Possible Intention:
- To know if you have courage and honesty to accept failure as your own.
- To know when you make a mistake do you learn from it.
- To know if you have the ability to own up responsibility without giving excuses.
Insights:
- Talk about the incidents that disappointed you and shed light on how you could have acted differently to change it if you were to be given a second chance.
- Do not try to shift the blame of the failure on somebody else's shoulders.
Example Answer: (For Freshers)
I had a possibility of securing First class with distinction during my SSC board examination. Due to loss of focus on my part, I missed scoring enough marks. However, I learnt a lesson; in HSC board exam I did not let that happen and scored more than 75 percent marks.
Example Answer:(For Experienced)
There was a bug which I was trying to fix on the last day of the delivery of the project. After 4-5 hours struggle, I could find out the bug and modified the required files. In hurry I forgot to add the correct file in the code repository. Before sending the code to the onsite, my lead tested the code on the sample basis and bug re-appeared. I was unable to understand why the same bug was not visible in my PC. I almost went into panic mode as it was my first project. My team lead sat with me to figure out the issue and we could get the correct version of the file from my PC and use it in the release. I learnt to keep my head cool even in stress situation.
Anti Pattern:
Do not get into detailed explanation of why do you failed. Keep it simple and short. You are not supposed to be spending time remembering details of your failures.
Interviewer's Interpretation:
The interviewer is not really interested in knowing your failure but more so in your courage to failure and learning from it.
