Job interviews: 15 common questions and how to answer them

The STAR method is the backbone

Before we get to the questions: learn STAR. It is the structure that makes your answers concrete and easy to follow.

• S, Situation: Where were you, what was the context?
• T, Task: What needed to be done?
• A, Action: What you did, specifically. Not "we", but "I".
• R, Result: What was the outcome? With numbers if possible.

Every behavioural story should have all four. 60 to 90 seconds in total.

Prepare 3 to 5 stories from your working life that cover different themes: a conflict you resolved, a mistake you made and learnt from, a project you led, a time you worked across teams, and a time you had to prioritise under pressure. These five cover 80 per cent of the questions.

The questions below come up in most interviews, whatever the industry. If you are applying for a senior developer role, system design and technical trade-offs come up as well.

1. Tell us a little about yourself

The most common question, and the one people struggle with most.

It isn't an invitation to tell your life story. It is a 60 to 90 second elevator pitch, structured like this:

1. Where you are now (your current role, briefly).
2. How you got there (1 or 2 important stops).
3. Why you are here, in this interview.

Example:

I currently work as a product owner at a Norwegian fintech company, where we build mobile banking for small businesses. Before that I spent 5 years at Visma, first as a business analyst, then as product owner for the accounting module. What I enjoy is working closely with customers to understand the problem before we move on to the solution. That is why I became interested in this role, because you describe exactly that way of working in the ad.

That's it. No more, no less.

2. Why do you want to work here?

Not "because you have a good reputation" or "because I need a new challenge". Be specific.

The structure that works:

1. One specific thing you have learnt about the company (product, strategy, customer segment, culture).
2. Why exactly that resonates with you.
3. How your experience connects.

I noticed that you moved from monthly to continuous delivery last year, from the CTO's blog post. It is the same process we went through in my current role, and it was the phase I learnt the most from professionally. The chance to continue from where you are now is what draws me to this position.

3. What are your strengths?

Don't list five strengths. Choose one or two, and prove them.

I am quick to understand new fields. In my last job I was put on a project in medical billing, a field I knew nothing about. Within three weeks I had read up on it, interviewed two subject experts and written the specification we delivered on. The project was delivered two weeks ahead of schedule.

STAR in a nutshell. That is the whole answer.

4. What are your weaknesses?

The question most often answered badly. Avoid:

• "I am a perfectionist" (outdated, and nobody believes it)
• "I work too much" (says you are bad at boundaries)
• "I have no weaknesses" (instant disqualification)

The answer that works: a real weakness, and what you concretely do about it.

I say yes to too much. I discovered that early in my current role, when I had 14 parallel cases and delivered average work on all of them. Now I use a simple rule: before I say yes, I write down what I have to say no to first. It has helped, but it is still something I need to be aware of every week.

5. Tell us about a time you made a mistake

Not a "hidden strength". A real mistake.

I launched a price change without checking with customer service first. They got 40 complaints on the first day, and wasted two weeks handling something we could have foreseen with one 15-minute conversation with them before the release. Since then I have made talking to the customer service team beforehand a fixed part of the launch checklist.

Mistake, consequence, lesson. Done.

6. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

People hate this question, but it is easy if you do two things:

1. Be honest, but don't talk about this company specifically.
2. Link the answer to a professional direction, not a title.

In 5 years I hope to have developed depth in B2B product work, especially where sales and product meet. I don't see myself becoming CPO, but I do see myself leading a professional community around product discovery and validation.

7. Why are you leaving your current job?

Don't speak badly of your previous employer, even if they deserve it. It comes across as petty, and the recruiter thinks you may do the same about them in a year.

Use forward-looking language:

I have been at [current employer] for 3 years and have learnt a lot, especially on the commercial side. What I miss is more work on the product itself, and the role with you has exactly that emphasis.

If the reason is something negative (a conflict with management, a poor culture), reframe it as what you are looking for, not what you are running from.

8. Do you have any questions for us?

Never say no. It reads as a lack of interest.

Prepare 4 to 6 questions before the interview. Good categories:

• About the role: "What does a typical week look like for the person in this position?"
• About the team: "How does the team make decisions when people disagree?"
• About the company: "What is the most important change you have made in the past year, and why?"
• About development: "What is the longest anyone in a similar role has stayed here?"

