IT interview questions and answers 👩‍💻

• What motivates you in a job?

This IT interview question is designed for an employer to gain an insight into your work ethic and your personality, to see if you would be the right cultural fit to the company.

When answering this question think about what really motivates you in a job, it is working with others to complete a task, working towards a target or satisfying someone’s needs?

Whatever motivates you, it’s important to frame it in a way that demonstrates your commitment to a role in IT and shows that you are a great fit for the role.

It’s useful to look thoroughly over the job description to look out for the essential skills and traits employers are looking for in the role.

Check out our blog post for tips on how to decrypt the job description.

Visit our blog for more example answers and tips for answering the interview question ‘what motivates you at work?’.

Entry-level IT interview questions

If you’re applying to entry-level IT jobs, an employer is likely to avoid asking specialised IT questions as you’re just beginning your career in the industry, and instead ask questions to find out about your IT experience and gauge the extent of your knowledge.

Here are some entry-level IT interview questions an employer may ask with tips on how to best answer them.

• Tell me about your IT experience so far

An employer may have had multiple applications for a role, so they’ll ask this question for a refresher of why they invited you in for an interview in the first place.

An interviewer wants to get up to speed with what you know about IT and to find out if you’ve had any experience that would make you a great fit for the role.

When answering this question, think of it as a short summary of your graduate CV, mention if you undertook a relevant degree to the job or have had any previous work experience in IT.

You want to mention any of the key skills you learnt, any software you know how to use and mention any aspects that you really enjoyed about your degree or a role, this will help show an employer you have a genuine interest in the industry.

If you haven’t had any previous IT experience and your degree isn’t specifically related to IT, highlight any strengths and achievements that would make you a great fit for the role and mention that through this role you want to gain more IT experience and that you’re really passionate about starting a career in the industry.

Visit our blog for more tips on how to answer ‘tell me about yourself’ in an interview.

• Interview questions computer skills

Computer skills are essential to all entry-level IT roles, an employer may ask questions to find out more about your IT skills and any software you know how to use.

It’s important to mention that an employer will most likely have invited you for an interview as they think you have the right skills and knowledge that would make you a great fit for the role, so they will most likely ask computer skills interview questions that you are experienced in, to find out more information about the programmes you know how to use.

Whilst for every job, the IT skills required will differ, here are some of the most common entry-level computer skills interview questions an employer may ask:

• How comfortable are you using the elements of Microsoft Office suite?
• How comfortable are you using spreadsheet software?
• How would you rate your competency in HTML?
• Have you earned any computer certifications?

When answering these questions, don’t exaggerate your level of technical knowledge, but be honest and explain what you know confidently and clearly.

It’s also beneficial to mention if you have any experience with a specialised program that an employer is not asking about, as this demonstrates your enthusiasm for computer technology and shows that you know how to use different programs which may give you the advantage over other candidates.

If you have taken fluency tests in programs like Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, and your results were strong, bring a copy along to the interview.

This will help demonstrate your knowledge and will also help aid your answers to questions by having statistics to mention.

If you do have gaps in your technical knowledge, explain to the employer that you’re able to learn new programs swiftly, and give an example of where you’ve done so in the past.

Another good way to turn a gap in your knowledge into a positive is to show your enthusiasm and explain to the interviewer that you haven’t had the chance yet to learn X programme, but that you really want to the chance to become experienced through this role.

Visit our blog to find out more about the skills required for technology jobs.

IT interview technical questions

If you’re interviewing for a more advanced and specialist IT role, the interviewer may ask IT technical interview questions, as it’s likely that you’ve had previous experience in the industry and are highly skilled.

The interviewer may also ask competency-based interview questions, which require you to draw on your previous experience to give an example where you carried out a task or demonstrated a skill.

We’ve put together some of the most common technical IT interview questions an employer may ask with advice on how to best answer them for a variety of IT roles:

Developer technical interview questions

• What’s the difference between SOAP and REST?

SOAP and REST are two web service protocols that developers should know.

One of the key differences is that SOAP uses XML while REST also supports text, JSON and other formats.

When answering this question, it’s important to demonstrate a solid understanding of both web services and to also comment on which one you think is better, giving evidence to support your answer.

• How are your SQL skills?

