Interview questions › Spotting and solving problems
Tell me about a time you spotted a problem other people had missed, and came up with a fix.
Spotting and solving problems · commonly asked in most interviews
No account, no credit card for the first three questions.
How to answer it well
Say how it came to you (where the information came from), then what you did and what changed.
Two mistakes that cost you points
- Keeping the story at the level of 'I noticed the issue'.
- Claiming credit for a fix a whole team delivered.
What to do with this question today
- Answer it out loud once, without stopping. Do not write it down first.
- Read back exactly what you said. Mark the filler words, and the length of your longest pause.
- Answer it again and change one thing — usually the opening line, or the number at the end.
This question is one of the questions you can be asked out loud in a free practice run.
More questions
- Tell me about a time you had to find the real cause of a recurring problem, not just the symptom. · Spotting and solving problems
- Tell me about a decision you made using data. What did you measure, and what did it change? · Spotting and solving problems
- Tell me about a difficult customer or client situation and how you resolved it. · Spotting and solving problems
- Tell me about a time you found a quality problem in your own work or your team's work. What did you do? · Spotting and solving problems
- In one minute, introduce yourself and explain why this role should consider you. · Communication
- Walk me through your resume. Tell me about the choices you made along the way. · Communication
Also searched as: tell me about a time you solved a problem; problem solving interview question answer
Dimension: Spotting and solving problems — the same skill is probed again with different wording, so practise the pattern, not just this sentence.