Advocacy and Constructive Disagreement Questions
Share examples of times you disagreed with leadership, colleagues, or customer requests and advocated for your perspective. Demonstrate healthy disagreement: listening to others' views, building evidence for your position, expressing concern diplomatically, accepting decisions even when you disagree. Show that you can influence outcomes through persuasion rather than authority. At mid-level, demonstrate both advocating for your views and respecting final decisions by others.
HardSystem Design
0 practiced
Multiple teams disagree on whether to standardize on SQL or NoSQL for new services. As the technical lead, design a structured decision process that includes evaluative criteria (consistency, scaling, latency, cost), prototyping and benchmarking plan, governance model, migration implications, and how to build consensus across teams that have different constraints.
HardTechnical
0 practiced
Your proposed architectural change requires coordinated updates across teams in multiple time zones with minimal overlap. Describe a plan to gain buy-in, sequence the work to reduce blocking, schedule coordination windows, use automation to limit manual steps, and maintain momentum while respecting local norms and minimizing rework.
EasyTechnical
0 practiced
How and where do you document significant disagreements and their rationales (for example: RFCs, design docs, tickets)? Provide a sample structure you would use so future engineers can understand decision history, assumptions, trade-offs, and how to reopen the discussion if new evidence emerges.
EasyBehavioral
0 practiced
Tell me about a time you advocated for one technical solution and then changed your position after listening to others. What new information or perspective convinced you, how did you communicate that change of mind to the team, and what did you learn about influencing as a result?
MediumTechnical
0 practiced
You're in a cross-functional planning meeting when a senior engineer or PM asserts a decision you think is risky. How would you voice your disagreement in that forum without derailing the meeting? Provide a short script or phrasing and explain when you'd request a follow-up deep dive versus pushing the point immediately.
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