Start here: the behavioural round
"Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager." The question sounds like small talk, but it is scored as carefully as a coding problem. This page explains what happens to your answer after you give it, what you need before you start, and how to use the track in thirty minutes a day.
1. What a behavioural interview is
A typical round lasts 45 to 60 minutes and covers three to five questions, each followed by several follow-up questions. Some companies give it a round of its own; others, such as Amazon, ask behavioural questions in every interview of the loop, alongside the technical ones (Module 09).
The questions almost always start with "Tell me about a time…" or "Give me an example of…". That wording is deliberate: past behaviour in a similar situation is the best predictor interviewers have of future behaviour, so they want what you did, not what you would do.
2. What happens to your answer
The interviewer is doing two jobs at once: listening, and writing notes that someone else will read without having heard you. Watch one answer travel from your mouth to the hiring decision.
3. How this track teaches
- Twelve modules in three levels. First the method (how it's scored, STAR, the story bank), then the five core question types, then company values, openers, senior signals and practice. The module map shows them all.
- The same ten sections every time: the idea, an animation of what the interviewer hears, a tool for your own answer, weak/good/strong examples, a model answer, a memory hook, mistakes, an exercise, a quiz, and further reading.
- Model answers are invented. They show the shape. Your answers must be your own true stories: interviewers probe until made-up stories fall apart.
- The question bank groups the common questions by what they test, so you can drill your stories against them.
4. What you need
- A notes document for your story bank. One page per story, using the template in section 7.
- A timer. Most answers should take about two minutes before the follow-ups start.
- A way to record yourself (your phone is fine). Listening back is the fastest way to hear filler, rambling and "we".
- Your last three years. Old performance reviews, launch emails, incident write-ups and project docs are where the numbers for your results are hiding.
- Ideally, a friend to play the interviewer for the mock rounds in Module 12.
5. Five rules from day one
- True stories only. Follow-ups dig three or four levels deep. Invented detail collapses; real detail gets richer.
- "I", not "we". The team did the project; the interviewer scores what you did in it.
- Specific beats general. One real Tuesday with names of systems and numbers beats "I always communicate proactively".
- Every result has a number if you look hard enough: hours saved, error rate, revenue, people unblocked, days early.
- End with what you learned or would do differently. It shows judgement, and it's what senior interviewers listen for.
6. The daily routine (30 minutes)
| Day | Activity |
|---|---|
| Monday | Read one module and play its animation |
| Tuesday | Write or rewrite one story with the module's tool |
| Wednesday | Say it out loud, timed and recorded. Listen back once. |
| Thursday | Answer three questions from the question bank with the same story |
| Friday | Ten minutes of the review deck, then fix the weakest story of the week |
7. Your story notebook
Write each story on its own page with this template. Bullet points, not prose: you'll be telling it, not reading it.
8. Self-check quiz
Why do behavioural questions ask "Tell me about a time…" rather than "What would you do if…"?
Who often decides on your offer without having heard your answers?
Your team shipped a big launch. What should your answer focus on?
9. Glossary
Every dotted word in this track, in one place.