How to handle difficult interview questions

When it comes to job interviews, some questions are harder than others. Figuring out how you’d answer difficult job interview questions will be key to your success.

We’ll run through some of the most challenging interview questions and explain how to tackle them. We’ll outline what to do when faced with:

• “Tell me about a time you led a team.”
• “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
• “How did you prepare for the interview?”
• “How do you think someone who doesn’t like you would describe you?”
• “What do you dislike about your life?”
• “What do you like to do for fun?”
• An odd question
• A maths question
• A brainteaser
• A trick question

“Tell me about a time you led a team.” is a common job interview question. On the surface, it’s simple. However, lots of candidates don’t respond with enough detail.

When an interviewer asks you about when you’ve led a team, they’re trying to suss out your leadership skills. As lots of graduate schemes are setting you up for career paths where you’ll oversee others, employers need to know if you could be a future leader.

The good news is nobody is expecting you to have a lot of professional experience. It’s unlikely you’ll have worked as a manager while studying. Employers won’t expect you to have been in charge of a university society, either. Of course, if you’ve been a society president, it’s a great thing to put on your CV, but you’ll find examples of leadership everywhere in your life. You don’t need to have had a title.

Perhaps you led a group project at uni, found yourself encouraging teammates on the sports field (even if you weren’t the captain) or volunteered to speak first in a presentation. Any example where you took responsibility is great. It’s even better if you highlight that you did it without being asked.

To showcase your example, try using the STAR method – unpacking the Situation, Action, Task and Result of your work in a leadership role.

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” is one of the most challenging interview questions an interviewer can ask someone who isn’t sure of their future.

If you’re an undergrad, you might be considering several career paths and not know the possibilities available. That’s perfectly normal. However, it’s common for interviewers to ask about future goals, so prepare an answer about them.

One way to tackle the five years’ time question is to research the company to find out what employees with five or more years’ experience are doing there. You could then talk about how you see yourself in a similar role. Alternatively, you could talk about how you’d like to see your career grow in the industry you’re interviewing for. That shows commitment to the sector, even if you don't know your exact path. Just make sure you don’t say you’d like to work in pharmaceutical sales if you’re interviewing for a job as a building materials rep. Employers want to know that you’ll be committed to them, rather than using them as a stepping stone to go elsewhere.

Remember that the question is testing your passion and commitment to the industry, company and role – not your ability to predict your future.

If you did prepare, it’s a straightforward question. You just need to talk about the things you did, such as reading about the business in the news, checking their website and viewing their social media accounts. You should also give examples of the information you learnt to prove you did the things you mentioned.

It's far trickier if you didn’t prepare as you won’t have anything to say. And if you didn’t prepare, some employers will think that you don’t want the job as much as the other candidates. If you’re caught off-guard, one option is to dodge the question and talk about wider preparation. For example, explain how your degree choice sets you up for a career in the sector and gives you the skills you need to do the job. The best thing to do though is prep! Check out our top tips on how to prepare for an interview.

When an interviewer asks you to see yourself from somebody else’s perspective, they’re assessing your self-awareness, teamwork skills and (sometimes) your humility. In many ways, it’s a type of strength and weakness interview question. Use it to highlight a weakness, but don’t be too harsh on yourself.

The trick is to be humble and give an honest answer. It’s also good to explain how you try to overcome someone’s reason for disliking you. An example response is:

“Somebody who doesn’t like me might say that I’m too competitive. I get annoyed if I’m losing at a board game, for example, which frustrates the people around me. However, I’ve learnt to be much more patient than I used to be. If I’m part of a team, I’ll always try to help people rather than berate them for their mistakes. So, although some find my competitiveness intimidating, I want to build other people up to celebrate success together. I don’t think it’s all about being a winner as an individual, and I’d hope that the people who know me would recognise that.”

“What do you dislike about your life?” is a tough question that probably makes you feel uncomfortable, and that’s OK. Similarly, an interviewer could ask you a question like “Tell me about something you regret and why?” Again, it’s a personal question that you probably haven’t prepared an answer for. You also won’t necessarily know what’s appropriate to share.

An interviewer might ask you to confront a negative feeling to get to know you on a deeper level. They also want to drill into your dislikes to work out if you’ll suit the role.

The best way to answer a similar question is to connect it back to the job. You can still tell the interviewer something useful, without sharing something you’re not comfortable with. For example, if you’re interviewing for a collaborative job, you might say that you dislike how much solo work is in your degree, and you miss the camaraderie of working in a team like you had in college. When it comes to regrets, you could say that it was a shame you didn’t know your chosen career path earlier, as you’d have liked to have volunteered in related roles when you had more free time.

If you’re asked an open-ended question about your outside interests, it’s hard to know what to say because different interviewers will be looking for different things. For example, some will want a candidate who loves group activities like music or sports. Others will prefer someone who favours solitude with hobbies like golf or reading. However, there’s no right or wrong answer here, so tell the truth. If you're the perfect fit for the role, you don't need to pretend to be someone else.

Unless you’ve got a hunch for which one of your hobbies the interviewer would most like to hear about, use it as an opportunity to give a general overview of your passions.

While you might think that you should say you read stock exchange news for fun to show your love of finance, it suggests you only have narrow interests. Most companies want well-rounded employees, so here’s your chance to prove you'd be great to work with.

Some interviewers like to ask off-the-wall questions. With a lot of them, it’s more about how you react to the challenge than what you say.

So, if an interviewer asks you, “Would you rather fight a bear-sized spider or 1000 spider-sized bears?”, you could say that you’d pick the 1000 spider-sized bears and battle them with a fly swatter. A creative way to fight a bear-sized spider will go down well, too! Whatever you say, always choose one option. With a conundrum question, the interviewer wants to test your decisiveness as well as your logical thinking. So, don’t sit on the fence and explain your reasoning.

For more advice on unusual questions, read our tips on how to answer weird interview questions.

A maths question will sometimes pop up in a competency-based interview when a potential employer is trying to figure out if you’ve got all the skills they’re looking for.

However, employers don’t just ask maths questions to assess your mental arithmetic. If they only wanted to know your numeracy skills, they’d set you a longer maths test or look at your A Level Maths grade. Another reason an interviewer asks a maths question is to evaluate your attitude.

As with lots of tricky questions, the interviewer is asking a maths puzzle to see how you react in an unexpected situation. Ideally, you’ll react calmly and give it your best shot.

The interviewer knows you’d do better with advanced warning of a maths question, but you don't always get warnings in real life. They want to see how you cope with a tricky question without your usual tools (ie. a calculator). The good news is that getting the wrong answer is unlikely to be a pass or fail; it’s mainly about your approach, so just try your best.

Oh, the answer is 89 seconds by the way.

Like maths questions, some brainteasers require mental arithmetic. However, the difference is that you also need to do lateral thinking alongside your sums.

When asking the brainteaser “How many lightbulbs are there on the M40?”, the interviewer wants to know your logical workings.

To estimate the number of lightbulbs on the M40, you’ve got to think about the length of the road and how many lightbulbs will exist across that distance. A good candidate thinks beyond the obvious cats’ eyes and factors in the bulbs that exist in the surrounding area, like lamps, traffic lights, temporary speed limit notices, motorway electronic signs and flashing bollards. Think you’ve covered everything? Think again. The interviewer wants you to count all the lightbulbs on the M40, so that includes bulbs in cars. Think taillights, headlights and indicators. Then think outside the box (and inside the cars) and consider internal vehicle lighting systems, passengers’ mobile phones and key fob LEDs. Perhaps you’ve thought of lightbulbs we haven’t even mentioned. The more detail you share, the better! The interviewer doesn’t expect you to know the answer, but they want you to view it as a challenge, so don’t throw out a random number as a guess.

Want more tips on tackling similar questions? Learn how to answer brainteaser questions.

It feels harsh, but sometimes interviewers will try to catch you out with a trick question.

For example, if you’re interviewing for a job at a business that only operates online, an interviewer might ask you about their physical stores to test your research – and your confidence. If you’ve got faith in yourself that you know your stuff, say something like:

“I was under the impression that you only sold goods online because of the lower operating costs. Has something changed?”

You don’t want to get standoffish with an interviewer and say, “Are you tricking me?” in case something has indeed changed. However, you’ve got to make it clear that you’re confused by their question. It’s much better than waffling on and making up a response!

If you’re unsure if a question is a trick, ask for more information. The more the interviewer talks, the easier it’ll be to work out what they want to hear.

You’ll likely have to face some difficult job interview questions as part of the recruitment process. However, they don’t have to be scary. If you rehearse responses to frequently asked challenging questions (like “Where do you see yourself in five years?” and “Tell me about a time you led a team.”), you’ll set yourself up for success. Plus, if you think about the reasons why interviewers ask odd, maths-based and trick questions, you’ll have a better idea of how to respond to them.

If you take on our interview advice and do your prep work, you’ll be ready to answer even the most challenging interview questions.

Good luck!