Avoid in the first interview:

• Questions about salary, holidays, working from home (unless the recruiter brings them up).
• Questions you could have googled in 30 seconds.

9. Tell us about a conflict with a colleague

This checks whether you are grown-up. The answer needs three elements:

1. A real disagreement (not "it was really a misunderstanding").
2. How you approached it.
3. What you learnt, whatever the outcome.

A tech lead and I disagreed about prioritising technical debt versus new features. He thought we should spend 30 per cent of each sprint on debt, I thought 10 per cent, with bigger refactoring done in dedicated periods. We set aside an hour over coffee to go through the arguments, and I realised he had historical data I hadn't seen. We landed on 20 per cent, and I changed how I set up discussions about prioritisation, I now always ask for data before I form an opinion.

10. How do you handle pressure and deadlines?

Not "I love pressure". That means nothing.

I try to stop things from turning into fires. In practice: every Monday I go through the week's deliveries and flag what already looks tight. When things pile up anyway, I ask whether one thing can be postponed or delegated. Last October we had a parallel product launch and a compliance requirement with a fixed deadline, so I escalated to my manager early and we got an extra developer for two weeks. Both deliveries went out on time.

11. Tell us about a project you are proud of

Choose one, not three. Use STAR. Be a little personal about the result.

I led the redesign of the onboarding flow in my current job. The challenge was that 40 per cent of users dropped out before they reached their first "aha moment". We did 8 user interviews, mapped the drop-off points and reworked the flow over 3 sprints. Drop-off fell to 22 per cent. I am proud because it was my first project where I insisted on spending time on user interviews first, something I had skipped before.

12. What motivates you?

Not "money" (even if it is true). Not "helping people" (vague).

I am motivated by working on problems that are complex enough that the answer isn't obvious, but concrete enough that you can measure whether you have solved them. Flexibility to work from home and a team I respect also matter a lot, but it is that kind of problem that I burn out without.

13. Why should we hire you?

Not "because I am the best". Not "that's for you to decide".

Give them three points:

Three reasons: I have worked directly on the problem you describe for the past 3 years, so you get less training time. I am used to working in teams with a lot of autonomy, which matches what you describe as your culture. And I have written down three concrete hypotheses about where you could work smarter, if you would like to hear them in the next interview.

The last sentence, the hypotheses you have prepared, makes you stand out.

14. What do you know about us?

A test of whether you have prepared. Have these ready:

• What the company sells, and to whom.
• Something specific they have done in the past year (a product, an acquisition, a change).
• Who a competitor is, and how the company differentiates itself.

You are built in Norway and focus on small and medium-sized businesses in the Nordics. In November you launched an integration with Fiken, and shifted your focus from pure accounting features towards HR and personnel administration. Your main competitor is Simployer, which you differentiate yourselves from with simpler onboarding and more tailoring to Norwegian conditions. Have I understood that correctly?

The last sentence, "have I understood that correctly", is smart. It invites correction and signals humility.

15. When can you start?

Simple, but people answer it badly.

• If you are employed: "I have a 3-month notice period, so [date] at the earliest."
• If you are not working: "At short notice, I can start within 2 weeks."
• If you are flexible: "I can adapt to whatever suits you best, within reason."

Don't lie about your notice period to seem available. It gets found out.

The last 10 minutes of the interview

The recruiter asks "do you have any questions for us?" You ask your 2 to 4 prepared questions. Afterwards:

1. Ask about the process ahead. "What is the next step, and when can I expect to hear from you?"
2. Thank them for their time, briefly and sincerely.
3. Take notes as soon as you are outside. Who was there, what the main topics were, what your impression was.

Within 24 hours: send a short thank-you email. 3 to 5 sentences, a personal reference to something from the conversation, and confirmation that you are interested.

If it goes further, a reference check is often one of the last steps before an offer. Prepare your references before they get the call.

What nobody tells you

An interview isn't an exam. It is a conversation where both parties consider whether they want to work together.

If the interviewer is arrogant, unprepared or disrespectful, that is data about the company. You are choosing them too. Not every job offer should be accepted, even though every interview should be properly prepared for.

So: prepare your questions, practise your STAR stories, sleep well, and show up as yourself. The rest takes care of itself.