Behavioral round

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1. Tell me about a production issue you owned from detection to fix.

   STAR rubric: tick what your answer covered

   • Situation: What broke, how users were affected, and how it was noticed.
   • Task: Your role and what had to happen first.
   • Action: How you limited damage, found the cause and shipped the fix.
   • Result: Impact in numbers, plus the test, alert or process change you added.

   What interviewers listen for

   • Fast mitigation before root cause
   • Data used to find the cause
   • Clear communication with the team
   • A lasting guard afterwards

   Red flags to avoid

   • Blaming another person or team
   • No numbers at all
   • Fixing straight in production with no rollout plan

2. Describe a time you disagreed with a technical decision, such as architecture or a library choice.

   STAR rubric: tick what your answer covered

   • Situation: The decision and why it mattered.
   • Task: What you wanted to change and why.
   • Action: How you made your case and listened to others.
   • Result: What was decided and what you learned, even if you didn't win.

   What interviewers listen for

   • Understood the other view first
   • Argued with evidence, such as a prototype or measurements
   • Committed once a decision was made

   Red flags to avoid

   • Framing colleagues as wrong or foolish
   • Going around the team
   • Never accepting a decision

3. Tell me about migrating legacy code, for example Views to Compose or Java to Kotlin.

   STAR rubric: tick what your answer covered

   • Situation: The codebase and why it needed to change.
   • Task: The goal and constraints, such as team size or deadlines.
   • Action: How you planned, sequenced and protected quality with tests or flags.
   • Result: Progress made and any measurable gains, like crash rate or build time.

   What interviewers listen for

   • Incremental plan instead of a rewrite
   • Kept shipping features during it
   • Measured risk and quality

   Red flags to avoid

   • A big-bang rewrite with no fallback
   • No tests or measurement
   • Change for its own sake

4. Tell me about a performance problem you found and fixed.

   STAR rubric: tick what your answer covered

   • Situation: Which metric was bad and how users felt it.
   • Task: The target you set.
   • Action: How you profiled, what you found and what you changed.
   • Result: Before and after numbers and how you kept it from regressing.

   What interviewers listen for

   • Measured before changing anything
   • Used real tools, such as profilers or Macrobenchmark
   • Verified the improvement

   Red flags to avoid

   • Guessing without measuring
   • No before and after numbers
   • Optimising something users never noticed

5. Describe a time you had to deliver on a tight deadline. What did you trade off?

   STAR rubric: tick what your answer covered

   • Situation: The deadline and why it was fixed.
   • Task: What had to ship.
   • Action: How you cut scope, sequenced work and managed risk.
   • Result: What shipped and how the shortcuts were paid back.

   What interviewers listen for

   • Explicit trade-offs agreed with others
   • Protected quality where it mattered
   • Followed up on shortcuts

   Red flags to avoid

   • Silently cutting tests or quality
   • Working unsustainable hours as the only plan
   • No follow-up on tech debt

6. Tell me about helping another engineer grow.

   STAR rubric: tick what your answer covered

   • Situation: Who it was and where they were starting from.
   • Task: What they needed to learn.
   • Action: How you helped: pairing, reviews, giving them a project.
   • Result: How they improved, with an example.

   What interviewers listen for

   • Tailored help to the person
   • Gave them ownership
   • Saw a concrete change in their work

   Red flags to avoid

   • Doing the work for them
   • Vague 'I helped a lot'
   • Taking credit for their result

7. Tell me about a mistake you made and what you did about it.

   STAR rubric: tick what your answer covered

   • Situation: What happened and the impact.
   • Task: What needed fixing.
   • Action: How you told people and fixed it.
   • Result: What you do differently now.

   What interviewers listen for

   • Owns the mistake plainly
   • Fixed the impact quickly
   • Changed habits or process

   Red flags to avoid

   • A disguised strength as the mistake
   • Blaming others
   • No lesson learned

8. Describe working with designers, product or another platform team to ship a feature.

   STAR rubric: tick what your answer covered

   • Situation: The feature and the teams involved.
   • Task: Your part.
   • Action: How you aligned on scope, handled disagreement and kept everyone informed.
   • Result: What shipped and how the collaboration went.

   What interviewers listen for

   • Early alignment
   • Respect for other roles' constraints
   • Clear shared outcome

   Red flags to avoid

   • Treating other roles as blockers
   • Surprises late in the project
   • No user outcome mentioned