Interviewing (n.) — a process that makes even highly confident people extremely nervous and scatterbrained. But also, a crucial step in landing any type of internship, and later — an amazing job. 

So the sooner you get comfortable with doing interviews, the fewer ones you’d have to attend. This jumbo-sized guide goes through the most common internship interview questions (with answers), plus delivers some extra prep tips! 

What Questions Do They Ask in an Internship Interview?

Typically, interviewers during an internship ask three groups of questions:

• General ice-breakers, aimed at learning about your background and overall personality. 

• Situational and behavioral interview questions that assess your character traits, level of maturity, and soft skills.

• Role-specific questions, designed to evaluate your hard skills and theoretical knowledge of the industry. 

In this guide, we offer a walkthrough of how to answer internship interview questions in all three of these categories. Plus share several sample internship interview questions from a very popular company.  

List of Common Internship Interview Questions

These will come up at every other internship interview with companies across industries. 

1. Why do you want this internship?

This is a baseline ice-breaker question employers ask to assess your motivation, interest in the industry, and background knowledge of the company. In most cases, they want to hear a mix of a personal story, plus some reference to the company’s core activities, values, or history.

A sample answer may go like this:

“I’m interested in interning with the HR department of Acme Inc. because I’d love to learn more about successful diversity and inclusion practices implementation. I read that Acme managed to improve POC representation at the leadership levels by 15% over the past two years. As a person of color myself, I would also love to keep contributing to this positive trend and see more diverse people in this industry.” 

2. What are you interested in gaining from this internship?

Another rather standard interview question, posed to determine whether your career vision and aspirations align with what the company is ready to offer. After all, many employers hire interns with the hope of recruiting them back post-graduation for entry-level positions. 

Thus, your goal here is to not just explain your present motivation, but also foreshadow how you might use the obtained experiences in the future. 

Sample answer:

“Accounting is an ever-evolving industry. While my university coursework provides me with a solid theoretical base, I’m also interested in learning about the emerging frameworks top organizations like yours are practicing. In particular, I’d love to learn more about the reporting based on the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) your company does. So that in the future, I could also advise the accounting clients better on sustainability issues”. 

3. What are your strengths as a candidate?

The strengths and weaknesses interview question will probably hunt you for the length of your career. So the sooner you put your act together — the less stressful all interviews will be. 

Remember your goal here is to be:

• Honest
• Concrete/substantial 
• Somewhat original 

Sample answer:

4. Can you provide a complete walkthrough of a project you’ve worked on?

The goal of this question is to provide the interviewer with a preview of your work style and ethics. Specifically, they’d like to understand how you approach problem-solving and what personal organization systems you use for self-management.  

In your answer, it’s okay to highlight either an educational, personal, or professional project (if you have one yet). 

Sample answer:

“Last year, I was on the annual charity school marathon organizing committee. As a volunteer assistant, I was tasked to confirm the list of participants, create a list of sponsors, and print out all the marketing collateral. To prevent any detail from falling through the cracks, I created three separate Excel tables — for participants, sponsors, and marketing tasks. First, I collected all the confirmed sponsor details such as name, address, type of sponsorship, and required collateral. Then I created a list of unconfirmed sponsors and asked the faculty staff to send out an email to people on the list with a reminder that the deadline for applications is March, 15th. Finally, for all the confirmed sponsors I have created a list of marketing collateral and freebies they are providing, added specific instructions, and assigned executioners. I then communicated to other students their responsibilities for putting up banners, laying out goodie bags, and handing out leaflets. On the marathon day, I sat at the check-in counter and input details of every participant, assigned them a number, and handed out the goodies bag. The event went great and everyone had a jolly time!”. 

5. Can you share one accomplishment you are most proud of? 

Your internship resume will communicate most of your personal and professional accomplishments. Don’t go into reciting those. Instead, pick just one and provide extra context around it. 

For example:

“I’m very proud to have volunteered at the NFC Soup Kitchen last year. It might not have been the most professionally astounding experience, but once again it reinforced my idea about the importance of giving back and prompted me to apply for an internship in your NGO.” 

