Competency-based interview questions: how to prepare

A competency framework is a list of behaviours an organisation has decided matter — typically six to twelve, with names like Stakeholder Management, Delivering Results, Analytical Thinking, Developing Others, Working Collaboratively.

Each competency has indicators: the specific behaviours that count as evidence, usually written at several levels. An indicator for stakeholder management at a senior level might be "anticipates the concerns of stakeholders with competing objectives and resolves them before escalation" — and it looks nothing like the entry-level version.

The interview selects a subset — usually four to six competencies for a given role — and asks at least one question per competency.

The assessor scores each one, often on a scale, against those indicators, and often writes a short evidence note. In multi-assessor panels, scores are compared afterwards and differences discussed.

Four consequences that change how you prepare:

1. 1Coverage beats brilliance. A strong answer on one competency does not compensate for a blank on another. Each is scored separately, and a zero is hard to recover from.
2. 2The assessor needs something to write. An answer they enjoyed but cannot summarise into an evidence note scores lower than a plainer answer they can.
3. 3Unprompted detail does not help. You get credit for evidence against the indicators being assessed, not for being generally impressive.
4. 4They will probe. Follow-up questions are part of the method, not a sign you are failing.

You can usually work out most of the list.

• [ ] Read the job advert for repeated behavioural language. "Works effectively across functions", "manages competing priorities", "influences senior stakeholders" are competency names in ordinary clothes
• [ ] Check whether the framework is published. Many large organisations, and most public-sector entities, publish theirs. If it is public, you are preparing against the actual list
• [ ] Ask the recruiter directly. "Is this a competency-based interview, and which competencies will it cover?" This is a completely normal question and is frequently answered
• [ ] Look at the structure of the application form. Forms that ask for a written example per criterion are showing you the framework
• [ ] Look at how the person specification is laid out. Essential and desirable criteria often map one to one onto what gets assessed

If you can name four of the six, you have done most of the preparation — because now you are building targeted evidence rather than hoping your stories fit.

Competency questions are often generically worded, and candidates answer the words rather than the competency.

The right-hand column is the whole exercise. Answer the competency, not the anecdote.

If you are unsure what is being probed, ask. "Would it help if I focused on how I handled the stakeholders, or on how I made the decision?" is a legitimate question and reads as precision, not confusion.

Build evidence per competency, not per question. Fill one block for each competency you have identified.

The backup row is the one that saves interviews. If your best story serves three competencies and they assess all three, you cannot use it three times — or you can, but the assessor's note will read "single example across multiple criteria", which scores poorly.

The probe row is the one people skip. Probing questions are where competency interviews are actually won and lost, because a prepared story handles the first question and an unprepared one collapses on the second.

One project, re-angled. This is the skill worth building.

The raw material: a supplier tender the candidate ran, where the director wanted the timeline compressed, and two of five shortlisted suppliers later failed reference checks.

Asked for Influencing:

Emphasis on how the director was persuaded — mapping the specific risk rather than arguing the timeline, presenting two options with a recommendation, choosing a written risk note because that director responds to documents rather than debate.

Asked for Risk Management:

Emphasis on identifying what would be dropped under compression, quantifying the exposure, designing the mitigation that let the timeline move without the risk being unmanaged, and the fact that two suppliers subsequently failed the checks that were nearly cut.

Asked for Delivering Results Under Pressure:

Emphasis on the sequencing decisions that made the compressed timeline achievable at all, what was parallelised, what was dropped, and the award landing on the revised date.

Same events, three different Actions and three different Results, because three different things are being scored.

The scenario is invented and is used illustratively.

Score each prepared competency block.

Criterion 4 is the one to be strict about. Read your answer and write the note yourself in one line. If you cannot, the assessor cannot either.

13–16 per competency: ready. Below 10 on any competency: that is the one that will produce the low score, and it is worth more attention than polishing the ones already working.

Competency frameworks are widely used, and more consistently in public-sector and government-linked entities and large private employers than in smaller organisations. Where one is in use, the interview will feel noticeably more structured — a set question order, note-taking, and less conversational drift. That is the format working, not a bad interview.

Where the framework is published, read it. Government entities and large employers frequently publish theirs, and preparing against the actual named competencies rather than your guess at them is the single highest-return preparation available for this format.

Panels are common, and each assessor may score independently. This makes clarity more important than rapport: you may be scored by someone you barely spoke to. Panel interview preparation covers the mechanics.

If the interview runs in English against an Arabic-language framework, or the reverse, ask which language the assessment is being recorded in. It does not change your answer, but it tells you how carefully to define terms.

How many competencies will be assessed?

Usually four to six for a given role, with one main question each plus probes. Ninety minutes for six is normal.

Can I ask which competency a question relates to?

Yes, and it is usually welcomed. Assessors want usable evidence; a candidate who checks they are giving the right kind is making that easier.

What if I have no example for a competency?

Offer the nearest thing and say what it is: "I have not managed a formal budget, but I owned the cost line for a project at this scale — would that work?" That is usually accepted. Inventing an example fails at the probe.

Can I use an example from outside work?

If you genuinely have nothing from work, yes — volunteering, study, a community role. Say where it is from and keep the structure the same. It scores lower than a workplace example against most indicators, but it scores higher than nothing.

Is this the same as a behavioural interview?

Overlapping, not identical. All competency interviews use behavioural questions; not all behavioural questions sit inside a competency framework. The difference is the scoring, and it is the reason this format rewards coverage over charisma. Behavioural questions covers the question bank itself.

They asked the same question twice in different words.

Usually deliberate — either a second assessor probing the same competency, or a check on consistency. Give a consistent answer, and if you noticed, it is fine to say "this is the same example I gave earlier, from a different angle."

Identify the competencies first. Everything else on this page depends on having the list, and twenty minutes of asking and reading usually produces most of it.

Then build one block per competency, with a backup story and prepared probe answers. STAR is the structure each block goes into, and behavioural interview questions gives you the question bank to rehearse against.

If you are preparing for a formal assessment and want to rehearse against probing follow-ups — which is the part you cannot practise alone — that is mock interview coaching, or work through the format in the self-paced interview preparation course.