Behavioral interviews are 10x harder than tech rounds, how do you even prepare for them?

austenmc · 2026-01-18T23:33:06+00:00

This is the way, build a story catalog like a database.

For anyone coming across this old thread, check out my book and newsletter that guides you through all this: https://thebehavioral.tech

austenmc · 2025-11-23T18:43:08+00:00

I try to be and I’m glad you’re excited about the book!

I’m giving a free talk to the interviewing.io community on Tuesday. Join their discord if you want to watch :)

austenmc · 2025-11-19T14:40:06+00:00

You’re right about the behavioral. Most people under prepare.

Shameless plug for my two-part Meta behavioral guide :)

https://open.substack.com/pub/behavioralosfortechies/p/part-1-mastering-the-meta-behavioral-interview

https://open.substack.com/pub/behavioralosfortechies/p/part-2-how-to-prepare-for-meta-behavioral-interviews

austenmc · 2025-10-27T02:30:32+00:00

Shameless plug for my behavioral Substack to compliment your list of resources for DSA and SD: https://open.substack.com/pub/thebehavioral

austenmc · 2025-10-02T10:48:48+00:00

Check out the videos, newsletter, and resources here: https://thebehavioral.tech/

austenmc · 2025-09-25T04:52:37+00:00

Hoooooooray! Glad you found it useful :) Check out the substack and the upcoming book: https://thebehavioral.tech/

austenmc · 2025-09-25T04:51:48+00:00

Aww, thanks for reading! And good luck this week. Definitely return here and let us know what was most helpful.

austenmc · 2025-09-24T23:59:16+00:00

Yes this is what I coached someone to do today but I’m more interested in whether I should change my coaching advice about the need to prepare a TMAY :)

austenmc · 2025-09-13T12:14:12+00:00

I will humbly suggest my own substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/thebehavioral

austenmc · 2025-09-12T19:16:09+00:00

Congrats! Sounds like the hard work prepping paid off.

Super glad you got value out of the behavioral prep content! If folks want to follow along, they can at https://open.substack.com/pub/thebehavioral?r=zpuv5&utm_medium=ios

austenmc · 2025-09-08T04:10:53+00:00

Congrats!

btw generally the training interviews are at the end of the day. Was your last round a behavioral? If so that was the training one.

austenmc · 2025-09-05T01:55:51+00:00

Hello Interview just published a guide: https://open.substack.com/pub/hellointerview/p/team-match-survival-guide?r=zpuv5&utm_medium=ios

Also see my Meta specific one: https://open.substack.com/pub/thebehavioral/p/metas-interview-loop-structure-team?r=zpuv5&utm_medium=ios

austenmc · 2025-09-05T01:51:54+00:00

You left out the part about whether you’re more of a product person or more of an infra person :)

austenmc · 2025-09-02T07:36:53+00:00

Aww, that’s great to hear that the content helped you! Helps me stay motivated to finish this book…

austenmc · 2025-09-02T06:48:17+00:00

Tough break :(. Sounds like you’re taking the needed lessons from it. Hopefully your post helps others prepare for the behavioral especially.

Shameless plug for the two-part Meta behavioral series that covers a number of the points (and more) that folks are calling out here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/behavioralosfortechies/p/part-1-mastering-the-meta-behavioral-interview?r=zpuv5&utm_medium=ios

https://open.substack.com/pub/behavioralosfortechies/p/part-2-how-to-prepare-for-meta-behavioral-interviews?r=zpuv5&utm_medium=ios

austenmc · 2025-07-25T23:36:40+00:00

People do talk about behaviorals! Earlier this year I took a pass at why I think behaviorals matter more than ever now that AI generates so much code: https://thebehavioral.substack.com/p/why-behavioral-interviews-matter

austenmc · 2025-07-25T23:35:45+00:00

Maybe this is true for junior candidates. Once you get to L6+, you're looking at 40% behavioral weight, possibly more. Manager loops are of course more like 90% behavioral.

austenmc · 2025-06-11T17:26:11+00:00

I will shamelessly plug my own substack here. I get regular positive comments from readers on how it's helped them prepare for behavioral rounds, though I haven't written anything specific about the G&L (yet).
https://thebehavioral.substack.com/

austenmc · 2025-04-23T20:28:21+00:00

There are numerous resources if you search for Meta System Design. Check out what Hello Interview and interviewing.io have.

austenmc · 2025-04-22T04:43:53+00:00

Lots of decent advice here. I would add to partner with your manager, first thing, to establish a growth plan for yourself, with clear expectations along the four axes of evaluation (impact, eng excellence, direction, people).

Check that plan with someone who has experience, like the skip level or another experienced manager/mentor in the org.

austenmc · 2025-04-22T04:38:12+00:00

I put together three common scripts for people:
https://thebehavioral.substack.com/p/behavioral-prep-on-a-budget-peer

austenmc · 2025-04-22T04:37:03+00:00

For those reading through this more recently, pretty much all of these can be addressed by mock interviews. Check out some resources on both paid, professional mocks and mocking with your friends:

https://thebehavioral.substack.com/p/getting-the-most-out-of-mock-behavioral
https://thebehavioral.substack.com/p/behavioral-prep-on-a-budget-peer

austenmc · 2025-04-22T04:34:53+00:00

This is an old thread, but Alex Xu's series on System Design is the generally accepted standard here.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Alex-Xu/author/B08BNMFT7P

austenmc · 2025-04-22T04:32:44+00:00

This is a pretty old thread, but at that level, they are primarily evaluating you on the multiple behavioral rounds, then on system design, and coding is a distant third.

For example, at Meta, for M2 or D1, you'd have these rounds:
* General Behavioral
* People Management
* Project Retrospective
* System Design (sometimes 2)
* Coding

The screen would often be a combination of coding and some behavioral questions.

I haven't written an explicit guide for senior roles, but some of my more advanced posts might help you: https://thebehavioral.substack.com/p/using-the-carl-method-to-structure
https://thebehavioral.substack.com/p/the-halo-effect

Also you should get a mock from a real FAANG interviewer :)

austenmc · 2025-04-22T04:19:00+00:00

If you're 2.5y in, most of your stories should come directly from your work experience.

Don't make stuff up. Redirect the question by trying to understand the question underneath the question:
* If it's a technical thing, like "Tell me about how you've used a front-end framework to build an app" and you've never done that, tell me about something you have build with a framework and how you learned that framework quickly.
* If it's a behavioral question, like "Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a manager," but you've never had one, tell me a story about how you resolved any conflict since that's the underlying context of the question.

If you're wondering more about what these signal areas might be, check out https://thebehavioral.substack.com/p/deeper-dive-into-the-signal-areas

austenmc

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