Behavioral

Tell me about a conflict that you had to manage.

Full Stack Software EngineerBackend EngineerSoftware EngineerFrontend Engineer

Asana

TikTok

Meta

Spotify

Flexport

Netflix

Did you come across this question in an interview?

Answers

Expert Answer

Anonymous

4.6Exceptional
At Toyota Motors North America, I encountered a significant conflict involving a critical data pipeline performance issue. The team was split between two strategies: one side wanted to overhaul the PySpark code for immediate fixes, while the other preferred a cautious approach, fearing potential disruptions.
To address this, I proposed a hybrid solution that balanced both perspectives. I led a data-driven investigation using AWS Databricks and Apache Airflow to identify bottlenecks and optimize performance without extensive code changes. I presented a proof-of-concept that demonstrated how targeted optimizations and strategic enhancements could improve performance by 17% without compromising system stability.
This approach not only resolved the conflict but also garnered support from both sides, showcasing my ability to integrate technical insights with effective communication. The successful implementation of this strategy reinforced the importance of combining analytical skills with collaborative problem-solving.

Anonymous

4.6Exceptional
Identify Problem: I noticed conflicts between M and T during meetings and through lengthy, unresolved PR reviews. M and T were debating over the design of a crucial component for our product integration and data integrity.
Action: To understand their perspectives, I spoke with M and T separately. M was frustrated because T made significant design changes without team consultation, believing his original design was sufficient. T, on the other hand, felt M’s design lacked thorough research and documentation, posing risks to the project’s success.
Solution: I brought them together for a discussion, emphasizing the importance of focusing on the issue rather than personal grievances. During the meeting, I encouraged both to consider stakeholders' needs and facilitated a structured brainstorming session. We identified several key points:
Stakeholder Meetings: They agreed to meet with stakeholders to understand their use cases and system integration requirements.
Design Session: They planned a detailed design session where they would present and compare proposals, including the pros and cons of each alternative.
Seek feedback: They presented the proposal to  an architecture commit for feedback
Decision Commitment: They committed to agreeing on a final design decision based on the analysis and feedback.
Follow-Up: To ensure progress, I scheduled follow-up meetings to monitor their collaboration and offer support. 
This approach not only resolved the conflict but also improved their working relationship and communication. Ultimately, the team successfully designed the component, got buy-ins from the bigger organization,  ensuring robust product integration and data integrity.

Anonymous

4.3Exceptional
  1. S - In one of the dashboards      I was creating data model for the dashboard with the team. Basically, this      was going to be the source of truth for the upcoming dashboard and the      previous dashboards that we had done.
  2. T - It was combining data      from various sources and had a lot of calculations involved. My colleague      and I had very different ideas of how to create this model. He wanted to      have everything in one table. My idea was to have a little normalized data      and have it in separate tables mainly calculations.
  3. A - Because we were not agreeing to, I      listened to the reasoning behind the point. He wanted to have it in one      because it would be faster to query the data, since we use the same      calculations multiple times. My point was that since we are building it      for the future, and we might add multiple steps in the process, having      separate tables will guarantee that we do not disrupt the granularity of      the data.
  4. R - I was able to convince      him, and we were able to create the data model
  5. Follow up - what were the      arguments that used?
  6. I told him that       having separate tables will be easy to scale for the future
  7. If we need to change the       granularity at some point it will not affect the table
  8. Easier to maintain
  9. Impact - When I developed      this, I was able to see show that it was a correct decision. After some      time we got to know that they were adding a few more steps in the process      and hence we just needed to adjust the table calculations.