Most web developers will need to work with a SQL Server or MYSQL, by asking this question an interviewer wants to gauge your experience and knowledge of SQL. A good way to answer this question is to draw on any experience you’ve had using SQL mentioning any software you used and any code you can write. If you haven’t had any practice with SQL, prepare for this question by researching what SQL is, it’s main goals and how you would work with a SQL Server in this role. Find more SQL interview questions and answers here.

• What do you do when an application stops working?

Problem-solving is at the heart of web development, through this interview question an employer wants to judge how you’d break down a situation and what your plan of action would be. A great way to answer this question is to draw from a previous experience you’ve had in a role where an application has stopped working. Mention the steps you took, any problems you ran into and how you solved them to ensure the application was back up and running as soon as possible.

Desktop support interview questions

• What do you know about the Active Directory?

Active Directory is a system used in many Desktop Support roles, here an interviewer wants to find out about your knowledge of the system and if you’ve had any previous experience using it. Here’s our example answer to this question:

“Active Directory helps to organise the users of a company and its computers, it ensures that the software and the computer are secure. It also authenticates and authorises all computers and users in a window domain network. In my previous role, I used Active Directory to manage many different functions such as creating admin users, connecting to external devices like printers and scanners.”

 

• What do you understand by Safe Mode?

Safe Mode is another commonly used system in Desktop Support roles. It’s important to show the interviewer you have a solid understanding of the system and its functions. Here’s our example answer to this question:

“Safe Mode in Windows is an option that is used for diagnosing the Operating System and removing any spyware from it. It is also used for troubleshooting the drivers and configuring the software. It allows you to remove unwanted programs from the OS and run diagnostic which you can’t do in normal mode.”

• How do you relay technical information to non-technical users?

This is one of the most common PC support technician interview questions an employer may ask. When answering this question, it’s important to mention that excellent customer service and communication skills are essential to IT technician jobs, to successfully convey information in a clear way to colleagues or clients who may not have the technical understanding that the IT department has.

What is an IT interview test?

Some companies may ask you to take part in an IT aptitude test as part of your application process.

These tests are designed to evaluate your aptitude for a career in IT, to help an employer understand your strengths and identify any areas which you may need additional training in.

Most IT aptitude tests are based around Microsoft Office skills, testing your knowledge of programs such as Excel and Word.

These tests aren’t designed to catch you out or be highly complex, but they are a good way for employers to know that you can hit the ground running with administrative skills as soon as you start.

Most tests ask self-reporting questions, scenario-based questions and skill-testing questions. For the self-report and scenario questions you may be asked to choose responses that best apply to you or best describe how you’d respond to a situation.

For the skill-testing questions, you’ll need to rely on your IT knowledge to select the correct answer or method.

Some good ways to prepare for IT aptitude tests, are to use sites with practice questions – JobTestPrep is a great site with lots of example practice questions and video tutorials with explanations and solving tips.

It’s also beneficial to spend some time before the test familiarising yourself with all aspects of Microsoft Office and if there are any areas you’re unsure of, watch YouTube tutorials.

IT phone interview questions

Another part of the application process an employer may arrange is a phone interview.

These usually take place before a face-to-face interview, designed for an employer to quickly get to know more about you to see if they’d like to invite you in for an in-person interview.

Here are some of the most common IT phone interview questions to prepare for:

• Tell me a bit about your IT experience so far
• What programmes do you know how to use?
• What attracted you to apply to this position?
• What do you know about our company?
• What type of work environment do you work best in?
• What is your current notice period?
• Are you actively applying for other jobs?
• Whats your availability like, should your application be shortlisted for an interview?

IT interview questions to ask employers

At the end of your interview, the employer will most likely ask if you have any questions for them. It’s important to ask the interviewer questions as it shows that you’re keen to learn more about the company and that you’re serious about the role.

Here are some good IT interview questions to ask the employer:

• What would you say are the most rewarding aspects of this role?
• What are the most challenging aspects of the role?
• Who will I be working alongside?
• Are there any opportunities for further training?
• What would you want to see me accomplish in the first 6 months?
• What are the next steps of my application process?

Check out our blog for more top interview questions you should be asking the interviewer.

Whatever type of graduate IT role you’re interviewing for, use our information technology interview questions and answers to prepare for your interviews and confidently show an employer you’re the right fit for the role and company.

Check out our blog for more of the most common interview questions and answers.