Interview Tips

How to structure your answers

Interviewers will be looking at your approach to questions just as much as answers. There are no perfect answers, but here are some useful tips on how to structure your answer.

We recommend that you answer competency-based questions in the STARR format. We want to hear about real-life examples of how you handled certain situations at work in the past.

Once you have an example ready employ the STARR technique to structure impactful answers:

Situation: Set the scene by giving some context of the situation: what you worked on and the impact on the business

Task: Describe what the problem was and your responsibility in solving it

Action: Explain what steps you took to address the problem

Result: Explain the outcome of the action, and what metrics it impacted

Reflection: What didn’t go as well? What might you have done differently? What did you learn?

What do we look for?

Impact

We want to find out what influence you had on your product and how you contributed to the company's overall success.

Adaptability

We are keen to hear how you adapt to new situations, changing priorities and how you overcome the challenges that come with that.

Bias for action

Even if faced with uncertainty, you should have the ability to make clear decisions and take the best action.

Data-informed

We want to hear about the key metrics that influence your decisions and how you utilise different metrics to prioritise and measure success.

Growth mindset

We want to hear how you continuously find ways to improve your product and learn from failure.

More interview tips

Before your interviews, think of a couple of examples that convey:

Your biggest career challenge
Your biggest failure
Your biggest success
The most valuable feedback you've learned from

During your interview please try to...

Keep your answers clear and concise: Avoid drawn-out descriptions and jargon. Focus on the question you are trying to answer.
Quantify your impact: Tie your examples to business and user success and what impact your work had on those. We love data so where you can, quantify the results your projects had both numerically and from a business perspective.
Tell us about your failures and show us your growth mindset: Don't be afraid of bringing up failures, how you dealt with them and what you learned - we believe in learning from mistakes! At Deliveroo, our goal is not to detect weaknesses, we want to hear from you what went well and what didn't, but more importantly, we want to know what you have learned from each situation.
Explain complex problems as simply as possible: Tailor your answers to the intended audience, you can focus on the details but remember to include the bigger picture and context behind how your work contributed to the overall mission.
Be structured: Make sure that the story/experience you share with us has a logical order.
Be well prepared: Think about your past experience and pre-prepare some examples. If you come into a situation where you can't think of anything, be honest and do your best to answer it hypothetically.
Do your research: Prepare a few questions to ask at the end of each interview. Ask the interviewer why they joined Deliveroo, what are their challenges, what they are working on, and why they enjoy working at Deliveroo, etc.
Be yourself: We understand that interviews can be very stressful but a small mistake will not disqualify your application, relax and be yourself!

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