behavioral Flashcards
Tell me about a time when you mentored someone.
Situation:
5 or 6 months after I was hired, our team lost 2 other members
we hired two other people
Task:
I was tasked with getting them up to speed with the product and answering any questions they had about it
Action:
set up a meeting with them and guided them through the entire application
Result:
knowledge transfer was mostly successful
there were points where I didn’t know as much as I could - where I had to ask team leads for clarification
learned: both teammates and I were able to learn more details about the application
Tell me about something you’ve spearheaded/led the charge on at work.
Situation:
“we have an internal, client facing team that uses our product to complete filings on the clients’ behalf
they typically had to use our system to input values in a more manual fashion”
Task:
we had a goal of streamlining that process
Action:
“constructed a excel template which our internal team used to fill in
utilized a legacy, in-house dispatcher system to process the excel sheets that the team would fill out
developed an ETL pipeline that automated key components of our system: filing creation, numbers aggregation, and validation”
Result:
“resulted in completing filings roughly 70% faster than it would take normally
instead of going through each section of the filing, all the user would have to do is fill in this template, and drop it in a shared folder, which our dispatcher picks up and starts the entire filing process”
Tell me about a time when you took it upon yourself to give feedback to someone who was holding-back the team.
“have not experience this but my approach would be very polite
ask if there’s anything going on that is hindering their work
ask how I can help their work, if possible”
Tell me about a difficult technical challenge you encountered. How did you navigate it?
Situation:
“legacy client had issue with his excel macros
needed to fix it in order to complete his filing before the deadline”
Task:
I had to go into his excel macro and fix the VB code without any background knowledge of VB code
Action:
“had to learn VB syntax on the fly
had to learn how to debug/set breakpoints/add items to watchlists to see how the data was being manipulated by the VB code”
Result:
“within the same day, I managed to fix a couple of marcos written in VB
fixing the data aggregation within the excel spreadsheet
resulted in a successful filing for the client”
learned: excel macro/vb coding/debugging
Tell me about your side projects.
Situation:
Brooklyn Nets interview right out of college
Task:
Project that I did after college to learn more about python, APIs, and web development
Action:
Utilized flask web framework, nba_py API (for real time NBA stats)
Result:
“Calculate best players to play for any given situation
i.e. 4th Quarter, Down by 5, playing the Nets
Spits out best 5 players to play for that situation given the statistical analysis done on the backend
“
Tell me about a project that didn’t go according to plan (shifted priorities/deadlines/budget).
Situation:
“for the ETL system, the last component consisted of adding all the validations
it was decided that this should be completed in 1 week instead of 2 because we wanted more time for testing”
Task:
complete the ETL validation coding within 1 week instead of 2
Action:
“I had to organize my thoughts and plan a little more rigidly
also had to put more hours in to complete the work in time”
Result:
“resulted in completing the task
albeit, there were some bugs in the code
ended up fixing them later”
learned: to get things done earlier just in case they need to be done sooner
How do you negotiate scope/requirements across teams?
“having worked in 3 different teams (all at once at one point), I managed my bandwidth by explicitly making my bandwidth known across all teams
prioritized which scope was more important
prioritize which tasks were more important”
How do you stay educated on best-practices/industry trends?
“follow a lot of technology social media pages
e.g. instagram, reddit”
How have you worked on your weaknesses and developed your strengths?
most notably quit my job and started interview kickstart
Tell me about a time when you received feedback that was difficult to hear.
Situation:
during annual performance review, manager mentioned that the completeness of my work wasn’t up to par
Task:
Action:
although I was a little offended and didn’t see it at the time, I acknowledged it and worked on it. Also, joined a new team where the lead dev was amazing and I inspired to be like him. He really made sure all his code was impenetrable and I learned from him.
Result:
the next annual performance review mentioned I made great progress with completeness
Tell me about a time you had to deliver on a tight deadline.
Situation:
“for the ETL system, the last component consisted of adding all the validations
it was decided that this should be completed in 1 week instead of 2 because we wanted more time for testing”
Task:
complete the ETL validation coding within 1 week instead of 2
Action:
“I had to organize my thoughts and plan a little more rigidly
also had to put more hours in to complete the work in time”
Result:
“resulted in completing the task
albeit, there were some bugs in the code
ended up fixing them later”
learned: to get things done earlier just in case they need to be done sooner
Tell me about a time you fell behind or missed a deadline on a project. How did you respond?
Situation:
I joined new team, and took on more tickets than I probably should have
Task:
“on top of other tickets, I had to implement 4 new APIs
still was not 100% familiar with the code base”
Action:
spent a lot of extra hours in the last 1 and half weeks of sprint to finish tickets
Result:
got tickets done, however there were a lot of improvements I wish I had more time to do
learned: to be honest with the scope of my bandwidth to take on appropriate amount of work per sprint
Tell me about yourself.
