Behavioral interview question · failure
Tell me about a time you missed an important deadline. What happened and how did you handle it?
What interviewers listen for
Describe the deadline and why it mattered (Situation/Task), the root cause of the miss and how you communicated it (Action), and the steps you took to recover and prevent recurrence (Result). Avoid making excuses.
Likely follow-up questions
- At what point did you know you were going to miss it?
- How did you communicate the delay to stakeholders?
- What did you change to prevent missing deadlines in the future?
Practice this question out loud with an AI coach that asks the follow-ups, scores the answer against the STAR method and tells you what to tighten.