A searchable bank of common interview questions, grouped by type, with what interviewers are looking for and how to answer each one.
The question bank
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What they are looking for: A clear, relevant summary and whether you can communicate concisely.
How to answer: Give a one-minute story: where you are now, two or three achievements that fit the role, and why you are interested in this job. Avoid your life story.
What they are looking for: Whether your career has direction and how your experience matches the role.
How to answer: Tell it in order as a story, spending most of the time on the roles most relevant to this job. Explain why you made each move.
What they are looking for: Evidence that you did your homework and care about the job.
How to answer: Mention what the organisation does, who it serves, a recent development, and one thing that appeals to you about it.
What they are looking for: Genuine motivation and a realistic understanding of the job.
How to answer: Connect specific parts of the job description to your skills and goals. Be positive and specific.
What they are looking for: Whether you chose them deliberately or are applying everywhere.
How to answer: Refer to values, products, reputation, culture or growth, backed by something you read or heard.
What they are looking for: A simple icebreaker; sometimes a check on how you search.
How to answer: Answer honestly and briefly, then add what made it stand out.
What they are looking for: Professionalism and whether you will speak badly about employers.
How to answer: Focus on what you are moving towards, such as new challenges or development. Never criticise a previous employer.
What they are looking for: Ambition that fits the role and some commitment to the organisation.
How to answer: Describe growth in skills and responsibility that this job could support. You do not need an exact job title.
What they are looking for: Whether what drives you matches what the job offers.
How to answer: Pick two or three genuine motivators, such as solving problems or helping customers, and give a short example of each.
What they are looking for: Cultural fit and self-awareness.
How to answer: Be honest and flexible. Link your answer to what you learned about the team or organisation.
What they are looking for: A confident summary of your match to the role.
How to answer: Give three points: relevant experience, a key strength, and the value you will add. Keep it factual.
What they are looking for: Realism and whether you researched the market.
How to answer: Research typical pay for the role, give a range, and say you are open to discussing the full package.
What they are looking for: Self-awareness and relevance to the role.
How to answer: Choose two or three strengths the job needs and back each with a short example.
What they are looking for: Honesty and whether you work on improving.
How to answer: Choose a real, manageable weakness, then explain what you are doing about it and the progress you have made. Avoid disguised strengths.
What they are looking for: What you value and the scale of what you can do.
How to answer: Pick a relevant achievement. Explain the challenge, your actions and the measurable result, using STAR.
What they are looking for: Self-awareness and how you work with others.
How to answer: Use feedback you have genuinely received, ideally with a quote or an example.
What they are looking for: Personality, balance and transferable skills.
How to answer: Be genuine. Mention interests that show skills such as teamwork, organisation or resilience.
What they are looking for: Whether you want to learn and develop.
How to answer: Name a skill, say how you are building it, and link it to how it will help in this role.
What they are looking for: Your role, how you support others, and the team result.
How to answer: Use STAR. Be clear about your own contribution, not only what "we" did.
What they are looking for: Maturity and how you handle conflict.
How to answer: Show you listened, stayed professional and found a constructive outcome. Avoid blaming the other person.
What they are looking for: Fairness, directness and support.
How to answer: Describe speaking to the person privately first, offering help, and escalating only if needed.
What they are looking for: Clarity and empathy.
How to answer: Show how you adapted your language to the listener and checked their understanding.
What they are looking for: Patience and emotional intelligence.
How to answer: Explain what you did to understand them and what changed.
What they are looking for: Whether you are open to feedback.
How to answer: Say you welcome it, give an example of feedback you acted on, and the result.
What they are looking for: Resilience and problem-solving.
How to answer: Describe the challenge, the options you considered, what you did and what you learned.
What they are looking for: Honesty, accountability and learning.
How to answer: Own it, explain how you fixed it and what you changed afterwards. A small, real mistake is better than none.
What they are looking for: Organisation and calm under pressure.
How to answer: Describe how you plan, prioritise, communicate early and ask for help when needed, with an example.
What they are looking for: Coping strategies and results.
How to answer: Use STAR. Show how you stayed organised and looked after quality.
What they are looking for: Judgement and planning.
How to answer: Explain a method such as urgency and importance, and give an example of using it.
What they are looking for: Adaptability and learning style.
How to answer: Show how you approached it, who you asked for help, and how quickly you became effective.
What they are looking for: Influence, even without a formal title.
How to answer: Informal leadership counts: guiding a project, helping a new starter or taking responsibility when no one else did.
What they are looking for: Initiative and commitment.
How to answer: Choose an example where your extra effort led to a measurable benefit.
What they are looking for: Initiative and practical thinking.
How to answer: Explain what you noticed, what you changed, and the time or quality improvement that followed.
What they are looking for: Flexibility and positivity.
How to answer: Show how you adapted and helped others to do the same.
What they are looking for: People skills and awareness of different needs.
How to answer: Give an example of adjusting your approach to what a person needed.
What they are looking for: Influence and evidence-based reasoning.
How to answer: Describe how you listened first, presented your case and reached agreement.
What they are looking for: Respect for authority combined with honesty.
How to answer: Say you would raise it privately and respectfully with evidence, then support the final decision.
What they are looking for: Honesty and early communication.
How to answer: Explain that you would tell the right people early, explain the cause and propose a realistic plan.
What they are looking for: Planning and humility.
How to answer: Focus on listening, learning, building relationships and delivering a few early, visible wins.
What they are looking for: Empathy and problem-solving.
How to answer: Describe listening, acknowledging the problem, finding a fix and following up.
What they are looking for: Prioritisation and communication.
How to answer: Say you would clarify the real deadlines and impact, and tell both people what to expect.
What they are looking for: Integrity and judgement.
How to answer: Explain you would check the facts, raise it through the right channel and follow policy.
What they are looking for: Whether you understand values-based recruitment.
How to answer: NHS interviews often check values such as respect and dignity, compassion and commitment to quality of care. Give examples from your own experience.
What they are looking for: Care for the customer and ownership of problems.
How to answer: Use STAR and highlight how you went further than the minimum.
What they are looking for: Fairness, diversity and inclusion.
How to answer: Show how you listened, stayed impartial and the outcome for the person.
What they are looking for: Trustworthiness and data protection awareness.
How to answer: Describe practical habits, such as sharing only with those who need to know, and following the rules.
What they are looking for: Behaviour-based answers aligned to Civil Service Success Profiles.
How to answer: Civil Service interviews often assess behaviours and strengths. Use STAR and tie your answer to the behaviour named in the advert.
What they are looking for: Commitment to public service.
How to answer: Link your motivation to serving communities, and give an example of when public benefit mattered to you.
What they are looking for: Interest and preparation.
How to answer: Prepare two or three: how success is measured, what the team is working on, and what training is offered.
What they are looking for: Practical availability.
How to answer: State your notice period clearly and say if there is flexibility.
What they are looking for: Your market position and your interest in them.
How to answer: Be honest without oversharing. Confirm that this role is a strong interest for you.
What they are looking for: A last chance to leave a strong impression.
How to answer: Briefly restate your fit for the role and your enthusiasm.
What they are looking for: Practical fit.
How to answer: Answer honestly. If you need adjustments, say so calmly and ask what is possible.
What they are looking for: Curiosity and professional development.
How to answer: Name specific sources, courses or communities you use regularly.
Reading answers is not the same as saying them. Pick five questions from this list, structure your answers with the STAR answer worksheet, then rehearse with an AI mock interview that scores your answers and shows model responses. Our guide to the STAR method explains the structure in detail.
FAQ
You do not need to memorise answers to all of them. Prepare a handful of strong stories using the STAR method that you can adapt to different questions, and practise the common opening and closing questions.
"Tell me about yourself", "Why do you want this job?", "What are your strengths and weaknesses?", questions that start "Tell me about a time…", and "Do you have any questions for us?" come up very often.
Good questions cover how success is measured in the role, what the team is working on, what training and development is offered, and what the first few months look like.
No. The tips show what interviewers look for and how to structure your answer. Your own real examples will always be more convincing than a script.
Rehearse your answers with an AI interviewer and get a scorecard for every question.