Sample Answer
On a recent data platform project, we ran a fairly strict Scrum process with a team of 7 engineers and 2 QA. I owned the backlog with the Product Owner and made sure every story was INVEST-compliant and had clear acceptance criteria before sprint planning. Practically, that meant running weekly backlog grooming where I’d slice large epics into stories small enough to be completed in 1–2 days and add concrete, testable scenarios using Gherkin-style “Given-When-Then” statements. For example, a vague request like “improve report performance” became three stories around indexing, query optimization, and caching with specific thresholds (e.g., “95% of reports load under 3 seconds”). I partnered closely with QA to convert acceptance criteria into test cases directly in Jira. As a result, our sprint spillover dropped from about 35% to under 10% over three sprints, and defect leakage to UAT fell by roughly 40%, because developers and testers had the same understanding of “done.”
Keywords
On your resume you mention working on a cross-functional project (e.g., involving multiple teams or stakeholders). Describe a situation from that project where priorities conflicted—how did you navigate the trade-offs and what was the final outcome?
Walk me through a recent multi-channel digital marketing campaign you managed end-to-end. How did you set objectives, choose channels, allocate budget, and measure success?
In your resume you note improving or optimizing [a process, KPI, or metric]. What specific baseline metrics did you start from, what steps did you personally take, and how did you verify that the improvement was due to your changes rather than external factors?
Based on your hydrology and irrigation engineering background, explain how you would estimate the irrigation water requirement for a kharif crop in a semi-arid region of Gujarat. Walk me through each step: from reference evapotranspiration estimation, crop coefficient selection, effective rainfall calculation, to arriving at canal discharge for a given command area.
In your civil engineering studies, what specific design coursework or project work did you complete related to irrigation channels or canals (e.g., design of lined/unlined canals, distributaries, minors)? Describe one such design in detail, including how you determined discharge, permissible velocity, section dimensions, and lining choice for Gujarat-type soil and climate conditions.