Preparing for Your Next Tech Interview (Without the Panic)

So, you’ve landed a tech interview. Ka pai! Now comes the bit where you suddenly forget what a hash table is and whether you’re more “results-oriented” or “a team player” (spoiler: it’s both). But before you start panic-Googling “technical interview questions NZ”, let’s take a deep breath and break it down. 

Broadly speaking, technical interview questions aim to gauge your communication and problem-solving abilities alongside your technical competencies (including testing). Interviewers will give you a heads-up about the technical focus of the interview so you can prepare for it, but it’s still worth brushing up on answers to soft-skill questions too. 

It’s always possible to prepare for technical interview questions without feeling like you’re sitting for high school or university exams all over again. With the right prep (and maybe a helpful tech recruiter in your corner), you can walk in with your head held high and your repo polished. 

Let’s get into it. 

Common Technical Interview Questions  

Tech interviews come in many flavours, like live coding, system design, take-home challenges, even whiteboarding (less common these days, but watch out!) However, a few technical interview questions do come up again and again: 

• “Can you walk me through your process for solving [insert coding or data problem here]?” 
• “How would you design a scalable system for X?” 
• “What’s the difference between synchronous and asynchronous processing?” 
• “How do you ensure product decisions are informed by data?” 

The trick is not just knowing the answer, it’s showing your thought process. Most interviewers care more about how you think than whether you memorised the exact syntax for a binary search algorithm. (Although, you know, that helps too.) 

In other words, employers are less interested in textbook theory and more keen to see how you might handle a real-world mess, scale a system, and think on your feet under pressure. 

Tip: Practice out loud. This helps keep in check any tendency to ramble or go into tangents. Get a mate or mentor to throw some mock questions your way or record yourself and cringe-review it later. Sounds painful, but the payoff can be amazing. 

Behavioural Interview Questions 

Behavioural questions are the “tell me about a time when…” type. If you haven’t prepared for these, they can seem terrifying. But they’re not there to trick you. Behavioural questions are used to see how you solve live problems, work with others, and bounce back when something inevitably breaks in prod. 

Common ones include: 

• “Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult stakeholder.” 
• “Describe a project where things didn’t go to plan. What did you do?” 
• “How do you explain complex ideas to non-technical people?” 

Here’s your chance to show off your communication skills, minimalist-style: just you, without PowerPoint. Keep it simple and spell out any acronyms that aren’t common knowledge (i.e. company-specific ones).   

Using the STAR Method 

The STAR framework is a nifty multi-tool for answering both technical and behavioural interview questions. It’s an oldie but a goodie for structuring your answers without rambling. 

STAR stands for: 

Situation – What was going on? 

Task – What needed to be done? 

Action – What did you do? 

Result – What happened, and what did you learn? 

Developer example: 

Question: "Tell me about a time you improved system performance." 

Answer: 

S: “Our web app was getting sluggish during peak times.” 

T: “I needed to identify the bottleneck and improve response times.” 

A: “I ran profiling tools, found inefficient DB queries, rewrote them, and added caching.” 

R: “Page load times dropped by 45%, and customer complaints stopped overnight.” 

Product example: 

Question: "Describe a time you managed conflicting stakeholder priorities." 

Answer: 

S: “Our sales team wanted Feature A, but the dev team flagged major technical debt.” 

T: “Balance competing needs and keep roadmap on track.” 

A: “Facilitated a workshop to align on priorities, proposed a phased rollout.” 

R: “We delivered a lean version of Feature A while tackling the tech debt in parallel.” 

Data example: 

Question: "Tell me about a challenging data project." 

Answer: 

S: “I was tasked with building a churn prediction model with messy historical data.” 

T: “Make sense of inconsistent inputs and deliver actionable insights.” 

A: “I cleaned and normalised the data, tested several machine learning models, and validated results with the customer team.” 

R: “The model improved retention by 12% after implementation.” 

Here’s the TL;DR version for remembering how to answer behavioural questions:  

Tell a story with a clear beginning (the situation you faced), middle (your role or task in the situation and what you did to address it) and an ending (the outcome of your actions and lessons learned).  

Tech Recruiters Can Genuinely Help 

Working with a specialist tech recruiter, like those often found at Digital Garage makes interview prep way less daunting. Why? Because in the most practical sense, your success is our success. 

We’ll help you understand the company, coach you through the likely technical interview questions, and give you context you won’t get from a job ad. While you still need the technical ability to succeed in the role, we can be your interview wing person to help you do your best when you’re in the spotlight.  

Plus, good recruiters in New Zealand’s tech recruitment space know which hiring managers actually read your CV, and which ones are more “vibes-based”. 

Final Thoughts, For Now 

Interviewing for tech roles doesn't have to feel like being dropped into a live coding Hunger Games. With the right prep and a bit of structure (thanks, STAR method), you'll be in a strong position to show them what you can do. 

And if you're still feeling a bit wobbly? Chat to a tech recruiter who gets it. Preferably one who knows their Kubernetes from their Kanban – and isn’t afraid to say when your CV needs a tweak. For even more specific and personalised advice, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Digital Garage team.