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Explain What You Would Do Differently

GoogleSoftware Engineer · Onsite
MediumSoftware EngineerOnsiteBehavioral & Leadership

Last updated

This question assesses a candidate's ability to demonstrate professional growth, self-awareness, and the capacity to synthesize past mistakes into improved engineering practices.

Reflecting on Technical Decision-Making

Describe a significant technical decision you made on a past project that, in hindsight, you would handle differently today.

Your response should structure the narrative as follows:

  1. The Context: Briefly describe the project, your role, and the specific decision you made (e.g., choice of architecture, technology stack, data structure, or project management strategy).
  2. The Constraints: Explain the environment at the time. What were the competing priorities (e.g., speed to market vs. technical debt), the team's expertise, and the information available to you then?
  3. The Pivot: What would you change now if you were tasked with the same problem, and why? Address the tradeoffs—if you prioritize a different outcome, what are you intentionally sacrificing?
  4. The Impact: How did the original decision manifest in the long run? Concretely explain how this realization has changed your approach to similar problems in subsequent projects.

Structure your response to show high-level awareness of business impact, technical depth, and the ability to accept ownership of past shortcomings without making excuses.

Hints

Hint 1

Choose a scenario where the technical tradeoffs were genuine and complex, rather than a scenario where you simply lacked information.

Hint 2

Ensure the 'what you would do differently' section acknowledges the original constraints; avoid saying 'I would have known better' unless you explain how your process was flawed.

Hint 3

Focus heavily on the 'Lesson Learned' portion, demonstrating how this experience directly influenced a specific later project or process.

Follow-up questions

  • If you could have implemented your new approach back then, how would you have convinced stakeholders to support that extra time or effort?
  • At what point in your later projects did you notice the impact of the 'lesson learned' becoming visible?
  • Is there any scenario where the decision you originally made would actually still be the correct one?