The most commonly asked interview questions (part 1)

The following list includes 80 of the top most commonly asked interview questions concerning personal background:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What major challenges and problems did you face?
3. How would someone who dislikes you describe you?
4. What was your biggest failure?
5. What is your definition of failure?
6. What are your regrets?
7. What is your greatest weakness?
8. When was the last time you were angry? What happened?
9. If you could relive the last 10 years of your life, what would you do differently?
10. Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.
11. What are your goals?
12. What is your dream job?
13. What are three things your former manager would like you to improve on?
14. Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
15. Are you a leader or a follower?
16. What are some of your leadership experiences?
17. Why aren’t you earning more money at this stage of your career?
18. Who has inspired you in your life and why?
19. What techniques and tools do you use to keep yourself organized?
20. What is your personal mission statement? OR Give a one sentence statement of yourself.
21. What is your greatest achievement outside of work?
22. Tell me one thing about yourself you wouldn’t want me to know.
23. What is your favorite memory from childhood?
24. What two or three accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction? Why?
25. What are your hobbies?
26. What sports do you play?
27. What kind of games do you like to play?
28. What do you do in leisure/spare time?
29. What do you do to deal with stress?
30. What do you do to help balance life and work?
31. Would you rather be liked or feared?
32. How competitive are you?
33. Tell me about a time when you used your creativity to overcome a problem.
34. Which of your skills, technical or otherwise, has most helped you on the job?
35. What new skills have you learned or developed recently?
36. What sort of things have you done to become better qualified for your career?
37. What were your responsibilities? (e.g. in your last job)
38. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
39. Do you have a favorite quote? What is it?
40. Who is your role model and why?
41. Who do you respect? Why?
42. Tell me about someone you admire and why?
43. What unique experiences separate you from other candidates?
44. What kind of person would you refuse to work with?
45. What are your long-range and short-range goals and objectives, when and why did you establish these goals and how are you preparing yourself to achieve them?
46. Give me an example of an important goal that you set in the past and tell me about your success in reaching it.
47. What do you really want to do in life?
48. What are the most important rewards you expect in your career?
49. What are your best skills?
50. What is the most difficult adjustment you have ever had to make?
51. What two or three things are most important to you in a position?
52. What are you interested in outside of your career?
53. What is the last movie you watched? Did you like it?
54. Give an example of a time you misjudged someone.
55. What have you learned from your mistakes?
56. Give an example of a time when you made a mistake because you did not listen well to what someone had to say.
57. Describe times when you were not satisfied or pleased with your performance. What did you do about it?
58. Describe a time when you had to make a difficult choice between your personal and professional (or academic) life.
59. What do you do if you can’t solve a problem on your own?
60. How has your job affected your lifestyle?
61. What was the most useful criticism you received? Who was it from?
62. Site an example from your personal life when you were dishonest to someone?
63. What you have learned ever since you were born?
64. Write to us about an incident in your life that shows how you faced a difficulty/challenge and how you handled it.
65. Describe how you have persevered with a difficult problem in order to achieve a successful outcome.
66. What experience in your life has taught you the most?
67. Who do you contact and communicate with on a regular basis and for what purpose?
68. What types of people do you get along with and why.
69. What was the most traumatic experience to happen in your personal life?
70. When you go on holiday, when do you pack your case?
71. What do you consider yourself good at doing?
72. On what do you spend your disposable income?
73. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in life?
74. What is your greatest fear?
75. Tell me about a problem you solved in a unique way. What was the outcome?
76. Tell me about a time when you made a decision without all the information you needed.
77. How frequent do you add contacts to your address book? Do you think it is worth building network of contacts?
78. Do you think it is worthwhile to establish new relationships? What are the consequences of building new relationships in your professional and personal life?
79. How will you judge yourself successful? How will you achieve success?
80. What have you learned from your experiences outside the workplace/classroom?