Interview questions › Prioritisation under pressure
Tell me about a piece of work you had to deliver under a very tight deadline.
Prioritisation under pressure · commonly asked in most interviews
No account, no credit card for the first three questions.
How to answer it well
Name what you cut to hit the date, and what you told the person who was waiting — before the date, not after.
Two mistakes that cost you points
- Making the deadline the whole story rather than the trade-off you made.
- No mention of what quality you protected deliberately.
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 not in the free run yet — practise the same skill with a free run, or paste a job description and we build the set around that role.
More questions
- Tell me about a time you had several things on your plate and not enough time. How did you decide what to do first? · Prioritisation under pressure
- Two managers give you urgent work at the same time. What do you do? · Prioritisation under pressure
- Tell me about a time you said no to a request from someone senior. How did you handle it? · Prioritisation under pressure
- Tell me about a time you were pulled off a task in the middle. How did you hand it over or come back to it? · Prioritisation under pressure
- 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 worked under a tight deadline; working under pressure interview answer
Dimension: Prioritisation under pressure — the same skill is probed again with different wording, so practise the pattern, not just this sentence.