The questions you are most likely to get, why they are asked, and how to answer. For a specific posting, open the job and use “Prepare for this job” to get them personalised to your resume.
1. Walk me through the architecture of a system you built. What would you change today? technical
Why they ask: Design judgement.
How to answer: Draw it, name the trade-offs, say what you learned.
2. How do you make a slow endpoint fast? technical
Why they ask: Debugging method.
How to answer: Measure first, then caching, queries, indexes, async work.
3. How do you test code you are about to ship? technical
Why they ask: Quality habits.
How to answer: Unit, integration, and what you would not test.
4. Tell me about yourself and why this role. behavioural
Why they ask: Opener to see how you frame your story.
How to answer: Two minutes: current role, one achievement that matches this job, why this company now.
5. Describe a project you are proud of and your exact role in it. behavioural
Why they ask: Checks ownership and depth.
How to answer: Use situation, action, result. Quantify the result.
6. Tell me about a time something went wrong. What did you do? behavioural
Why they ask: Tests accountability and learning.
How to answer: Pick a real failure, own your part, show the fix and what changed afterwards.
7. How do you prioritise when everything is urgent? behavioural
Why they ask: Checks judgement under pressure.
How to answer: Describe a concrete framework and one example of a trade-off you made.
8. Why are you leaving your current role? behavioural
Why they ask: Looks for red flags and motivation.
How to answer: Stay positive: what you want next, not what you dislike.