Interview Question: Tell me about a time you failed. What did you learn from it?
Everyone fails. What separates great engineers is how they respond—taking ownership, learning deeply, and emerging stronger. This question tests self-awareness, honesty, and growth mindset.
What Interviewers Are Looking For
- Honesty: Can you admit to a real failure?
- Ownership: Do you take responsibility?
- Self-Reflection: Did you analyze what went wrong?
- Growth: What concrete changes did you make?
Choosing the Right Failure
- Real: Not a humble brag ("I worked too hard")
- Professional: Work-related
- Meaningful: Had real consequences
- Resolved: You learned and improved
✓ Strong Answer
"I pushed a change that caused a 45-minute production outage. I skipped the full test suite because I was confident. The bug only appeared under high load. I immediately owned the mistake in our incident review—no excuses. I learned that confidence isn't a substitute for process. Now I never skip tests, and I championed adding load testing to our CI pipeline. Haven't had a similar incident since."
💡 Pro Tip
Own the failure completely. Show genuine learning. Demonstrate how you've changed. The interviewer isn't looking to disqualify you—they're looking for evidence of growth.