How to Answer Open-Ended Interview Questions (Complete Guide)

A comprehensive step-by-step guide based on 12 years of recruiting experience, especially at Google and FAANG companies.

Introduction

I spend a lot of time answering questions about resume writing, job searching, and interviewing.

One that comes up frequently is how to interview well, and more specifically how to answer open-ended questions (often asked at FAANG, etc...). Most online advice is generic/vague, which you probably found hard to apply.

So I wrote this step-by-step guide with everything you need to know on the topic. This is an article you can keep referring back to, so you can improve on this skill that will serve you throughout your career.

This method is based on my 12 years of recruiting experience, especially for Google, where part of my job was analyzing interview performance.

Summary: What You'll Learn

(I)

The 2 types of open-ended questions and why they're used.

(II)

How your answers are judged.

(III)

How to prepare and train for open-ended questions.

(IV)

Interview techniques for maximum performance.

(V)

A real-life example question and answer.

Why Use Open-Ended Questions?

The purpose of an open-ended question is not to get a final answer. It's to get a thought process.

You're forced to expose your actual chain of thoughts, because:

  • You can't rely solely on prior knowledge.
  • You can't predict what question will be asked.

The experience can be stressful, especially if you're new to this. You're already in a stressful situation (interviewing), and you're essentially asked to improvise. You have to think about the answer and communicate it at the same time, which is a lot for your brain to process, so it strips away all pretense. You're exposed and have no choice but to reason out loud.

Behavioral vs. Situational Questions

Behavioral Questions

Behavioral questions are based on past experiences. Their goal is to trigger the memory of an event, which you then articulate as your answer.

They often start with "Tell me about a time when..." Here's one:

"Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your manager's decision?"

Situational Questions

Situational questions are made-up scenarios. In my experience, they're the hardest to answer because the context could be totally unfamiliar to you.

Here's the hypothetical twist of our previous question:

"Your manager just made a decision you disagree with. What do you do?"

How You're Judged

This section is super important, because once you understand how you're evaluated, everything else will be much clearer. Everyone tends to gravitate around 3 components: Structure, Complexity, and Reasoning.

(1) Structure

The most obvious part is structure, which boils down to these 4 questions:

Situation:

Do you understand the problem and its root cause?

Task:

What's the most impactful set of solutions to the problem?

Action:

How do you implement your plan, and with what resources?

Result:

What results do you expect and how will you measure them?

You've probably heard of the STAR method, which helps organize your answer into successive steps.

(2) Complexity

During interviews, complexity has 3 components:

Timeline

Your ability to integrate short, medium, and long-term scenarios.

Scale

Your ability to navigate between the big picture and granular details.

Contingencies

Can you anticipate problems and have backup plans for them?

(3) Reasoning

The last part is the quality of your reasoning itself. There are 2 components:

Critical Thinking

Your argumentation. Did you make reasonable claims based on the given context?

Support

Your ability to back up your hypotheses with deduced data or logical statements.

How to Prepare

The key is to train a thought process, rather than specific answers. The best way to improve is to focus on each aspect (structure, complexity, and reasoning) individually first, before putting it all together.

Level 1: Structure (STAR)

For structure, you need a framework that helps organize your problem-solving steps.

The Exercise:

  1. Find a set of 2/3 questions per day to train with (you can use Glassdoor).
  2. Record yourself answering these questions to induce stress and urgency.
  3. Answer by dedicating 20-30 seconds to each step of the process (Situation, Task, etc...).

This will eventually help you internalize the structure and instinctively think in terms of steps.

Level 2: Complexity

Use the same exercise as before, but this time, add more detail to one of the 3 complexity components (Time, Scale, Contingencies).

  • Work on timeline first: add multiple Action → Result loops.
  • Then focus on scale: break down into overall strategy and implementation areas.
  • Finally, add the contingency part after the Result step.

Level 3: Reasoning

It's hard to train your reasoning with a specific technique. Doing the exercise itself trains that muscle.

🏦 The Story Bank

Build a "Story Bank": prepare a couple of past stories for each common theme (conflict management, acting as owner, giving/receiving feedback, etc.).

During the interview, simply call up the right story at the right time. This makes situational questions easier to nail over time.

Interview Techniques for Maximum Performance

Ask Follow-Up Questions

Make sure to ask questions that uncover more information. Don't ask questions just for the sake of it.

Make Assumptions

If you need to use metrics you don't know, make assumptions and tell the interviewer your reasoning.

Take Your Time

Interviewers don't expect you to answer in seconds. Pause before responding.

Think Out Loud

Create a mental plan and then walk the interviewer through your reasoning as you add complexity.

Real-Life Example

Question:

"You've been working on a critical project for 6 months and are suddenly asked to hand it over to a colleague. What do you do next?"

{SITUATION - Problem Statement}

I think there are 2 problems to address here: first the reason for the handover, then ensuring it happens in the most efficient and safe way while maintaining team cohesion.

{SITUATION - Follow-up}

Did the handover happen due to a performance issue on my part or external factors?

(let's say the interviewer responds it was because "your manager wasn't satisfied with your performance.")

{TASK - Scale: Big Picture}

You mentioned the project is critical, so the focus should be first ensuring a smooth handover (short term), before analyzing my own performance in detail (medium term) and working toward a skill improvement plan (long term).

{TASK + ACTION - Short Term}

Here are the actions I'd take during the first few days:

  • First ask for direct feedback from my manager to identify the basis of the decision.
  • Request feedback from all collaborators specifically on areas to improve.
  • Communicate my mistakes and stakeholder feedback to my colleague so they understand the context.
  • Organize key information and resources to hand over quickly.

{TASK + ACTION - Medium Term}

Over the following weeks:

  • Stay available for periodic check-ins with my colleague.
  • Seek education on the topic internally (trainings, workshops) and externally (courses, books).
  • Create my own speed and decision-making framework, documenting situations and outcomes.

{TASK + ACTION - Long Term}

For the months ahead:

  • Do periodic check-ins with my managers and seek feedback from new stakeholders.
  • Review my personal decision-making documentation to evaluate improvements.
  • Look for opportunities to transfer this knowledge to other colleagues.

{CONTINGENCIES}

Things don't always go according to plan. I anticipate these 2 new problems could happen:

Problem 1:

My colleague might be struggling with similar issues. In that case, I'd partner more closely with them so we can find solutions together.

Problem 2:

Long term, I might get feedback that my decision-making isn't improving. If so, I'd conduct another assessment and consider a more personalized training approach like coaching services.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this (very) long post. I hope it was helpful :-)

The last thing I want to say is that all the concepts above are general guidelines. They're here to help you visualize, organize, and train, but they're not law, and there are other ways to think about the topic.

Once you feel comfortable with the key principles, don't obsess over them and start playing with the rules. That's also what great improvisers do 🎸