Describe Something a Previous Engineering Team Did Not Do Well
EliseAISoftware Engineer · Technical Screen
Last updated
A behavioral question asking what a previous engineering team did not do well. Tests whether a candidate can name a specific, fixable weakness, explain its cost and systemic cause, describe their own part in improving it and stay constructive without blaming former colleagues.
Later in a 30-minute software engineer phone screen that is mostly behavioral and experience questions, the interviewer asks:
What's something your previous engineering team didn't do well?
Clarifying Questions
- Does "previous team" include the current team, or only past ones?
- Is the interviewer interested in technical practices (testing, releases, incident handling), in team process, or in both?
Hints
Hint 1
Choose a fixable practice: Pick a concrete engineering practice or process with a visible cost, not a person and not something no team could control.
Hint 2
Where were you in it?: Be ready to say what you did about the problem, or what you would do now, and why the team had not already fixed it.
Follow-up questions
- What did you personally do about it, and what happened?
- Why do you think the team had not already fixed it?
- How would you notice the same problem early on a new team?
- What is one thing that team did well that you would want to keep?
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