“backend focused engineer with 5 years of experience
computer science degree
worked at ACA where I was a part of 3 different teams, delivering different kinds of products
looking for an opportunity to expand my skillset and knowledge and be part of a engaging team and contribute to more meaningful, higher visibility products”
Tell me about a conflict you had with your own manager. How did you approach this?
Situation:
“soon after joining a new team, during a sprint, I was asked by my manager to take on a few more items than I was comfortable with
given that it was a new code base that I was still getting comfortable with and knowing other tasks that I had for another project, I explained that I might not be able to do it
she still wanted me to take on the tasks anyway
end of the sprint was coming close and I still had a long ways to go
she was disappointed in my progress at that point”
Task:
create a couple new APIs
Action:
“I discussed with her that I took on too many tasks that exceeded my capacity (knowing myself as a developer)
she mentioned that I still have to get the work done regardless
I ended up finishing the work in time
we had a discussion after the sprint where I explained my realistic capacity to get quality work done
I also mentioned that I could improve my orgranization and time-management to be more productive”
Result:
agreement that I was given too many tasks and I should take on what I’m comfortable with
developed a better time-management system for me to complete tasks
Tell me about a time you overcame a conflict with a team member.
Situation:
“one of my lead devs explained to code something up as IQueryable instead of reading the data directly into a list ahead of time
I realized that that method was inefficient due to it having to make numerous calls to the database as opposed to one large call (we needed all the rows anyway)”
Task:
use IQueryable instead of reading the data directly into a list ahead of time
Action:
we had a screenshare where I walked him through a debug of the code where it was visibly clear that IQueryable was much slower than preloading all the data
Result:
we used my way which resulted in seconds faster processing
Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with your team or the direction your team was headed.
Situation:
“my first team I was a part of, Regulatory Reporting, had no more developement in the future
frustrated because I was only doing maintenance work”
Task:
Action:
spoke to manager about how I was unhappy about just doing maintanence work
Result:
joined Security Master team that was complex and fun to work on
Tell me about a time where you had to resolve a conflict between two or more of your team members.
“have not done this but I know I am very empathetic
can understand both points of view and come up with an objective solution”
Why are you looking for a new job?
“I’m aiming to get back into the finance world. Working at Vertafore which is an insurance company, I don’t find the business logic that appealing to work with. I want to get back to the finance world because it’s more relatable and tangible. I think about finances everyday as well as a retail investor, so the work is more useful and meaningful - and when it’s more meaningful, I naturally do a better job”
“My current company feels very dated - still uses VB, is a windows application (winforms), just started using GitHub. I want to work with more web development - APIs, and newer technology in general”
Why our company?
“Practising Law Institute: Seems like newer technologies, which is most important. Also, from what I heard from Perri, the culture and the investment in PLI’s employees seems amazing as well”
How would you describe yourself and why do you think that you should be hired by Grammarly?
a. I would say, or would like to believe (lol), I’m intelligent, hard-working, friendly, and empathetic.
b. I think I would just be a really solid addition to Grammarly. Someone that can be relied on all the time to get all my work done efficiently, and also someone who can bring new thoughts and ideas to the table.
What was your experience one time when you were asked to help a colleague in an area out of your sphere of responsibility?
Situation:
Teammate asked if I can help see why our dispatcher wasn’t working
Task:
Help teammate
Action:
Said I can help in a few minutes -> did a screenshare with him to solve the issue
Update config file to point to the right database -> fixed issue
Result:
I’m always happy to help out a coworker so it was a pleasure for me
Share an example of a time you failed to succeed.
Situation:
Two weeks away from launching our PFRD ETL system
Task:
Complete validation for the PFRD ETL system in a week so we can have a full week of testing beforehand
Action:
Worked on it but it wasn’t fully complete by the end of the week
Result:
Manager was disappointed but I worked all weekend, Monday and Tuesday to complete the validation. Finished by Tuesday
learned: to get things done earlier just in case they need to be done sooner
What would be your ideal team to join in Grammarly
I’m used to relatively smaller teams around 7-10 people. I like this setting because it feels like everyone knows each other better and knows what everyone is working on. Allows for easier communication
Could you tell me about a time when a decision you made didn’t work out? What did you learn from it?
A lot of my code that I wrote early on in my career was not fully thought out before I wrote it. It resulted in a log of bugs and a lot more work in the end. When I joined Security Master team, lead dev was inspirational in the way he wrote code which was very thought out and very fault tolerant. I learned to be more thoughtful and intricate with my code, so that it would be more fault tolerant
