Interview"What are your strengths?" How to answer
A question asked in almost every interview. Why it is asked, how to build your answer, model answers, and what to avoid.
Why interviewers ask it
They want to know whether you understand yourself and whether your strengths are the ones the job needs. A strength without an example is only a claim, so the example matters more than the word.
How to build your answer
- Choose two or three strengths that the job actually uses.
- For each, give a one or two sentence example: what you did and what came of it.
- Prefer specific strengths ("careful with figures", "calm with angry customers") to general ones ("hardworking").
- Say it without apology and without boasting.
Model answers
Two things. First, I am accurate. In my uncle's transport office I entered 30 to 40 booking slips a day for a year, and at the monthly check there were hardly any corrections. Second, I am regular. I had the attendance prize in Class 12 and did not miss a day at the office either. For data entry work I think those two matter most.
My main strength is getting a team to deliver on time. When I took over my shift, on-time dispatch was about 80 percent; I started a ten minute morning meeting to fix the day's priorities, and within four months it was above 95. My second strength is that I stay calm when things go wrong, which keeps the team calm too. Last Diwali season two machines failed in one week and we still met the customer's schedule by re-planning shifts.
I am persistent with problems. In my library booking project the double-booking bug took me three days; I wrote out every case on paper until I found the missing condition in the query. I also explain things clearly: I ran weekly sessions for first years in the coding club, and attendance grew from ten to about forty.
These are examples about invented people. Keep the structure, and put in your own facts and numbers.
What to avoid
- A list of six adjectives with no examples.
- Strengths unrelated to the job.
- "I am a perfectionist" and other rehearsed lines.
- Strengths you cannot back up if asked a follow-up question.
Likely follow-up questions
- Can you give another example of that? Keep a second example ready for your main strength.
- How would your manager describe you? Use a real remark from a teacher or manager if you have one.
Other common questions
Questions by job
Model answers are examples. They show the shape of a good answer, reviewed in November 2026. Use your own facts: an answer copied word for word will not survive a follow-up question. Employers differ, and nothing here promises selection. Names in the examples are invented.