Interview Question: Tell me about a time you had to manage multiple tasks with tight deadlines.
Prioritization is a critical skill. Interviewers want to see you can manage competing demands, make hard trade-offs, and deliver what matters most without dropping balls.
What Interviewers Are Looking For
- Prioritization: How do you decide what's most important?
- Organization: How do you track and manage tasks?
- Communication: Do you set expectations with stakeholders?
- Execution: Can you deliver under pressure?
STAR Framework
S - Situation
What competing deadlines were you facing?
A - Action
- List all tasks and their true deadlines
- Prioritize by impact and urgency
- Communicate trade-offs to stakeholders
- Focus deeply on one thing at a time
- Negotiate scope or deadlines where possible
R - Result
Successfully delivered the most important work.
✓ Strong Answer
"I had three features due the same week: a critical bug fix, a partner integration, and a UI improvement. I ranked by business impact: bug fix (affecting paying customers) first, integration (contract deadline) second, UI (nice-to-have) third. I communicated the UI delay upfront. Delivered the critical items on time, and the UI feature a few days later with no complaints."