Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a colleague

This is a common behavioral question that assesses your ability to handle conflict professionally and constructively in the workplace.

What the interviewer is looking for

• Professional maturity: How you handle disagreements without becoming personal
• Communication skills: Your ability to express differing viewpoints respectfully
• Problem-solving: How you work toward resolution
• Collaboration: Your willingness to find common ground
• Learning mindset: What you learned from the experience

Example Structure Using STAR

Situation

Set the context for the disagreement:

• The project or task you were working on
• Your role and the colleague's role
• The stakes or importance of the decision

Task

Explain what needed to be accomplished:

• The goal you were both trying to achieve
• Why the disagreement arose
• The different perspectives involved

Action

Describe the steps you took:

• How you approached the conversation
• Active listening techniques you used
• How you presented your viewpoint
• Compromise or collaboration efforts
• Any data or evidence you gathered

Result

Share the outcome:

• How the disagreement was resolved
• The impact on the project or team
• What you learned from the experience
• How it improved your working relationship

Key Points to Remember

✅ Do:

• Focus on professional disagreements, not personal conflicts
• Show respect for different viewpoints
• Demonstrate emotional intelligence
• Highlight positive outcomes or learnings
• Show that you can disagree without being disagreeable

❌ Don't:

• Speak negatively about the colleague
• Present yourself as always being right
• Choose an example where you were clearly wrong
• Focus on who "won" the argument
• Share confidential or sensitive information

Sample Answer Framework

"In my previous role, I disagreed with a colleague about the technical approach for implementing a new feature. They wanted to use a quick solution that would meet the immediate deadline, while I was concerned about long-term maintainability and scalability.

I requested a brief meeting where we could both present our approaches with pros and cons. I actively listened to their concerns about the timeline and understood the pressure they were under. I then shared data from similar past projects showing the technical debt we'd accumulated from quick fixes.

Together, we found a middle ground: we'd implement a slightly simplified version of my proposed solution that addressed the main scalability concerns while still meeting 90% of the deadline requirements. We agreed to schedule refactoring time in the next sprint for any remaining optimizations.

The feature was delivered on time with good performance, and our collaboration actually strengthened our working relationship. I learned the importance of understanding all stakeholders' constraints and finding creative compromises that address multiple concerns."

Follow-up Questions to Prepare For

• How do you typically handle disagreements?
• What if you couldn't reach a compromise?
• Have you ever been wrong in a disagreement?
• How do you maintain relationships after conflicts?
• What would you do if the disagreement was with your manager?