Anonymous

4Strong
When managing the Dart & Flutter Security program I had to deal with friction between an engineering lead and the Flutter security team.
The security team created a design document outlining the steps to improve the security posture of the flutter code review processes. One of the proposals was to remove force merge permissions from the github repository and the engineering team lead shared strong opposition to that change because of the risk of slowing down development workflows.
It turns out that a few days later the google global security team and github pushed a change removing the force merge permission for google open source projects. The next day the engineering technical lead joined the flutter security weekly meeting yelling and blaming the team for implementing a change that was not approved by engineering.
I had to intervene and ask the engineering lead to calm down. I explained that the meeting audience was not appropriate to deal with the conflict and I offered to create a meeting between him and me the next day to discuss the details and meanwhile we will investigate what happened because the security team didn’t change the repository configurations.
A tracking bug was created to update with the findings of the investigation. It turned out to be a coincidence but it also turned out that the concerns of the development velocity being impacted was not true as nobody was blocked during the day.
My approach to address the conflict was to stop the meeting before it escalated and rescheduling the next day when more information was available. Not only stopped the conflict but it also fostered the involvement of the engineering team in the security initiatives driving more collaboration.

Anonymous

3.6Strong
I’m my current role, during a core-team meeting I noticed conflicts between 2 team members, the MM and the EE. They were debating about why to include one component in the official BOM and discarding another one.
To understand their perspectives, I spoke with them separately in a friendly environment. The MM was frustrated because the EE didn’t provide any data or argument to discard the component that the MM suggested. This component had the same performance, was pin to pin compatible, and cheaper. On the other hand the EE explained he had bad experiences in the past with the component suggested by the MM and he refused to validate and qualify it to do not waste his time.
So… After being clear about the situation, I brought them together for a discussion and I emphasize to focus on the issue, not in personal discrepancies. Do, during the meeting, I encouraged both to consider the Project requirements, customers need and I worked with them brainstorming session.
Then, they agreed to meet with other stakeholders to get their inputs about these 2 components, they commit on a validation plan including both components. The one suggested by the EE as POR and the one suggested by the MM as alternate. They also agree to allocate 60% of the mass production volume to the EE component and 40% to the component suggested by the MM.
From my side, to ensure progress, I scheduled follow-up meetings with them to monitor their collaboration and for sure, I offered my support. Finally, both components are currently part of the product official BOM and these 2 guys improved their working relationship and communication.

Anonymous

3.6Strong
So before we shipped our app to production, we will do QA testing phase. We have had multiple squad and QA as well. There were a problem where people from each squad started to give QA APK directly and creating a confusion between QA because sometimes they found some of the feature not working because it is still worked on by other engineer. To takcle this, i created a standard way for all squad to give apk after it is done merging to main branch. I created continues integration and when Pull Review is done, it will run automatically and build apk and send it to the QA through Firebase App Tester.
  • Tell me about a conflict you managed.
  • Please share an experience where you had to manage a conflict.
  • I want to hear about a conflict that you managed.
  • Describe a conflict you dealt with.
  • Tell me about a difficult conflict you managed.
  • Share a conflict you had to resolve.
  • Tell me about a conflict you have had to deal with.
  • I'd like you to tell me about a conflict you had to resolve.
  • Tell me about a conflict that you had to manage.
  • Can you give an example of a time when you had to deal with a conflict, and how did you handle it?
  • Have you ever faced a difficult situation where you had to manage a conflict? Can you walk me through the steps you took to resolve it?
  • Tell me about a conflict you managed and the outcome of your intervention.
  • Could you describe a time when you were able to effectively handle a conflict between individuals or groups?
  • Can you share an experience where you had to navigate a conflict between colleagues or clients, and how did you go about resolving it?
  • Tell me about a time when you had to mediate a conflict between two parties. How did you approach the situation and what was the result?
  • Have you ever encountered a situation where you had to manage a conflict of interest? If so, how did you handle it?
  • Describe a challenging conflict you managed and how you resolved it while ensuring all parties involved felt heard and valued.
  • Could you give an example of how you handled a conflict in the workplace and what you learned from it?
  • Tell me about a time when you had to manage a conflict with a team member or manager, and how did you handle the situation to ensure a positive outcome for everyone involved?
Try Our AI Interviewer

Prepare for success with realistic, role-specific interview simulations.

Try AI Interview Now

Interview question asked to Network Engineers, Quality Assurance Engineers, Cloud Support Engineers and other roles interviewing at Checkr, Symantec, Pendo and others: Tell me about a conflict that you had to manage..