6. What do you plan to do after you graduate?

By asking this question, the employer attempts to understand if you’d likely stay in the same industry (and thus become a good prospect for hiring) or are still not quite sure of your ultimate career path. 

Also, this question is a bit of a reality check for you as a candidate. To weed out people who may do something unrealistic. Say that you want to get hired for a six-figure salary straight off the bat.

The best strategy is to keep your answer neutral, especially if you are still several years from graduating.

“Since I’m in my sophomore year, I’m still not fully sure how I plan to apply my degree in social work as there are different career paths out there. What I am certain of, however, is that I’d like to remain focused on working with minority groups.” 

7. What type of leadership qualities do you have? 

Gone are the times when companies wanted meek, docile interns. Most employers today seek independent, ambitious, and driven candidates with at least somewhat prominent leadership skills. 

To make sure your answer differs from that of other potential interns, focus on highlighting one quality and providing an example of it. 

For example:

“I’m a good negotiator. How so? Because it’s impossible not to become one when you are growing up with three older, hockey-playing brothers, who also tend to over-protect you. I early learned that if I wanted to get things done my way e.g. get everyone to watch a musical instead of a hockey match, I had to progressively obtain a buy-in from all stakeholders (mom, dad, and at least one of my siblings). Then we’d have the majority vote, which I gently pushed to make the main decision-making model in the household, and get the business done.” 

8. Can you name any major trend in our industry?

In this case, the employer wants to test your business acumen — a level of interest and commercial knowledge in the industry. After all, most expect interns to have at least some ideas of the general business happenings and realistic expectations around the work done. So always do some background research! 

Sample answer:

“I’d say the progressive transition to electric vehicles and then CASE (connected, autonomous, shared eclectic) vehicles. I know that this is still a 10-to-20-year perspective, but the infrastructure, or at least plans, for such vehicles, needs to be put down today by city planners.”

Engineering Internship Interview Questions

Landing a great engineering internship, especially with a larger company, can set you up for a long, lucrative career. But these positions are also highly competitive. So you need to shine during the interview. So practice replying to the following types of interview questions for an engineering internship. 

9. Can you describe an engineering principle you find particularly useful?

The goal of this question is to evaluate your theoretical knowledge in practical contest. There’s no inherently right answer. Just pick the most applicable best practice for the position you’re after and provide persuasive argumentation for your choice. 

Sample answer for a software engineer: 

“I always try to practice the DRY principle aka Don’t Repeat Yourself. Bloated code creates inefficiencies and is harder to debug. By forcing myself to think about the simplest, most effective solution, I’m reducing future complexities for myself and others.” 

10.  How would you approach [issue] troubleshooting?

This situational question tests your analytical skills. The hiring manager wants to understand your logical reasoning and approaches to problem-solving — both essential for engineering roles. While you may not know the precise answer to the proposed issue (if it’s purposefully complex or absolutely bogus), you must provide a coherent walkthrough. 

For example:

“So the electric board I’m working with produces pitch buzzing noise. First, I’d tackle the obvious — disconnect it from the power supply to check if the issue is due to poorly implemented current limiting. Next, I’d continue disconnecting different parts of the system and test each separately. Switching regulators, for example, may have an inductor on the output that separates them from the rest of the circuit until I localize the problem.” 

11.  Explain what a [fundamental concept] is to someone who doesn’t know engineering 

Employers don’t expect interns to have the most profound technical skills (after all, you’re still learning!). But they want candidates with strong soft skills, especially oral and written communication. 

To point of this question is to test how well you can distill complex concepts (which indicates strong theoretical knowledge) and how well you can convey the information to others. 

Sample answer:

“A thread is like a single line of work within a larger task that a computer is doing, kind of like one person in a group project working on their part. It allows a program to multitask by handling multiple things at once, like loading a webpage while you scroll. Threads share resources like memory, so they work together but can sometimes slow each other down if not managed well.” 

