Types of Interview Questions and How To Answer Them

Are you worried about coming professional interview and don’t know how to begin preparing for it? 

Planning for all types of eventualities that might be thrown your way is important while preparing for any interview such as Infosys interview preparation, Facebook interview preparation,etc. 

In this blog, we’ll be highlighting three types of interview questions that you might face in your professional job interview while giving you cues on how to answer them flawlessly! 

What are the Different Types of Interview Questions? 

To make things simple for you to comprehend, let’s break down the three types of interview questions and their importance. 

This will help applicants understand the demand of the question and what the interviewer is seeking as an answer. 

Interview Question Type

Importance 

Competency-Based

These questions will test your knowledge, skills, and drive towards helping the company reach new heights in its industrial niche. 

Situational

Here, the examiner will give you an opportunity to leave them stunned with your problem solving approach towards the given case scenarios. 

Behavioural

These types of questions will judge your overall personality and your ability to handle difficult situations. It will help the interviewer understand how you handle challenges that come along during your hiring period at the company. 

Competency-Based Interview Questions 

As mentioned in the above table, competency-based questions are meant to assess;  the knowledge, skills, problem-solving abilities, and other attributes of a candidate. 

For example; To assess your ability to handle critical situations, the interviewer may ask you to elaborate about a previous professional role wherein you’ve helped solve a problem.

Furthermore, interviewers also assess the decision making abilities of the candidate through such questions. They look to build a professional rapport with the applicant to understand how they’ll behave with their colleagues. 

Competency-based questions can often overlap with the situation-based questions. However, contrary to the situation-based questions, the former is far less hypothetical. They’re based on real-life examples to test your competency and approach towards problem-solving. 

Example 1: Tell us about a time you used your creativity and skills to solve a problem? 

How to answer: Creativity is a quality that enables you to come up with striking solutions to a problem that no other colleague will be able to. Therefore, through this question, the interviewer is looking for you to elaborate upon your problem-solving approach. The  STAR acronym will help you frame an immaculate answer for such questions. Here’s how you can use it: 

Situation: Describe the details pertaining to your example.Task: Describe your responsibility during problem-solving.Action: Explain the steps you took to assess the problem.Result: Share the outcome of your actions. 

Example 2: Tell us about a time when you helped a struggling colleague overcome his/her challenges. 

How to answer: Again, the STAR acronym is going to help you structure the perfect response to this question. Here, the interviewer is looking for signs of empathy, compassion, and teamwork in your response. They want to know how you helped propel the growth of business along with helping your troubled colleague. 

Pro tip: Read up the job profile and its roles and responsibilities thoroughly before the interview.

Situation-Based Interview Questions 

Situation-based interview questions revolve around hypothetical case scenarios that you might encounter during your time at the company. These questions are meant to be a curveball and steer you away from the standard and scripted interview answers. 

A situation-based interview question can be a nightmare for an unprepared applicant because they require you to be prompt with your thinking skills. Answering such questions will make the interviewer believe that you can become a leader at your job and stay calm under pressure. 

Before answering any situation-based question, take a moment to fully comprehend the question and the skills the interviewer is seeking in a candidate. 

Example 1: Imagine a situation where your colleague has made a grave mistake at work and you’re the only one who knows about it. How will you handle such a situation? 

How to answer: Avoid creating an impression that you want to absolve yourself of the role and responsibility that comes with such situations. Instead, make the interviewer understand how you will be willing to take full ownership of the situation and find a positive solution calmly. 

Example 2: Tell us about a mistake you’ve committed at your previous jobs. 

How to answer: Here, the interviewer seeks an honest candidate for the company. You’re a human and hence, making mistakes is inevitable. The refusal to admit your past work mistakes can create a negative impression. Hence, you must be honest and create an impression that you’re willing to reflect on your mistakes and learn from them in the future. 

Behavioural Interview Questions 

The behavioural interview questions gauge whether or not you have the behavioural traits that the job profile demands. Such questions are asked to predict the future behaviour of the candidate while dealing with tough situations. 

They also help the interviewer understand whether or not a candidate is a team player, has relevant time management skills, can adapt to the work culture, etc. 

Example 1: Tell us about an idea that you tried but didn’t work for the best and what did you learn from this situation? 

How to answer: We talked about creativity in the above sections but what’s important to understand here is that not all of your creative ideas will be a home run. Therefore, whenever the interviewer asks these questions, be humble in your reply. Show them that you’ve learnt from your mistakes. Also, tell them how this learning experience shaped your future ideas for the company. 

Example 2: Tell us about the time when you had an amazing idea that you knew would hit it out of the ballpark but still had to stick to the company’s guidelines. 

How to answer: The best way to answer this question is to show the interviewer that you’re a team player and you’ll always do what’s best for the team rather than what’s best for yourself. 

Conclusion 

It is important for applicants to understand that not all the questions asked in the interview will fall into the above three categories. Some questions might be overlapping between multiple categories and some might be totally out of the blue. 

Bearing these types of questions in mind during major interviews such as  Infosys interview preparation will surely help you deliver a powerful impact on the interviewer!

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