How do you handle conflict at work?
Company: Citadel
Role: Software Engineer
Category: Behavioral & Leadership
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Onsite
Describe a time you had a conflict with a teammate (e.g., disagreement on technical direction, priorities, code quality, or ownership).
Please cover:
- What was the context and what was at stake?
- What exactly was the disagreement?
- What actions did you take to resolve it?
- What was the outcome and what did you learn?
Follow-ups:
- How do you handle conflict when you’re not the decision-maker?
- How do you handle conflict when you believe the other person is objectively wrong?
- What would you do differently next time?
Overview: This question evaluates interpersonal skills such as conflict resolution, communication, accountability, and leadership by asking about a concrete disagreement with a teammate in a software engineering context.
Read the full Citadel Software Engineer interview experience this question came from