Score! You just got shortlisted for a job and now have to prepare for the daunting interview round.

Interviews can be tough, especially when there is an immense amount of pressure on your shoulders to impress the interviewer(s). What anyone can do at best, is to prepare and anticipate the questions that will be asked during the interview.

This article helps you identify the different types of interview questions that are typically asked so that you are able to tackle whatever comes your way.

Structured & Unstructured Questions

Structured questions are a series of standardized interview questions asked in a predetermined order, designed to assess job candidates on a range of knowledge, skills and abilities important to the job and organization.

Unstructured interviews, on the other hand, can go in any direction and do not have a right or wrong answer. Unstructured questions often arise from a spontaneous conversation or a spontaneous thought that is based on your application alone.

Here are a few examples of structured and unstructured interview questions:

• Structured Questions:“Tell me about a time when you had to pitch a product to a potential client.”“What would you do if you had to explain a difficult concept to a team member?”
• Unstructured Questions:“I see that you have a gap of 2 years between your current and your previous job. Tell me what happened during this break.”“I see that you have applied here before, what made you reapply?”

Structured Questions: Behavioral v. Situational Questions

Structured questions require you to demonstrate job – related knowledge, skills and abilities, either in a behavioral or a situational context.

Behavioral questions ask candidates to describe prior experiences and match those to the requirements in the current job. Situational questions put candidates in a hypothetical situation related to the job.

Here are a few examples to help you distinguish between behavioral and situational questions:

• Behavioral Questions:“Tell me about a time when you used Venn diagrams to explain something.”“Describe a time when you were the technical expert. What did you do to make sure everyone understands you?”
• Situational Questions:“What would you do if an angry customer confronted you?”“Walk me through the steps you would take to design a survey.”

I hope this article has given you an insight on the different types of questions you may face in your job interview and that you may be able to readily anticipate and differentiate the respective interview questions.