IT interview questions gather information about a professional’s experience, skills and unique approaches to working in technology. Understanding how to answer these questions best may be essential for securing a job in the field. Hiring managers for IT positions tend to ask three types of interview questions to get to know you better. In this article, you’ll learn about the types of questions interviewers ask with examples of six common IT interview questions and how to answer them.

INTERVIEWING

6 Common IT Interview Questions (With Example Answers)

January 3, 2020

What should you expect from an IT interview?

There are three common types of questions someone might ask during the interview process for an IT position:

Questions about you: These questions seek to understand who you are as a person and as an IT professional.
Questions about your technical abilities: This line of questioning demonstrates you have the knowledge required to do the job successfully.
Questions for insight on your IT philosophy: These are questions about the job, company culture and how you manage scenarios.

People in information technology have responsibilities like troubleshooting, preparing user access, monitoring and securing networks and upgrading and installing systems. For this reason, it’s important during the interview to display both hard and soft skills necessary to be successful within a company’s culture. To do this, you should include personal experiences where possible.

When using personal experiences to answer an interview question, remember the STAR method:

Situation: Taking a positive approach, briefly explain a unique IT experience.
Task: Describe the role you played in the scenario.
Action: Explain the steps you took to overcome the obstacle.
Result: Explain the outcome, including what you may have learned.

Read more: Learn About Being an IT Technician

Common IT interview questions

Below are six common IT interview questions you may encounter during your interview and example answers that can help guide your response:

What current certifications do you have?
What coding languages are you comfortable with?
Explain an IT concept in simple terms.
How do you feel about Agile? Explain its benefits and drawbacks.
What online resources and utilities do you use to help you manage business?
Describe your process for deployment to a production environment.

1. What current certifications do you have?

When people ask for a list of current certifications in an interview, they may want to see your commitment to learning new things. They are also asking you to confirm your knowledge of niche subjects. Having a certification before you enter your IT interview shows you are eager to master critical business technology. Certifications can also be helpful to supplement work experience for those just beginning their IT careers.

This question gives you a chance to talk about your current educational pursuits as well as your prospects. If you have a certification in mind that you’d like to pursue, you should mention it and the steps you’re taking to achieve it.

Example: “When I first started as an IT manager at Xing Company, I realized the business would be more productive if it switched to a multi-cloud infrastructure. I earned a Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect certification, which allowed me to develop cloud-based apps for the company. The business increased production by 20% as a result. I am also currently enrolled in a course to get my C++ certification.”

Read more: Impress Recruiters With These Desirable Professional Certifications

2. What coding languages are you comfortable with?

Depending on business needs, companies may require IT personnel to be skilled at specific coding languages. For example, a company hiring a database architect to work on their cloud customer relationship management database may require that person know a proprietary coding language like APEX, which was created specifically for that CRM product.

In your answer to this question, only respond with languages you have advanced knowledge of. Try to explain how you learned them or when you use them. Before the interview, it can be helpful to review the job description to see if the company uses any specific languages. Make sure to mention those if you’re proficient in them to show you can contribute to the company immediately.

Example: “I am proficient in six coding languages: Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, CSS and HTML. I am also a quick learner and am passionate about coding. When I began coding at my first job, I was working on a landing page in a CMS editor and realized no one at the company knew how to code in CSS. I taught myself CSS by researching the topic online. It’s because of my desire to learn that I was able to complete the project successfully. The landing page went up ahead of deadline.”

3. Explain an IT concept in simple terms.

IT personnel should be able to explain highly technical ideas in terms that are relatable for people outside the information technology industry. Your response can show how you can present ideas to people who work with you. When answering this question, you can include an example of a time you needed to speak on a complicated technical project or idea and did it successfully.

Example: “When describing technical concepts, I like to make them as simple as possible by paying close attention to word choice, avoiding jargon and organizing my thoughts for clarity.

Last year, I was asked to present on the concept of DevOps to a group of teenagers at my daughter’s high school. I responded by defining DevOps in simple terms. I used analogies the group would understand, like comparing the development team to their athletic department and operations team to their academic department. Several students approached me after the event and told me my presentation made them decide to pursue coding in college.”

4. How do you feel about Agile? Explain its benefits and drawbacks.

Agile project management adoption is becoming the industry standard among many business IT units. Your response should reflect your knowledge of this framework and that you can operate within it effectively.

Answering this question requires the ability to think critically about Agile, but you should also respond openly with your opinions about the framework and your experience working in it.

Example: “Agile is an essential project management philosophy. It can be less predictable than Waterfall when implemented incorrectly. Transitioning to Agile is also a huge investment in time and resources. Anyone in Agile leadership will need to consider that. However, when properly implemented, development and operations teams benefit from processes that foster communication and collaboration and lessen the likelihood of scope creep.

I worked for a software development company that worked exclusively in Agile. I believe we were able to deliver projects much quicker than other companies creating the same product as us. We also got regular feedback from the client at each step, so we were able to offer a product with increased customer satisfaction.”

5. What online resources and utilities do you use to help you manage business?

Some IT professionals might point to certain popular but general resources when they answer this question. However, you might have access to a cache of resources, such as niche communities, search engine alerts and specialized widgets that assist you with small operations.

When answering this question, consider what tools and resources you use every day to get quick answers to IT questions and explain how they help you on the job.

Example: “I follow IT forums on a lot of different niche websites. One time, I faced an issue when an analytics tool I was implementing failed to integrate with my database properly. I immediately sought help from an online IT community dedicated to the product. Another community user walked me through a common installation issue between the two pieces of software. I resolved the issue, and the company went on to use the integrated analytics tool to discover valuable insights about their existing customers that led to more sales.”

6. Describe your process for deployment to a production environment.

In software development, deploying code changes to production requires adept professionals to combine technical skills with attention to detail.

For example, a small oversight like deleting a folder on one server but not the other places it exists can result in a loss of useable features for a web application in production. For that reason, your methods of deployment are important. This question allows an excellent opportunity to impress the person you are speaking with by displaying your technical knowledge.

Example: “When preparing for deployment, I start with preplanning strategies. During the implementation, I automate where possible, and make sure to document every change accounting for production setup and configurations. I will also ensure a monitoring and logging system is active in the production environment in advance of deployment.

In my last role, almost all of the production deployment process was manual, initially. I saw this as an opportunity and started automating deployment tasks wherever I could. This led to faster, more accurate deployment and a 5% increase in overall production.”

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