Situational interview question

A behavioral question asks “what did you do?” A situational question asks “what would you do?” It puts the applicant in a moment from the job and asks them to think it through out loud.

Examples

• Retail: “A customer wants to return an item without a receipt, and the store policy doesn’t allow it. The customer is getting louder. What do you do?”
• Operations: “Two urgent orders arrive at the same time and you can only ship one today. How do you decide?”
• Support: “A customer asks for a feature you know is months away. What do you tell them?”
• Sales: “A possible customer says your price is double what a competitor charges. How do you respond?”

When situational questions work best

They suit applicants without direct experience: recent graduates, interns, people changing careers and people applying for their first job. They also work for anyone when the scenario is specific to how your team works.

How to write a good one

1. Start from something that really happened. Ask the team for a situation from last month that was harder than it looked.
2. Build in one conflict. Following the rules versus keeping the customer happy, speed versus accuracy, or two people who want different things.
3. Avoid trick questions. If only one answer is acceptable and it’s obvious, you’re only testing whether they can guess what you want to hear.
4. Write down what a strong answer covers before you ask anyone.

Scoring

For the retail example above, a strong answer might calm the customer first, explain the policy plainly, look for what the staff member can offer (store credit, an exchange) and know when to call a manager. A weak answer refuses flatly, or gives in without checking.

Using both kinds together

Asking one of each about the same skill gives you both views. If an applicant describes a sensible approach and can also point to a time they did something close to it, that’s good evidence they have the skill.