Common interview questions — and how to actually answer them
The same questions come up in almost every interview. That works in your favour: a predictable question is a question you can prepare. But preparing does not mean memorising a script — it means understanding what the question measures, then answering with your own experience.
Before any question: the interview starts from your CV
Most interview questions are not generic. They are taken from your own page. The interviewer opens your CV and asks about what is on it: where did this number come from, why did you move here, what did you do in this year?
Which means every line you wrote is a possible question. If you wrote "cut month-end close from 10 days to 5", be ready to explain exactly how. And if you cannot defend a number, do not put it there.
The best preparation you can do the night before is not reading question lists. It is reading your own CV line by line and asking: what is the story behind this line?
Never put a number on your CV you cannot tell the story of in one minute.
1. "Tell me about yourself"
The most common question and the most wasted. Most people answer with a life story from university to today, or with generic traits: "I'm ambitious and I love a challenge."
The interviewer is not asking about your life. They are asking why you fit this job specifically — and giving you two minutes to frame the rest of the conversation.
Use three parts: where you are professionally, the achievement most relevant to this role, and why you are applying. Ninety seconds is enough.
- Present: "I've been a financial accountant for six years, the last three in construction."
- Evidence: "I led the move of month-end close to SAP and cut it from 10 days to 5."
- Reason: "Your posting focuses on improving close procedures, which is what I actually work on."
2. "What is your greatest weakness?"
This is less a trap than a self-awareness test. The interviewer has heard "I'm a perfectionist" and "I work too hard" hundreds of times, and both read as evasion rather than as an answer.
A good answer names a real weakness that does not disqualify you for the job, then — the part that matters — what you do about it.
For example: "Delegating was hard for me. I reviewed everything myself and became the bottleneck. Now I split the work and keep one review point in the middle rather than checking every step."
The rule: a real weakness plus what you did about it. Without the second half you have only described a problem.
3. "Why did you leave your last job?"
The only real danger here is criticism. Any negative word about a former manager or colleagues reads as a warning: this is how you will talk about us later.
Point the answer forward rather than backward — what you are looking for, not what you escaped. "I wanted to work on ERP systems at a larger scale, and that was not available there" is both honest and neutral.
If you were let go, say so plainly and briefly, then move on. Talking around it takes longer than saying it.
4. "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
There is one worry behind this question: will you stay? Hiring is expensive, and the interviewer wants to know whether this job is a stop along the way or a step in a path.
You do not need a life plan. You need to connect your ambition to the natural path inside this role: "moving from senior accountant to leading the close team" answers the worry precisely.
Avoid both extremes: "I don't know" reads as having no direction, and "running my own company" reads as an announced departure.
5. "Tell me about a difficult situation you handled"
This is a behavioural question, and it has a known answer shape: the situation, the task, what you did, the result. It is called STAR, and its real value is that it stops you rambling.
The most common mistake is answering in the plural. The interviewer is assessing your contribution, so if every sentence is "we decided" and "we built", they learn nothing about what you did.
End with the result, and put a number on it if you can. "It worked out fine" is not a result; "we delivered on schedule with no extra cost" is.
- Situation: the context, in one sentence
- Task: what specifically was on you
- Action: what you did — in the singular
- Result: what changed, with a number where one exists
6. "What salary are you expecting?"
The hardest question, and the one that costs or earns the most. The practical rule: whoever names a number first sets the ceiling.
If it comes early it is fine to defer: "I'd rather understand the scope first. Do you have a range for this role?" Many companies have one and will say it.
If pressed, give a range rather than a single figure, and base it on real research into your market rather than on your current salary — anchoring your ask to your last pay fixes you at an old number.
A range, not a number — and based on the market, not on what you earn now.
7. "Do you have any questions for us?"
"No, everything is clear" is the worst available answer. It reads as disinterest and wastes your last chance to leave an impression.
Bring three questions, and ask about the work rather than the perks. Perks are discussed after an offer; right now you are still being assessed.
- "What does a successful first 90 days look like in this role?"
- "What is the biggest challenge the team is facing right now?"
- "Why is the role open — growth or a replacement?"
- "What are the next steps, and when should I expect to hear back?"
Remote interviews: things that ruin them with nothing to do with your answers
Most first interviews now happen on video, which adds a layer of things that can sink you while you are giving excellent answers.
Test the call the day before, not five minutes before — a microphone that does not work will eat the first ten minutes of your interview.
- Camera at eye level, not below it
- Light in front of your face, not behind you — a window at your back turns you into a silhouette
- Look at the lens when you speak, not at your own thumbnail
- Keep your CV and the job posting open in front of you — that is video's one advantage, use it
- Have a fallback ready: mobile data if the connection drops
After the interview
A short thank-you note within 24 hours keeps you memorable and costs five minutes. Three lines is enough: thanks, one sentence connecting what you discussed to what you can contribute, and an offer to supply anything else.
If you hear nothing by the date you were given, one polite follow-up after a week is entirely reasonable. A second and third one work against you.
There is no single model answer to any of these, but there is an answer shape: understand what the question measures, answer with an example from your own work, and finish with a result. Prepare seven stories from your CV that cover these questions and you will find most interviews are built out of them.