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Ownership, Tough Feedback, and an Important Problem Outside Your Focus Area

HarveySoftware Engineer · Technical Screen
MediumSoftware EngineerTechnical ScreenBehavioral & Leadership

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Three behavioral questions from a hiring manager screen: a project you owned in the last year, tough feedback you received, and a time you discovered an important problem outside your immediate focus area. It tests ownership, coachability and judgment about raising issues beyond your own scope.

A hiring manager screen consisted of three behavioral questions. Answer each with a specific example from your own experience.

Clarifying Questions

  • Should the three answers come from different projects, or may they overlap?
  • Does "in the last year" mean the project finished within the last year, or only that you worked on it during that time?
  • How long should each answer be, and how much technical detail does the hiring manager want?

Part 1 — A project you owned

Tell me about a project you owned in the last year.

What This Part Should Cover

  • The project's scope and why it mattered
  • What ownership meant in practice: decisions, coordination, risks handled
  • The outcome, with evidence, and what happened after launch

Part 2 — Tough feedback

Tell me about tough feedback you received.

What This Part Should Cover

  • The feedback itself, stated specifically and genuinely critical
  • Your first reaction, and how you checked whether the feedback was accurate
  • The concrete change in behavior, and evidence that it lasted

Part 3 — A problem outside your focus area

Tell me about a time you discovered an important problem outside your immediate focus area.

What This Part Should Cover

  • How you noticed the problem, and how you confirmed it was real and important
  • How you engaged the owners, and what you did yourself versus what they did
  • The outcome, and what changed so that similar problems are caught

Hints

Hint 1

Ownership is more than assignment: Pick a project where you can point to decisions and follow-through that would not have happened without you, not just tasks you were given.

Hint 2

Show the change: Choose feedback that genuinely stung and led to a change you can demonstrate, rather than a strength in disguise.

Hint 3

Why it was yours to raise: Explain how you noticed the problem, why it mattered, and how you involved the people who owned that area.

Follow-up questions

  • What would have happened to the project if you had left halfway through?
  • Have you ever had to give someone feedback like the one you received? How did you deliver it?
  • What did the owning team think of your involvement, and would you handle it the same way again?
  • Which of these three stories best shows how you would work on this team?