Behavioral question
What is one career failure you faced? How did you deal with it?
- American Express
- Behavioral
- Medium
Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.
Start a mock interview on this question · Mock interview from a job description
What this question tests
Tests resilience and growth mindset, how the candidate processes setbacks and applies the lesson going forward.
How to approach it
- Situation: briefly set the real context of the failure, a missed promotion, a cancelled project, or a mistake that hurt team trust.
- Task and action: what you did in response, focusing on the reflection process, not just working harder.
- Result: the concrete lesson and a later situation where you applied it differently.
- Keep the tone honest but not self-deprecating to the point of undermining confidence in the interview.
- Pick a failure that is real but not so severe it raises a red flag, avoiding ethics violations or fireable offenses.
What a strong answer includes
- Is specific about what was learned, a named, checkable behavior change, and shows it was applied later, not just claimed.
- Balances honesty about the failure with a clear demonstration of growth.
- Picks a failure severe enough to be real but appropriate to share in an interview.
Common mistakes
- Choosing a failure that's actually a humble-brag, like working too hard.
- Dwelling on the failure without a clear lesson or forward application.
Likely follow-up questions
- How did this change how you approach similar situations today?
- Can you give a specific example where you applied that lesson afterward?
More behavioral questions
- Have you ever disagreed with your Engineering counterparts? What did you do when a build decision was made that did not align with the original vision you had?American Express · Behavioral · Medium
- Describe a time when you faced an obstacle during a build. How did you ensure you were still able to hit your milestones? Did you have to break down feature requests?American Express · Behavioral · Medium
- What do you do when you get a vague feature request?American Express · Behavioral · Easy
- What is your product management approach? How do you set goals?American Express · Behavioral · Easy
- If the legal team reached to you with a difficult request, what is your method for tackling it?American Express · Behavioral · Easy
- What was the biggest challenge you experienced from working with banks? How did you go about convincing them?American Express · Behavioral · Easy
More questions from American Express
Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 13: Lead the room: staff moves, forward-deployed PM, and the portfolio
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop