How Behavioral Interviews Calibrate Junior vs. Senior Engineers
3-step framework to get you hired at the senior level
Hey, Prasad here 👋 I'm the voice behind the weekly newsletter "Behavioural OS for Techies."
Welcome to this week's article, in which I've provided examples of answers to follow-up questions during behavioral interviews that will help you get hired at the senior level.
Also, here is a free 7-day challenge for you to learn how to create a FAANG level STAR format story.
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In this two-part blog post, I'll show you how interviewers choose a candidate's job level. They make this decision by looking at how the person answers questions about their past work experiences.
In the first part of this blog, I provided a 3-step framework to avoid being down-leveled in behavioral interviews. I took an example of a senior engineer persona and the sample STAR format answer that a candidate would provide to a common behvioral question. Then we enhanced the answer step-by-step to position the engineer for a senior level using the three pillars for senior-level responses.
In this second part of the series, I’ll extend the same example to showcase how to answer follow-up questions to ensure you are hired at the correct level.
Quick Recap of Part 1
If you've already read Part 1 of this series, you can skip this recap and move on to the next section - "Handling Follow-up Questions"
If you have not, I highly recommend that you read the full Part 1 article for a comprehensive understanding before continuing.
However, if you're short on time, here's a brief summary:
The Three Pillars of Senior-Level Responses
In your day-to-day activities, you'll be working on multiple tasks. Some will be classified as junior-level tasks and others will be classified as senior-level tasks.
During an interview, the interviewer will make a perception about your seniority level based on the answers you provide.
I’ll focus on 3 main pillars of how you can enhance your answers to position yourself as a senior engineer:
Scope and Impact
Technical Depth and Complexity
Leadership and Collaboration
A Common Behavioral Question
Let’s take an example of a common behavioral question that is asked to engineers
Tell me about a time when you had to dive deep to find a root cause of an issue and resolve.
Every engineer will have an experience of such a scenario. We'll start with a basic response and gradually enhance it.
A Basic Response Example
Here is an example of an answer that an engineer would provide:
Situation: Our e-commerce site was loading slowly, especially during busy times.
Task: I was asked to help speed it up.
Action: I used Chrome DevTools to check the page performance and saw that the product images were taking too long to load. I compressed the images and implemented lazy loading for images below the fold.
Result: This made the page load about 30% faster, and that significantly improved our end-customer experience.
In part 1, we iteratively improve Situation-Task-Action-Result focussing on the three pillars and add relevant details to ensure interviewer calibrates you as senior.
Improved Example
Here is the final answer:
Situation: Our e-commerce platform, which handles $10 million in monthly sales, was experiencing slow load times on product pages. It was causing a 5% drop in conversion rates.
Task: Given the impact, I picked up the task to improve the page load time to under 2 seconds.
Action: I led a comprehensive optimization effort, involving both front-end and back-end improvements.
The backend analysis revealed that database queries were also a significant factor in the slow load times. Working with the backend team, we implemented database indexing and query caching, reducing database response times by 50%.
On the front-end, I implemented image optimization, and we also introduced a content delivery network (CDN) to serve static assets globally, further reducing latency.
Result: These combined efforts resulted in a 30% reduction in overall page load times, bringing us well under our 2-second target. The improvements led to a 15% increase in conversion rates, boosting monthly revenue by $1.5 million.
Be cautious though—adding these details can be a double-edged sword. The interviewer will ask follow-up questions and if you get stuck answering them, you’ll lose the interviewer’s trust.
If you can’t answer follow-up questions, it’s better to stick to the basic version, which will at least get you hired, although at a lower level.
Handling Follow-up Questions
As you have seen how you can improve an answer to position yourself as a senior-level engineer, let's look at a couple of follow-up questions.
Follow-up Question 1: Challenges Faced
Can you elaborate on the challenges you faced during this optimization process?
If you have provided the basic response to the initial question, then your response to the follow-up question would be something like:
❌ Basic response: The main challenge was figuring out the right balance between image quality and file size. We wanted the product images to look good while still loading quickly. It took some trial and error to find the right compression settings. Another challenge was implementing lazy loading without making the user experience feel choppy as they scrolled down the page.
You might think this is good because it showcases technical complexity. However, the interviewer would perceive the candidate as a junior front-end engineer because the answer focuses on specific technical challenges without mentioning high-level strategic thinking..
Compare that with the below answer, which explains the challenges associated with typical senior tasks:
✅ Improved response: One significant challenge was coordinating efforts across multiple teams. The optimization required changes to our front-end, back-end, and infrastructure, each managed by different teams with competing priorities. I had to effectively communicate the urgency and business impact of the project to get buy-in from all stakeholders.
Another challenge was maintaining performance improvements as new features were added. To address this, we implemented performance budgets and integrated performance testing into our CI/CD pipeline. This required not just technical implementation but also a shift in our development culture, emphasizing the importance of performance in every code change.
You’re certain to be leveled at Senior after a response like this. Let’s examine the three pillars in this follow-up answer.
Scope and Impact: The candidate addresses the organizational-level challenges and long-term sustainability of the solution. When discussing challenges and solutions, senior engineers address both immediate technical hurdles and broader organizational or strategic obstacles.
Technical Depth and Complexity: The candidate shows an understanding of full-stack issues and DevOps practices.
Leadership and Collaboration: The candidate highlights cross-team coordination and cultural changes. As you move to more senior roles, you try to identify and showcase how your work impacts or involves others.
Let’s peel another layer to dive deep further.
Follow-up Question 2: Measuring Success
"How did you measure the success of your optimizations?"
This is where the candidate will shine or falter based on whether they actually have experience or not.
Remember, I said, that adding details can be a double-edge sword. This is the time you need to explain the data and numbers you have mentioned during your initial answer.
Let’s again start with a basic response:
❌ Basic response: "We primarily looked at the page load time as measured by our performance monitoring tools. We also kept an eye on our conversion rates to see if the improvements had a tangible impact on user behavior. The product manager reported the improvement in these metrics after our changes."
What happened here is that you left the interviewer high and dry. The interviewer was almost convinced that you were operating at a senior level, but then, when it came to actual details, you did not dive deep enough.
This is the reason I always recommend that candidates think of all possible follow-up questions and prepare responses accordingly.
Let's look at an answer that will impress the interviewer:
✅ Improved response: We established a comprehensive set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure success:
Technical metrics: Page load time, Time to First Byte (TTFB), and First Contentful Paint (FCP).
User experience metrics: Bounce rate and session duration.
Business metrics: Conversion rate, revenue per session, and overall sales figures.
We used tools like Google Analytics and custom dashboards to track these metrics in real-time. Additionally, we conducted A/B tests to isolate the impact of our changes and ensure that the improvements were statistically significant.
To capture the full picture, we also monitored our infrastructure costs and system reliability, ensuring that our optimizations didn't come at the expense of increased operational costs or decreased stability.
If you notice, the key difference in this answer is that you showcased your knowledge of the big picture and provided a high level of granularity on multiple aspects of the project.
At this point, the interviewer can ask more questions and dive deeper if they choose, but you have clearly demonstrated comprehensive end-to-end knowledge of the system you worked on.
Final Thoughts
As we wrap up our talk about senior-level tech interviews, let's focus on why follow-up questions are so important in the leveling process. While coming up with impressive initial responses is important, how you answer the follow-up questions can make the difference between being seen as a junior-level or senior engineer.
Here are some key points to remember:
Expect more questions: Always be ready for follow-up questions. For every experience you share, think about what the interviewer might ask next. This will help you answer confidently.
Show deep knowledge: Follow-up questions help interviewers see how well you really know your stuff. Be ready to explain details and why you made certain choices.
Keep your story straight: Make sure your follow-up answers match what you said first. If things don't add up, it can make you look bad.
Think like a senior: Use follow-up questions to show how you think about the bigger picture. Talk about how your work affected the business and how you helped others.
Interviews aren't just about showing what you've done. They're about showing what you can do in the future. By being ready for follow-up questions, you provide a more accurate representation of your capabilities and skills.
So, as you prepare for your next interview, give equal weight to crafting your initial responses and anticipating the follow-up questions that will truly define your perceived level of expertise.
Free Resource
In this two-part blog series, I introduced the three pillars of senior-level responses. Use the template below to capture the pillars from projects you worked on and how you’ll answer questions in behavioral interviews.
7-day challenge to create FAANG level STAR story
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