Identifying what types of interview questions you’ve been asked can help you shape your answer. It gives you an idea of what kind of detail the interviewer is expecting you to respond with.
Common types of interview questions include:
Motivational questions
Used to assess how interested you are in the role, company, and industry, motivational questions are some of the easiest to identify. They may start with ‘Why are you interested’ or ‘What appeals to you’.
Behavioural or competency questions
Designed to discover your past experience or behaviours, these questions often specifically ask for an example or start with ‘tell us a time’. By asking this style of question, interviewers want you to demonstrate how you’ve used your skills and experience to approach things in previous working environments. What you’ve done in the past can be an indicator of how competent you’ll be in the role you’re interviewing for.
Situational questions
Based more on hypothetical situations than those above, these questions are another chance to show how you might behave in the role. It’s harder to prepare for a situational question, but it’s likely they’ll ask you about scenarios that could conceivably await you in the new role – any skills listed in the job description might give you some clues. In your response, you need to address the situation and describe how you would handle it. It can be easy to confuse behavioural and situational questions, but there are subtle differences. For example:
- You’ve spotted a mistake made by your colleague on a project. Would what you do? (situational)
- Tell us about a time you’ve had to address a mistake made by a colleague (behavioural)
Technical questions
The only type of question we won’t cover in our list of common interview questions, technical questions will relate to the job requirements specifically – and your ability to fulfil them. They will be very industry-dependent. In your answer, you’ll be required to show knowledge and evidence you know what you’re doing. Examples of technical questions could be ‘How would you calculate a company’s revenue?’ or ‘What marketing strategy would you advise for a non-profit organisation?’
Not all interview questions will fall into these categories and there’s often overlap in the way interviewers ask different types of questions. But by preparing for a range of common questions, you can improve how confident you feel ahead of your interview. Of course, there will always be some element of thinking on your feet, but we’re going to go through some of the trickier questions in more detail.