"Tell me about a time something you were responsible for did not go well." How should you structure your answer, and what are interviewers looking for?
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How to answer. Use STAR: Situation (one or two sentences of context), Task (what you were responsible for), Action (what you did, specifically), Result (what happened, with numbers if possible) — then add what you learned and changed afterwards. That last part is the point of the question.
Interviewers look for: ownership without blaming others, honesty, self-awareness, and evidence that you applied the lesson later.
Avoid: a disguised boast ("I work too hard"), a story with no real stakes, or one where the failure was someone else's. Prepare a real example from a project, internship or team activity and rehearse it in about two minutes.
Original UniCircle question. Last reviewed 21 Oct 2026.