12.  What do you do when you face a problem you don’t immediately know how to solve?

Internships are a ‘learning’ arrangement — you’ll have mentors to support and train you. But most will also expect you to show a high degree of autonomy. This question aims to assess your aptitude for problem-solving. 

Sample answer:

“My go-to approach is breaking the big problem into smaller components to identify where I lack knowledge. From there, I’ll first research the possible solution myself — consulting a manual or a good online resource. Then reach out to a classmate, a teaching assistant, or my professor. In between, I’d experiment with different approaches to test which one works best.” 

Even more questions to practice: 

• What programming languages, tools, or technologies are you most familiar with? 
• How would you design a system to handle [specific requirement]? 
• Describe how you approach optimizing mechanical systems for [specific characteristic] 
• How do you ensure your work meets [specific compliance requirement]? 
• Describe a recent teamwork project you did. What was your role and contribution? 
• How do you usually ensure that the team has good dynamics? 
• How do you manage tight deadlines for demanding tasks? 

Accounting Internship Interview Questions

Entry-level accounting interview questions usually test a combination of your basic knowledge and soft skills like attention to detail, critical thinking, and collaboration. Many hiring managers will also ask questions to determine how coachable you are and whether you can well-adapt to existing workplace dynamics. Practice the following interview questions to make a great first impression. 

13. What is the difference between cash-based and accrual-based accounting?

The interviewer will likely through in a couple of questions to test your fundamental accounting knowledge. It could be a comparison question like the above or another variation, asking to explain a key concept or accounting principle. Your goal is to provide a short, clear walkthrough. 

For example: 

“Cash-based accounting records revenue and expenses only when cash is actually received or paid. It’s a simpler reporting method, but it’s only applicable to businesses and individuals with a revenue of $ 30 million or less over the past three years. Accrual accounting, on the other hand, records transactions when they are earned or incurred, providing a more accurate picture of a company’s financial health over time. It’s required under GAAP. 

14.  Describe your process for preparing an annual cash flow forecast 

In this case, the interviewer wants to hear more about your approach to financial forecasting (or another common accounting task). They’re not as much interested in theoretical knowledge, but rather in the tools and modeling techniques you use to create accurate forecasts. 

Your answer should provide a step-by-step walkthrough: 

“First, I’d pull off financial records to calculate revenue, expenses, and cash inflows/outflows over the available period. Let’s say four years. Then, I’d list all known future changes like seasonal sales fluctuations, planned shareholder dividend distribution, loan repayments, and so on. Then I’d use time series analysis to come up with the preliminary forecast.” 

15. What would you do if you found an error in the client’s financial statement?

This is a bit of a tricky interview question because it tests both your interpersonal skills and your integrity — an important quality in the accounting profession. After all, fraud is common, and it’s the accountants’ duty to report it. 

Here’s a sample answer:

“First of all, I’d re-verify the data again to ensure it’s indeed a discrepancy and I am not missing some wider context. Then I would communicate the issue to my superior, explaining why I believe this might be a problem.” 

16. What accounting tools do you use?

Good general calculus knowledge is important, but so are your digital literacy skills. Hiring managers don’t expect you to be a pro in complex enterprise resource planning (ERP) software like SAP or Dynamics 360. But most expect a good degree of familiarity with simpler products like Excel or QuickBooks. 

Sample answer:

“I’ve recently completed an online course in “Advanced Excel for Accounting”  and “Data Visualization 101” with Microsoft. In addition, I know Matlab and basic HTML from my coursework and can build simple, low-code scripts for workflow automation.” 

Even more questions to practice: 

• What made you choose accounting as your major? 
• What formulas and functions do you like using in Excel? 
• Have you worked with any data dashboards or data visualization tools? 
• Do you have any experience with tax preparation software? 
• How do you approach joint work on complex auditory reports?
• How would you communicate a [negative financial trend] to a client? 
• Can you give an example of when you had to complete a task under a tight deadline?

Marketing Internship Interview Questions

Marketing is an exciting field to work in as there are plenty of roles requiring strong creative, management, or analytical skills (or even a combination of all three!). While the exact set of internship interview questions will depend on your role, you’re likely to get asked some variation of the following ones. 

