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People, leadership and communication interview questions

Interview questions on people, leadership and communication: warm-ups, then what each harder question tests and how a good answer starts.

7 questions: 3 warm-ups and 4 with model answers · Levels: Fresher to staff

Warm-up questions

Short questions with short answers, each answered in full.

Fresher to mid

A team that was performing well has slipped back into storming after two Developers rotated off and one joined. What do you do?

Expect the slip and plan for it; the stages are a lens on behaviour, not a one-way walk, and a change of membership resets the group. Treat the team as a new team: name the goal and the one thing each person owns, revisit the working agreement with the new person, and schedule two short norming conversations rather than one long one, because the team has three new relationships to form. Hold the disagreements that storming surfaces in writing, with the decision rule and the person who will decide. Protect the signals that mattered before, the questions asked in the Review and the share of defects found before release, so the team can see when it is back on track.
From the lesson Team development, motivation and trust
Fresher to mid

Your sponsor offers each Developer a cash bonus for finishing the next release on time. Why not take the offer, and what do you ask for instead?

Answered in the lesson Team development, motivation and trust
Fresher to mid

How do you choose a leadership style for a new team member?

Answered in the lesson Leadership styles and influence without authority

Questions with model answers

What each question tests, the first step of a good answer and the follow-ups to expect.

Senior to staff

Your director wants every team to fill in a quarterly anonymous psychological-safety survey, rank the teams in a league table and put the lowest-scoring team's lead on an improvement plan. A team of six asks you to push back. What do you advise the director, and what do you offer instead?
What it tests

Why a measure that becomes a target stops measuring, why a small team's answers are not anonymous, and how to give a director an early warning without ranking teams.

First step

Ask the director which decision the score is meant to inform. Then show what one answer does to a six-person average, and why ranking leads invites gaming, before offering team-level signals reviewed in Retrospectives.
Follow-ups
- What would the director lose if teams learned to game the survey?
- How small is too small for an anonymous survey?
- What early warning would you give the director instead?
- When is a survey still worth running?
From the lesson Team development, motivation and trust
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In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Mid to staff

A four-site team (Bengaluru, Singapore, Berlin and San Francisco) holds its daily meeting at a fixed 09:30 UTC, which lands at 02:30 for one site. One member says a rotation would be "fair". How do you decide, and what do you write down?
What it tests

Checking the cost of the current slot in local hours, designing a rotation that spreads unsociable hours, writing the rule into the working agreement, and watching for a change that quietly unshares the hour.

First step

Compute each site's local hour under the current slot and under two or three candidate rotations in the time-zone converter before suggesting any change.
Follow-ups
- Which measure would you use to compare plans, and why?
- Which three or four slots would you rotate through, and what are their trade-offs?
- What would you put in the working agreement to keep the share stable?
- When would you break the rotation, and how would you explain the exception?
From the lesson Team development, motivation and trust
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Mid to senior

Your project needs a security review by week 4, but the security team's queue is six weeks long and they do not report to you. How do you get the review done on time?
What it tests

Influencing peers without formal authority, understanding the other team's constraints, and offering options that serve both sides.

First step

Meet the security lead to learn their constraints and ask what accelerates a review; pushing harder or escalating first usually backfires.
Follow-ups
- What would you offer the security team in return?
- What data would you bring to show why your review matters?
- What if they still say no?
From the lesson Leadership styles and influence without authority
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Mid to staff

You delegate a tool choice to a mid-level engineer. A week later they pick a tool that costs twice your budget and stores data outside your region. What went wrong, and how do you prevent it next time?
What it tests

Recording delegation limits in writing, setting escalation triggers, and rebuilding trust after a gap.

First step

Ask what limits were agreed: if none were written, the fault is the handover, not the engineer; if limits were written but ignored, the conversation is different.
Follow-ups
- What would you have written in the decision log?
- How do you give feedback without damaging the relationship?
- Would you still delegate this kind of decision?
From the lesson Leadership styles and influence without authority
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes

All Project Management & Agile interview questions · The Project Management & Agile track

Warm-up questions

A team that was performing well has slipped back into storming after two Developers rotated off and one joined. What do you do?

Your sponsor offers each Developer a cash bonus for finishing the next release on time. Why not take the offer, and what do you ask for instead?

How do you choose a leadership style for a new team member?

Questions with model answers

Your director wants every team to fill in a quarterly anonymous psychological-safety survey, rank the teams in a league table and put the lowest-scoring team's lead on an improvement plan. A team of six asks you to push back. What do you advise the director, and what do you offer instead?

A four-site team (Bengaluru, Singapore, Berlin and San Francisco) holds its daily meeting at a fixed 09:30 UTC, which lands at 02:30 for one site. One member says a rotation would be "fair". How do you decide, and what do you write down?

Your project needs a security review by week 4, but the security team's queue is six weeks long and they do not report to you. How do you get the review done on time?

You delegate a tool choice to a mid-level engineer. A week later they pick a tool that costs twice your budget and stores data outside your region. What went wrong, and how do you prevent it next time?