How did you manage the situation?

What it reveals

Accountability, ownership of mistakes, how they repair relationships, and learning from errors that hurt others.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you address it with them?
• •What did you do to make it right?

What it reveals

Negotiation, ability to find win-win solutions, organizational awareness, and collaboration across competing interests.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you resolve the competing priorities?
• •What was the outcome for both teams?

What it reveals

Communication of difficult messages, managing expectations, maintaining relationships through challenges, and professionalism.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you prepare for the conversation?
• •How did they respond?

What it reveals

Handling unfair situations, assertiveness, ability to advocate for themselves while maintaining relationships.

Follow-up questions

• •What did you do about it?
• •What would you do differently?

What it reveals

Customer handling, patience, problem resolution under pressure, and maintaining professionalism when tested.

Follow-up questions

• •What made them difficult?
• •How did you resolve the situation?

What it reveals

Managing up, respectful disagreement, knowing when and how to voice concerns to authority figures.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you express your disagreement?
• •What happened?

What it reveals

Relationship repair skills, willingness to invest in fixing problems, humility, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Follow-up questions

• •What had damaged the relationship?
• •How did you rebuild trust?

What it reveals

Learning agility, resourcefulness, comfort with being a beginner, and ability to become productive quickly.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you approach learning?
• •How quickly did you become proficient?

What it reveals

Flexibility, ability to reprioritize, emotional response to change, and maintaining effectiveness through disruption.

Follow-up questions

• •What was your initial reaction?
• •How did you adjust?

What it reveals

Growth mindset, willingness to stretch, self-awareness about limitations, and how they handle discomfort.

Follow-up questions

• •What was uncomfortable about it?
• •What did you learn?

What it reveals

Change management, resilience, how they process organizational shifts, and maintaining effectiveness through transition.

Follow-up questions

• •What was the change?
• •How did you adapt?

What it reveals

Relationship with failure, learning mindset, self-awareness, and ability to extract lessons from setbacks.

Follow-up questions

• •What specifically did you learn?
• •How did you apply that learning?

What it reveals

Flexibility, ownership, willingness to do what's needed, and how they handle ambiguity in role scope.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you approach the new responsibilities?
• •What was the outcome?

What it reveals

Coachability, openness to growth, ability to act on feedback, and continuous improvement mindset.

Follow-up questions

• •What was the feedback?
• •How did you change?

What it reveals

Technical adaptability, learning approach, comfort with change, and ability to stay current.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you learn it?
• •What was challenging?

What it reveals

Agility, willingness to abandon sunk costs, pragmatism, and responsiveness to new information.

Follow-up questions

• •What triggered the pivot?
• •How did you manage the transition?

What it reveals

Stress management, performance under pressure, coping mechanisms, and maintaining quality when stakes are high.

Follow-up questions

• •What was the pressure?
• •How did you manage it?

What it reveals

Organizational awareness, pattern recognition, proactive preparation, and strategic thinking.

Follow-up questions

• •How did you see it coming?
• •What did you do to prepare?

What it reveals

Intellectual humility, ability to let go of old ways, continuous improvement, and growth over ego.

Follow-up questions

• •What did you have to unlearn?
• •What made the new approach better?