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Quick overview
- Behavioural questions focus on how you’ve handled real situations in the past
- Employers use them to spot key skills like problem-solving, teamwork and communication skills
- A great way to answer them is with the STAR method – situation, task, action and result
This guide walks you through everything you need to know to feel confident and prepared.
What are behavioural questions?
Making smart, considered decisions when facing challenges at work is an important skill in most jobs. Unlike other common questions in a job interview, behavioural questions help employers understand how you’d approach these decisions and assess skills that are sometimes tricky to communicate in a written application.
Most interviewers are looking to understand your skills in:
- Problem-solving: how you approach challenges and find solutions
- Communication: how clearly you share ideas or listen to others
- Leadership: how you guide or support others when working towards a goal
- Teamwork: how well you work with others and contribute to group tasks
- Adaptability: how you respond when plans change or things don’t go as expected
How to answer behavioural questions using the STAR method
Interviews make most people feel nervous or stressed. One way to prepare yourself is by understanding how these trickier questions are structured and how to answer them.
Behavioural questions typically ask you to describe a previous situation at work or school where you faced a specific challenge and explain how you handled it.
When responding to behavioural questions, we suggest following the STAR method.
- Situation: Describe the situation you were in.
- Task: Explain what your task or goal was in that situation.
- Action: Describe the actions you took to achieve your task or goal.
- Result: Explain the outcome of your actions.
Using this method can help you structure your answers clearly while highlighting some of the skills mentioned above.
How to prepare for behavioural questions
You don’t have to memorise a script to be prepared for these types of questions. It’s about thinking ahead of the experiences you could talk about and practicing how to explain them clearly.
Along with some general interview preparation, here are a few ways you can prepare for behavioural questions:
- Identify examples from different parts of your life - Think about situations from work, school, volunteering, sport or community activities. Employers understand that many young people are early in their careers, so examples from study or everyday life are often just as valuable.
- Choose examples that show key skills - This is an opportunity to highlight the skills you’re proud of. Think of times where you worked well with others, solved a problem, or took initiative.
- Practice explaining your examples out loud - Try practicing with someone you trust or record yourself and watch it back. Sometimes we can think of responses in our head but might need more practice speaking about them naturally.
- Review the job description - Look at the skills mentioned in the job ad and try to think of examples where you have demonstrated those skills.
The best way to understand behavioural questions is to see how the STAR method works in practice.
Examples of behavioural questions (and how to answer them)
Here are some examples of behavioural questions and how you might answer them:
- Situation: During a group project at school, one team member wasn't contributing equally.
- Task: I wanted to keep the project on track and make sure everyone was involved.
- Action: I spoke to them privately to check if they were having trouble with the work and suggested we split the remaining tasks, so everyone knew what they were responsible for.
- Result: The project was completed on time, and everyone was able to contribute to the final presentation.
- Situation: My manager called in sick on one of our busiest shifts at work.
- Task: I needed to step up and help keep things running smoothly without much notice.
- Action: I quickly checked what needed to be prioritised, communicated with the rest of the team, and delegated tasks where I could.
- Result: The shift ran smoothly and my manager recognised my initiative when they returned.
- Situation: I had just started a casual retail job when our store introduced a new point-of-sale system during the busy holiday period.
- Task: I needed to learn the system quickly so I could service customers efficiently during my shifts.
- Action: I asked a colleague to walk me through the main functions, practised during quieter moments, and wrote down a few quick reminders to refer to.
- Result: Within a few shifts I felt confident using the system and was able to assist other new staff members as well.
- Situation: During my internship at a small marketing agency, I noticed our team spent a lot of time searching for files from previous campaigns.
- Task: I wanted to help make it easier for the team to access important documents.
- Action: I organised the files into clearly labelled folders and created a simple shared document explaining where everything was stored.
- Result: The team said it saved time during projects, and my supervisor thanked me for taking the initiative to improve the process.
- Situation: During my first few weeks working in a clothing store, my supervisor mentioned that I could improve how I approached customers on the shop floor.
- Task: I wanted to take the feedback on board and improve my customer service skills.
- Action: I asked my supervisor for examples of how experienced staff started conversations with customers and practised those approaches during my shifts.
- Result: I became more confident approaching customers and received positive feedback from both my manager and customers.
- Situation: While volunteering as a lifeguard at a local pool, a parent approached me upset because the swimming lesson they had booked had been cancelled at short notice.
- Task: My role was to help address their concern and make sure they knew what options were available.
- Action: I listened to their concerns, apologised for the inconvenience and checked with the front desk team to confirm what had happened. I then explained the situation clearly and helped them rebook their child into the next available lesson.
- Result: The parent appreciated the update and was happy that their child could join another class the following week.
Practising a few responses like these using the STAR method can make it easier to adapt your answers if unexpected questions come up.
Common mistakes to avoid when answering behavioural questions
STAR works best when your answers are clear and positive.
- Be specific: It’s important to be specific and talk about the most important details so your answer is unique and relevant for the role. Don’t get too lost in the details, but make sure you’re explaining the situation.
- Leave the result to the end: Think of the result as the conclusion to your story. While it is important to get to the result, remember that your interviewer is looking at how you handled getting there.
- Keep it positive: If your response talks about an issue you faced, aim to focus more on how you overcame it. If you couldn’t overcome it, describe what you learned through the experience, what you could have done differently and how this might apply to your new role.
Behavioural questions can feel a little awkward at first, especially when you’re already feeling nervous. Having a few experiences ready to talk about can make it much easier to explain your skills and respond to different questions with more confidence. With a bit of preparation, these questions can become a great opportunity to show what you have to offer.
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SEEK. (accessed 2025, February 24). Best answers to situation interview questions. Retrieved from https://www.seek.com.au/career-advice/article/best-answers-to-situational-interview-questions
SEEK. (accessed 2025, November 18). How to answer behavioural interview questions. Retrieved from https://www.seek.com.au/career-advice/article/heres-how-to-ace-behavioural-interview-questions
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Last reviewed April 2026.
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