Why interviewers ask this
Giving feedback well is a distinct skill from simply having opinions about someone's work, and interviewers use this question to check whether you can be direct without being unkind, and kind without being vague. It is especially relevant for anyone who leads others, reviews work, or collaborates closely on shared output. The strongest answers show a specific method for making feedback land and actually change behavior, not just that you were honest.
How to structure a strong answer
Describe the situation and the specific behavior or output that needed to change, being concrete rather than saying someone's work was 'not good enough.' Explain how you delivered the feedback, including the setting you chose and how you balanced directness with respect, then describe the person's reaction. Close with whether the behavior actually changed, since that is the real measure of whether the feedback worked.
Example answer
A junior designer on my team was consistently submitting mockups without checking them against our accessibility contrast requirements, which meant they kept bouncing back in review and slowing down our sprint. Instead of raising it in a group critique, I asked her to grab coffee and told her directly that I had noticed a pattern across her last three submissions, and that I wanted to understand whether it was a tooling issue or something in her process. It turned out she did not know we had an automated contrast checker plugin available, so beyond the immediate feedback, I walked her through setting it up. Her next four submissions passed review on the first pass, and she later told me she appreciated that I had raised it privately and specifically rather than letting it come up as a pattern in her performance review months later.
Common mistakes to avoid
Do not tell a story where the feedback was delivered publicly in a way that embarrassed the person, even if your intentions were good, since that usually reads poorly to interviewers. Avoid vague feedback examples like telling someone to 'be more proactive,' specificity is what makes feedback constructive rather than just critical. Also make sure to include the outcome, a story that ends right after the feedback was given, without showing whether it worked, feels incomplete.
Frequently asked questions
Before your next interview, it helps to have the fundamentals down. Our complete guide to preparing for a job interview covers the basics, and the STAR method is a reliable way to structure almost any answer under pressure.