Top 22 Competency Based Interview Questions with Sample Answers

Below you will find 22 of the most widespread competency based interview questions that interviewers like to utilise, and sample answers in order to help you handle the question quickly and effectively to secure you the role you desire.

1. Has anything happened to you like you has made some poor decisions or has done something that just did not turn out right?
Answer: Always try to avoid question like this which will show your inefficiency if answered so you can say no that there is nothing happened in your like this. But keep your answer positive and don't give them any doubt that you are hiding anything.

2. What do you believe in hard work or smart work?
Answer: Same as the last question you need to tell your interviewer that what you actually prefer while working, hard work or smart work. What is best for you, hard work or smart work? As you know in today's world person achieving success soon is only possible by doing smart work while on the other side hard work make it a long process. According to me everyone must work smartly than hardly working which would pay you on along run. So what do you think which one do you prefer working smartly or working hard and same you need to discuss with your interviewer with reasons that why.

3. Tell me about the time when you had difficulties in the past with your supervisor.
Answer: This question is to determine your future actions by knowing your past actions so be careful while answering this question. First you need to take time to think about career and the times you have had problem with your supervisor and how you happily you dealt with it. You don't need to be too honest here because your negative answer can affect your interview. So answer in a positive way only and avoid this situation by saying no that you have never faced difficulty with your supervisors.
Example Answer: Never, I have my opinions about how much supervision, guidance and feedback i need, but never a difficulty. My supervisors have generally been my favorite co-workers. I don't like to engage in bickering and complaining that often occurs amongst unaligned team members.

4. How you respond to problems with coworkers?
Answer: Here interviewer wants to know that how you will respond to problems with coworkers. You need to answer in positive tone only. And share the steps am mentioning here to how to respond to problems with coworkers:
*Giving in
*Avoiding the conflict
*Fighting it out
*Compromising
*Working together

5. Have you ever undertook a project that demanded a lot of initiative?
Answer: Here interviewer is trying to check that how good you are in taking challenges like this and how you take no. of initiative to complete a particular project successfully. Explain the situation of this challenge by giving one example to make your answer relevant. Discuss what was so challenging for that project, what steps you took to face that challenge, how you completed that project and what the actual outcome was.
Example Answer: There was a Horsham project for them museum where you had to take images of the artifacts there. I used my own initiative and came up with ideas that no one else would think of which then helped me win the competition. 0   0

6. Suppose I will be your supervisor and asked you to do something that you disagreed with, what would you do?
Answer: Interviewer trying to find out your reality when you disagreed with any supervisor so be careful while answering this and stay positive. Tell them that you will try to communicate with you and understand the both sides than only you will create any decision. Just make it clear that you are willing to do whatever needs to be done but you are a person with principles who will not hesitate to take action against anything unethical, immoral or illegal be asked of you.

7. What would you do if you will find someone in your team is not pulling their own weight?
Answer: Interviewer wants to know that how you deal with the situation where someone is not doing his best to get the job done and do you first find reason of their not working or just start scolding them. Here you need to tell your process to how you make them work effectively and i.e. :
*Ask them what's wrong
*Inspire them
*Train them
*Give them a mentor
*Give them an easier task
Example Answer : I would try and find out why first, may be they are not feeling well. Then ask how can i of help to them to get the job done.

8. Tell me about your specific performance at you last company as a reason to hire you.
Answer: Same you need to praise your skills here to your interviewer to make them believe that you will be an asset for the company not liability. Interviewer just want strong proof for your effectiveness and effective skills that you are having which will lead to contribute in organizational goals if hired. So he/ she just want to make them sure for hiring you, they want strong reasons to hire you. So simple sell yourself that how effectively you can as same I said in another question like this which which questions your abilities and skills.

9. Tell me about the work which you did not want to do but still motivated yourself to complete it?
Answer: Here you need to describe the situation when you motivated yourself to work when you did not want to do that. Share the example of that situation and in what ways you motivated yourself. I n order to motivate yourself, you have to have some kind of reward at the end and by this also you can motivate yourself to work more. Example Answer: When I had a heavy workload which I had to complete in the same day and I did not want to complete the task but I was confident that I could get the job done the result was very effective and I was satisfied with my work.

10. What keeps you always motivated you to work hard in difficult times?
Answer: Keeping motivated yourself in difficult time is very important and the same thing your interviewer trying to see how you kept yourself motivated. There are many ways to keep yourself motivated in difficult times like:
*Take control over what you can, and stop worrying about what you can’t *Read and listen to positive information *Be with positive people as often as possible *Learn from your mistakes, instead of repeating them *Build a support team

11. Discuss about the situation when you had to address an angry client, How you handled the situation?
Answer: Here interviewer is trying to find out that do you ability to handle there angry client or not, it is same as handling an difficult customers. So as always you need explain by giving of particular situation with the methids you use to deal with angry customers. Here are the method to deal with angry customers: *Remain calm and adjust your mindset *Listen actively to what the customer is saying *Separate your feelings from the situation *Repeat the customer's concerns *Actively sympathize *Apologize *Call your manager over if the customer asks to do.

