Common behavioral interview questions, and what each one asks

How to use these behavioral interview questions

A behavioral question asks what you did, not what you would do. Amazon says behavioral questions “help us understand how you approach challenges, make decisions, and work with others” (Amazon’s interview loop page). The wording changes from one interviewer to the next, but the theme behind it is what you’re answering.

The questions below are practice questions written by MockRun, some of them from its Leadership Principles page. They aren’t any company’s interview questions, and MockRun is independent and not affiliated with Amazon. Use them to find a true story for each theme, not to memorize answers.

For how to shape the answer itself, read how to answer behavioral interview questions. Interviewing at Amazon? What to expect in an Amazon loop interview explains how Amazon ties its behavioral questions to its Leadership Principles.

Questions about a failure or mistake

• Describe a mistake you told someone about before they discovered it themselves. What happened next?
• When did you need to rebuild someone's trust after missing a commitment? Explain what you did over time.
• Tell me about a call you got wrong. When did you notice, and what did you change?

What it asks for: a real failure where your own decision was part of the cause, how soon you raised it, what you did to limit the damage and what you changed afterwards. Read how to answer “Tell me about a time you failed”.

Questions about a conflict with a coworker

• Tell me about a time you and a coworker wanted different things from the same piece of work. How did you settle it?
• Describe a working relationship with a peer that started badly. How did you turn it around?
• Tell me about a disagreement with someone on another team whose help you needed. What did you do first?

What it asks for: a disagreement you can tie to the work rather than a clash of personalities, the other person’s view stated fairly, how you raised it, and how the work and the relationship went afterwards. Read how to answer “Tell me about a conflict with a coworker”.

Questions about leading without a title

• Tell me about a time you got people who didn’t report to you to agree on a plan. How did you bring them along?
• Describe a project you ran without being anyone’s manager. How did you keep it on track?
• Tell me about helping a colleague become able to handle a task independently. What did you do as they learned?

What it asks for: something you chose to take on, and how you won people over without authority over them. The decisions you drove count for more than a title. Read how to answer leadership questions when you don’t manage anyone.

Questions about disagreeing and committing

• Describe a proposal you challenged when the people around you supported it. What evidence did you bring?
• Tell me about a decision you disagreed with but then helped carry out. What did your support look like in practice?
• Tell me about a time you argued against your manager’s plan and it went ahead anyway. What did you do next?

What it asks for: a challenge made with evidence and respect and, when the question asks for it, real support once the decision went the other way. Read the exact question, because some ask only about pushing back. See the disagree and commit interview example.

Questions about a customer problem

• Describe a customer complaint that revealed a need your team had missed. How did you respond?
• When did you change a planned improvement after seeing how customers actually used the product or service?
• Tell me about a customer problem that another team had caused. What part of the fix did you own?

What it asks for: how you found out what the customer needed, first-hand where you could, and what you changed for them, even when it cost your team time or effort. For a worked answer, see the customer problem example.

Questions about a tight deadline

• When did a delivery date become difficult to meet? Explain what you prioritized and what you delivered.
• Describe work that stalled because an important dependency was unresolved. What did you do to get a useful result?
• Tell me about a time you saw that a deadline was going to slip. Who did you tell, and when?

What it asks for: the decisions that protected the date, such as what you cut or reordered, which risk you dealt with first and who you told about the trade-off. Long hours alone don’t answer it. For a worked answer, see the tight deadline example.

Questions about a decision with incomplete information

• Describe a decision you made before all the information was available. How did you limit the downside?
• When did a small experiment help you make progress while a larger decision was still unresolved?
• Tell me about a decision where two credible sources pointed in different directions. How did you decide what to do?

What it asks for: what you knew and what you didn’t, why waiting would have cost more than deciding, and how you limited the risk of being wrong. For a worked answer, see the incomplete data example.

Questions about learning something new

• When did a task require knowledge you did not yet have? Describe how you learned enough to move it forward.
• Describe something you explored beyond your usual work that later changed how you solved a problem.
• Tell me about a time you had to get up to speed on an unfamiliar area quickly. How did you check that you had it right?

What it asks for: how you learned, not only what. Say where you looked, who you asked, how you checked your understanding and what you did with it. The Leadership Principles page lists the details interviewers listen for under Learn and Be Curious.

Questions about going beyond your role

• Tell me about a problem that sat between two teams. What did you take responsibility for?
• Describe a decision where you accepted more work now to prevent a problem for the next person responsible.
• Describe a small recurring error that others had learned to work around. What did you change to prevent it?

What it asks for: a problem outside your job that you noticed and took on, why you chose to, and whether you saw it through instead of handing it off. Amazon’s Ownership principle says leaders “never say ‘that’s not my job’” (Amazon Leadership Principles). See what interviewers listen for under Ownership.

How to practice behavioral interview questions out loud

Reading a list of questions won’t show you where your story is thin. Telling it out loud and answering a follow-up will.

1. Choose one question per theme. Pick the wording that fits a true story of yours.
2. Tell the story aloud. Spend most of it on what you did and why.
3. Answer follow-ups. Ask a friend to probe what you did yourself and how you know it worked.
4. Retell it with one change. Add the detail the follow-ups found missing.

In MockRun you answer one question out loud or by typing, then get one follow-up at a time about the story you just told. The debrief quotes your words and names one detail to explain next.

To practice three of these themes together, start a focused session on Earn Trust, Deliver Results and Bias for Action (3 questions · about 30 min). Those principles match the failure, deadline and incomplete-information themes above, and the session asks its own questions, so you won’t know the wording in advance. For what may come next, read behavioral interview follow-up questions.