Behavioral

Tell me about a time when you failed at work.

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Anonymous

4.6Exceptional
At my previous role, I was leading a fraud detection AI model deployment for a financial services client. The model aimed to reduce fraudulent transactions by 25% while maintaining a low false positive rate.
I was confident in the model’s performance in the test environment, but when we deployed it in production, we noticed an unexpected spike in false positives. Transactions flagged as fraudulent were legitimate, causing disruptions for customers and increasing manual review work. To resolve this, I:
  1. Investigated the issue by comparing training and production data.
  2. Identified data drift—the model was trained on historical data, but recent transaction patterns had changed.
  3. Worked with data engineers to implement real-time data monitoring.
  4. Retrained the model with up-to-date data and adjusted hyperparameters to improve generalization.
This fix reduced false positives by 25%, improved fraud detection accuracy, and ultimately saved $500M in operational savings across multiple initiatives. This experience taught me the importance of continuous model monitoring and proactively accounting for data drift. Now, I always incorporate data validation pipelines and feedback loops into AI deployments to prevent similar issues.

Anonymous

3.6Strong
I was asked to implement dot1x within a month of joining Pluribus networks. I was so excited that i have done the design, got it reviewed, coded, reviewed, tested.  And ask QA to pick the feature. And I faced a lot of problems with upgrade downgrade scenarios,  Unique cfg replication issues.  That was the first time I had such failures. 
So I immediately, accepted my fault to my manager and asked for a day or two to write new UT plan, now reviewed that with QA.  Verified, and did all fixes needed.  Result: Documentation, UT, Prototyping take a lot of value equal to that Implementation, Design
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  • Can you describe a situation where you faced a setback or challenge at work, and what did you learn from it?
  • Have you ever encountered a situation at work where things did not go as planned? Could you explain what happened and what you learned from it?
  • Tell me about a time when you faced a professional failure, and how did you use the experience to improve your performance?
  • Can you share an example of a time when you did not achieve the results you were hoping for in a project or task?
  • Describe a specific work-related failure you have experienced and how you handled it. What would you do differently if you faced a similar situation in the future?
  • Tell me about a time when you had to overcome a professional obstacle, and how did you manage to turn it around?
  • Have you ever received negative feedback on a project or task you worked on? How did you respond and what did you learn from it?
  • Can you provide an example of a time when you took a risk that did not pay off? How did you handle the situation, and what did you learn from it?
  • Describe a time when you faced a significant challenge at work that you were unable to overcome. What did you learn from the experience?
  • Have you ever made a mistake at work that impacted your team or the company? How did you rectify the situation?
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Interview question asked to Full Stack Software Engineers, Program Managers, Production Engineers and other roles interviewing at Telstra, Visa, NetEase and others: Tell me about a time when you failed at work..