17.  What marketing tools are you familiar with?  

Marketing isn’t just about pure creativity these days — it’s about savvy usage of various technologies to conceive, plan, and execute different campaigns. There are over 14,000 different MarTech tools on the market. No interviewer expects you to know all of them, but they likely want to get an idea of your skillset. Give ‘em a short overview. 

Sample answer: 

“I am a content creator myself, so I’m very familiar with social media scheduling tools like Planoly, Later, and Hootsuite, as well as Instagram Business analytics. Also, I’ve recently completed introductory courses to Google Analytics 4 and HubSpot.” 

18. What do you know about inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is the name of the game these days as most brands go for consultative selling and customer education, over direct, targeted pitches. When answering this question, you should communicate your understanding of inbound marketing techniques and the results they can bring. 

For example: 

“Inbound marketing for me is a strong synergy between different content formats (and mediums) and its subsequent amplification. For example, a podcast episode can be repurposed as a blog post and social media assets, then also uploaded on YouTube to improve reach to different audience segments.” 

19. How would you promote our product with a $ 500 budget?

This marketing internship question tests your creativity. The interviewer wants to see what “mileage” you could get out of a tiny budget. Remember: Your example should be realistic and ideally provide a spending breakdown for different categories. 

Try giving the following reply: 

“OK, so I have $ 500 to promote your new serum. I would focus on two channels — Instagram and TikTok — as you already have engaged audiences there. First, I’d spend about $ 100 on shooting new product images in-house — a quick tutorial with a smartphone and some candid product videos to show the serum’s great texture and color. Then I’d assign $ 150 for retargeting ads on Instagram to pitch the product to past buyers. I would test several ad formats (feed videos and Stories ads) to see what works best. Lastly, I’d put $ 250 into influencer marketing on TikTok with smaller creators (5K-10K followers) in the skincare space to amplify the product launch.” 

20.  How would you calculate the ROI of a marketing campaign?

Return on investment (ROI) is what most markets aim to optimize in their campaigns. But this can be tricky to calculate, given that many customer journeys aren’t linear and attribution is getting less reliable with third-party cookies depreciation. Your goal is to show the interviewer that you’re considering various factors in your calculation. 

Sample answer: 

“So this can be tricky for multi-channel campaigns. To avoid shooting myself in the foot, I’d go for calculating the ROI of a 3-month influencer marketing campaign on YouTube. Let’s assume that every creator received a personalized checkout code and we know exactly how many sales they drove (e.g., $ 50K). The total campaign cost was $ 15K in compensation and $ 1K in shipping and admin costs. So the rough ROI would be 212.5%. Of course, this doesn’t factor in the labor costs or any unattributed sales.” 

Even more questions to practice: 

• When would you use a [specific marketing technique] over another one? 
• How do you measure and communicate the success of marketing campaigns? 
• How do you approach selecting channels for paid advertising campaigns?
• Can you walk me through your approach to customer segmentation?
• What strategies would you use to build organic engagement on social media? 
• What metrics would you track for an email marketing campaign?
• Do you have any experience with A/B testing? When do you use it? 

Google Internship Interview Questions 

Below are some popular interview questions for Google interns, as reported by others on Glassdoor. 

21. What makes you best for this job?

This is your prime opportunity to shamelessly tout your own horn. Bring up some of the unique personal qualities and professional experience that other candidates may not have.

For example:

“Though I’m training as a UX designer, I also did some part-time summer work at a call center for another tech company. And this experience has opened my eyes to the fact of the importance of user-centric design. A lot of people were dialing in with basic questions about the software tool, which could have been addressed with better UX copy, navigation, or page forms. I’m a strong listener and get obsessive with user research. Given Google’s focus on product-centricity, I believe I could make a good add-on to your team.”   

22. Can you describe a time when you had to work with a difficult teammate?

Google tends to hire large batches of interns for different specializations and allocates a lot of time to teamwork and team projects. So it’s understandable that their HRs want to know if you have good interpersonal skills.

