Resolving Disagreements with a Coworker, Another Team and a Mentee Who Resists Direction

A behavioral round made of three prompts about conflict and influence at work. For each one, describe a specific situation from your own experience: the context, what you did, and how it turned out. ### Clarifying Questions - For the cross-team prompt, is the interviewer most interested in a disagreement about technical direction, about priorities, or about who owns a piece of work? - For the mentee prompt, does it matter whether you formally lead the person or informally guide a junior teammate? - Is it acceptable to choose a story in which your own position turned out to be wrong? ### Part 1 — A disagreement with a coworker How do you handle a disagreement with a coworker? Walk through a specific time it happened. ```hint Pick real stakes Choose a disagreement that mattered to the work, and one where you can state the other person's position as fairly as your own. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - The concrete issue, what was at stake, and both positions - How you understood their view, and what evidence or criteria settled the question - The decision, your part in it, and the working relationship afterwards ### Part 2 — A disagreement with another team How do you handle a disagreement with another team? Walk through a specific case. ```hint Start from their goals Before describing how you pushed, explain what the other team was accountable for and why their position made sense to them. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - The other team's goals and constraints, and where they conflicted with yours - How a resolution was reached: shared data, explicit trade-offs, a compromise, or escalation and when - The outcome, and what made the next collaboration easier ### Part 3 — A mentee who does not accept your direction A junior engineer you are mentoring or leading does not accept your direction. What do you do? Use a real case if you have one. ```hint Diagnose before you act Several different causes look the same from the outside. Think about how you would find out which one you are facing before deciding how firm to be. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - Finding out why they resist before responding - When to let them try their own way, and when to hold a firm line - Clear expectations, follow-up, and when to involve their manager ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Specific situations with real stakes, told with your own actions clearly separated from the team's - Curiosity before persuasion: understanding the other side's reasoning and constraints - Resolution through evidence, shared goals and explicit trade-offs, with escalation as a deliberate step rather than a first resort - Concrete outcomes, including the state of the relationship afterwards - Honest reflection on what you learned or would do differently ### Follow-up Questions - Tell me about a disagreement where the decision went against you. What did you do after it was made? - In the cross-team case, at what point would you have escalated, and how would you have framed it to both managers? - What if the junior engineer's approach had turned out better than yours? - How do you give critical feedback to someone who becomes defensive?