12. Did you made any unpopular decision recently?
Answer: Here interviewer is just trying to find out that are you able to make unpopular decision or not. Here you need to show that yes you can make unpopular decision and also tell them how. You just need to give some examples of your recent unpopular decisions to your interviewer with the outcomes. Show them that you have the ability like popular manager to make unpopular decisions. Keep notice that your unpopular decision should focus on process satisfaction, personal satisfaction and product satisfaction.

13. What stresses you out on the job?
Answer: Here interviewer is trying to see that how you cope up with stress at work or do you have skill of effective stress management. You should know that effective stress management starts with identifying your sources of stress and you should be aware about to easily cope up with stress.
Here are the steps:
*Track your stressors
*Develop healthy responses
*Establish boundaries
*Take time to recharge
*Learn how to relax
*Talk to your supervisor
*Get some support

14. If you got a chance, what would you change from your past?
Answer: Nothing. You don't need to show your interviewer that you have guilt or regret for the things you have done in your life. Everything happens for a reason so you should believe in experience everything for bad as well good times and learn lessons from the past and should focus on the future and don't need to repeat the past mistakes. Example
Answer: I would not change anything from past because it’s made me who I am today. You have to remember: you need to crack some eggs to make omelets. And I crack some eggs.

15. Describe your performance at your last job?
Answer: Here focus on the tasks you did that will impress your interviewer, either by being relevant or showing that you have a considerable amount of intelligence. Do not gloss over this question. They may just be looking for more detail about the work that you have done. Take the requirements of the target job and show how, in the previous job, you demonstrated many of the skills and knowledge that are being sought now. Example Answer: In my last job I was working as the senior auditor, I planned and organized each visit to our client's site. I regularly trained and managed new members of our team and I was the go to person for technical auditing questions.

16. Tell me about your most significant accomplishments?
Answer: This question is about your achievements, here interviewer is trying to find out that what things you consider as you’re most significant accomplishment and why. So you need to discuss about you have accomplished at work, how you have accomplished and how much you are proud for that. Answer this with full confidence and honest. Give example of your accomplishments but be careful you don't need to brag about what you have done.

17. How you complete a written assignment?
Answer: Here interviewer wants to know that how you go about completing a written assignment and how much you are good in this. Discuss your own ways of completing an assignments.
Here are some steps like:
*Brainstorm a flood of ideas on the subject you are working
*Do not embroil your mind too much with grammatical correction
*Fashioned all selected ideas into workable whole
*Choose the possible storage where your ideas can be placed
*Make sure that all the possible sources of disturbance have already been mitigated
*Drive on with your work
*Get all the possible sources of help on the table and go on to finish your assignment off.

18. Which was your favorite class at college? Why?
Answer: It’s totally up to you to how to answer this question. Interviewer want to see your college part that how you were in your college time, in what things you were interested. So answer this question in your only but avoid saying any stupid things. Explain your answer with reason.
Example Answer: My favorite class at college was the business policy. I found this a really fantastic subject because it is a something which is interesting and comes daily in use. Every day in newspaper you can see examples of making new policies put into action. The other reason why I enjoyed the class because it was a class of growing up students and that time is special in every one's life.

19. If hired, what would you do on your first day of the job?
Answer: Here interviewer is trying to find out your planning that what are your plans to do after getting hired and how much you are confident that you will get hired. You answer to this question will show your thoughts and consideration for how you will spend this time constructively.
Things to do on your first day of work:
*Be yourself
*Pay attention to your body language
*Show interest
*Learn the professional rules
*Talk to peers
*Pay attention to how decisions are made
*Listen and observe
*Don't try too hard
*Prepare your elevator pitch

20. Tell me about all your weaknesses.
Answer: Always mention the things in weaknesses which is actually your strength at some point or about the weaknesses for which you are taking actions to improve them. You need to prepare in advance for this dreaded question. Interviewer is just trying to figure out if your weaknesses will make hard for you to do a job or fit into the organization or not. They are also checking that are you able to handle tough questions like this one. Just tell your interviewer you recognize your weaknesses and what your plans to improve upon them.

21. What was the most difficult situation you have had while leading a team? How you handled the situation?
Answer: Here interviewer is trying to find out that how effectively you handle the situation or are you able to handle problems while leading a team or not, are you effective team leader or not. Are able to able to manage team members or not, are you able to motivate them or not, are you able to evaluate their performance or not, are you able to make them productive or not, you need to answer all these question with full confidence. First you need to give example to explain about situation in better manner and discuss about the techniques you used to handle the situation smartly.

22. In what situation you found yourself in a condition where you were working without close supervision or support?
Answer: Here interviewer wants to know that have you worked ever without close supervision and how effectively you managed to complete that assignment because it will show your ability to complete the projects on your own thats is why he/she wants to know that are you able to work without any supervision in need or not.So just make clear that you can work without supervision and also provide an example of particular situation you faced how effectively you handled everything on your own.

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