IntermediateBEHAVIORAL
Describe a situation where you mentored or coached a junior engineer to improve their performance or code quality; what approach did you take and what measurable impact resulted?
Software Engineer
General

Sample Answer

I mentored a junior engineer who was struggling with code reviews and time estimates on our payment service. I paired with them twice weekly for four weeks, starting each session by reviewing one PR together and explaining design decisions, trade-offs, and test strategies. I also suggested a checklist (naming, edge cases, performance) they could run before sending PRs. I pushed them to own small features end-to-end and gave focused feedback on estimation by breaking tasks into 2–4 hour subtasks. Within six weeks their PR approval rate rose from 50% to 92%, average review cycles dropped from 3.5 to 1.2, and sprint velocity improved by about 12% for the squad. They later led a migration with minimal oversight.

Keywords

Regular pair programming and targeted PR reviewsProvided practical tools: a checklist and task-splitting strategyMeasured impact with PR approval rates, review cycles, and team velocity