Behavioral

Tell us about a time when you made an unpopular decision.

Data ScientistProduct ManagerFrontend EngineerFull Stack Software Engineer

Flexport

Snap

Shopify

Spotify

Palo Alto Networks

Uber

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Answers

Anonymous

9 months ago
4.4Exceptional
In my previous role as a project manager, I once decided to delay a product launch by a month. The development team encountered unforeseen technical issues, and despite the pressure from stakeholders to meet the original deadline, I chose to prioritize the quality and stability of the product. This decision was unpopular among the sales and marketing teams who had campaigns aligned with the initial launch date. However, the extra time allowed the team to resolve critical bugs and improve overall performance, leading to a successful launch and positive customer feedback, ultimately validating the decision.

Anonymous

10 months ago
4.4Exceptional
While I was working at the insurance company, I was implementing an application that would let users submit an application to the underwriters for receiving quotes.This was mainly for users that not approved in the first round of application but were referred for underwriter referrals.This application would receive sensitive data from the users to determine their eligibility. During the implementation of this  new software application, we encountered a critical security vulnerability related to authentication and session management. Our team had initially planned for a smooth rollout, but this issue disrupted our timeline.
Action:
  • Discovery: While conducting thorough testing, our QA team identified the vulnerability. Essentially, the application was not properly invalidating user sessions after logout, leaving the door open for session hijacking.
  • Impact Assessment: We quickly assessed the potential impact. If exploited, this vulnerability could allow unauthorized access to sensitive user data or even compromise the entire system.
  • Revised Priorities: Recognizing the severity, I immediately shifted our priorities. Instead of proceeding with feature enhancements, we focused solely on fixing the authentication flow.
  • Collaboration: I worked closely with developers, security experts, and stakeholders. We implemented proper session management, including secure session tokens, session timeouts, and robust logout mechanisms.
  • Communication: I kept all stakeholders informed about the situation. We had to adjust the project timeline, which meant communicating the delay to upper management and end-users.
  • Risk Mitigation: Beyond the immediate fix, we also reviewed other parts of the application for similar vulnerabilities. This proactive approach helped prevent future issues.
Result:
  • Successful Mitigation: By addressing the vulnerability promptly, we ensured that user sessions were secure. The revised authentication process was thoroughly tested and validated.
  • Project Impact: Although the change disrupted our original timeline, stakeholders appreciated our commitment to security. Their trust in our team remained intact.
  • Process Improvement: We incorporated stricter security checks into our development workflow, ensuring that such issues would be caught earlier in future projects.

Anonymous

10 months ago
2Fair
Once while running shift, I was given a challenge on cutting down on hours to cut cost. So therefore I was voluntarily cutting associates down. After doing so I had my manager scrutinize my decision to let go of people early and was told that I had made a bad decision.

Anonymous

10 months ago
4Strong
When I need to make a unpopular decision - I try to anticipate the pushback I can get and see how I can mitigate that.. At Auctane, I noticed that there was no unit tests on the legacy code, I knew I had to improve on the engineering standards. When we had a plan to migrate to monlotith  - I proposed we add unit tests in our sprint cycle, I got a push back from the established team members as they did not want to change thier approach to development. So I apporached new devs on the team, they were onboard with this idea, after 2 sprints the team saw the code with unit tests were less buggy and more modular. This encouraged others to adopt units test while development phase well. In the end our team achived at least 75% code coverage.

Anonymous

10 months ago
3.6Strong
At Auctane, we were following a out dated deployment process. That is inspite of we moving to monloith services.. we followed a single . It caused a big bottleneck in our release time frame and I challenged the need for such a train - as one of the philosophy in Microservice is independently deployable. The team was relectant to make changes to the process (for e,g we needed to create a seperate github repo, come up with a artifactory repo) - the team was initially reluctant to make changes but I convinved the team that this was a good move in the long run as it would eliminate unnecessary process and speed things. Even though the team did not agree initially, they saw the value after we migrated to new process. My philiopy was short term pain for long term gain.


  • Tell us about a time when you made an unpopular decision.
  • What was an unpopular decision you made.
  • Give an example of a time when you made a controversial decision.
  • If you ever had to make an unpopular decision, tell us about it.
  • Describe a time when you took an unpopular decision.
  • Give an example of when you made a decision that was unpopular.
  • Please describe an instance when you made an unpopular decision.
  • Please describe an occasion when you made an unpopular decision.
  • How have you navigated situations where you had to make a decision that was unpopular with a key stakeholder or influencer, and how did you handle the fallout?
  • Describe a time when you made an unpopular decision.
  • Can you tell me about a decision you made that wasn't well-received, and how you handled the aftermath?
  • What's an example of a time when you had to go against the majority opinion to make the best decision, and how did you handle that situation?
  • How have you dealt with situations where you had to make a tough call that you knew might not be popular, but was necessary for the success of a project or initiative?
  • What's an instance where you had to make a decision that was unpopular with your team or colleagues, and how did you approach the situation?
  • Can you describe a time when you had to make a decision that was unpopular with your boss or supervisor, and how you navigated that situation?
  • How have you balanced making decisions that are in the best interest of the company, even if they may not be popular with stakeholders or employees?
  • How have you navigated situations where there were multiple stakeholders with different opinions, and you had to make a decision that wasn't popular with all parties involved?
  • Can you describe a time when you had to make a decision that was unpopular with a customer or client, and how you handled that situation?
  • How have you navigated situations where you had to make a decision that was unpopular with a key stakeholder or influencer, and how did you handle the fallout? Can you describe a time when you had to make a decision that had significant consequences, even if it wasn't the most popular choice?
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Interview question asked to Frontend Engineers, Program Managers, Data Scientists and other roles interviewing at PayPal, Grover, Sprint and others: Tell us about a time when you made an unpopular decision..