Sample answer:

“During a recent lab project, I was teamed up with another student who’s known to be pretty opinionated and not always in a good way. During the experiment, they often made rash judgments and felt wounded when I gently disagreed and proposed the alternatives. To prevent a potential conflict, I asked them to step out of the lab with me for a cup of tea and I explained to them that I very much respect their knowledge and ideas, and in no way want to undercut them. But I also highlighted that even the tiniest mishap in the algorithm will botch all our results. Thus, I proposed to take a day to triple-verify the datasets together and then launch into algorithm training. My partner understood and accepted my position and we moved on to more productive work”  

23. How do you react when people do not like your research?

This is a standard example of a behavioral interview question, aimed at assessing the candidate’s level of emotional maturity. No one wants to work with someone whose ego can be too easily bruised. 

A good answer to such a question could be:

“Well, that happens. I take no personal offense. Just try to understand what rubbed them the wrong way and collect some constructive criticism to address later on.” 

24. Can you tell me about one project off your resume?

This question is your prompt to share a personal or hobby project that didn’t fit into your one-page resume. Be strategic and bring up something related to the position, plus showcase some of your marketable skills. 

Here’s a sample answer for a computer vision intern: 

“Last year, I 3D-printed a toy car. Then connected it to a small camera and Raspberry PI computer and tried to codify it for autonomous driving. I drew a track with black borders and wrote a deep learning algorithm that would prompt the car to detect and recognize those borders and drive within the range. I have a video on my phone that I could show you.” 

Questions to Ask at the End of an Internship Interview

Naturally, you too will have questions about the internship. The hiring manager(s) will likely answer some of them during the introductory part of the interview. But you should also prepare a few more for the end of the interview.  Doing so not just helps you get more insights about the role, but also make a more positive first impression. 

Here are several important questions to ask at the end of an internship interview: 

1. What kind of projects would I be working on?
2. How will my performance be measured?
3. What’s the hiring rate of past interns? 
4. Can you tell me more about the team I’d be assigned to?
5. How often do interns interact with their mentors?
6. What qualities do the most successful interns usually have?
7. What do you like most about working for this company?
8. Are there opportunities for interns to attend any extra training?
9. Do you have any other questions you’d like me to address? 
10. What is the next step in the hiring process?

And here are some more good questions to ask after the interview. 

Wrap-up: How Do You Prepare for an Internship Interview?

Ideally, you should plan to have at least three days for interview prep. 

• Day 1: Do some background research on the company. Pay attention to recent corporate announcements, mission statements, and overall background. Then check if they have any specific resources for interns. Many larger employers publish interviewing/prep guides or “what to expect” types of resources on their websites. 

• Day 2: Focus on practicing your interview questions and answers. Create a shortlist of talking points for those you anticipate and practice speaking them out. Remember: your goal isn’t to sound robotic and rehearsed, but rather to fill your brain with compelling talking points you can bring up during the interview. 

• Day 3: Prepare for any possible tests or hard-skills-oriented questions if that’s what the company likes giving out to interns. 

FAQs about internship interviews

Below are answers to common questions about internships.  

How do you stand out in an internship interview?

Bring some curious personal fact — something that is quintessentially YOU and perfectly sums up who you are as a person and what interests you professionally. For example, you can briefly share about a hobby that led you to pursue this career path; tell a short personal anecdote about your personal background; or share some quick tidbits about your personal values and beliefs, driving you towards a certain aspiration. 

How to answer the interview questions about a past internship?

Always answer such questions honestly, even if your last internship didn’t go great. Remember, it doesn’t take much time for an employer to inquire into your background. So trying to conceal matters will make you look shady. Instead, just acknowledge that your past experience was good or OK, you’ve learned certain things and wished that X, Y, Z could have gone better. 

Is it OK to bring notes to the interview?

Yes, you can have a notebook with you in the room during an interview. But casting long looks into your notepad after every other question won’t make look great. Overall, using notes during an interview is acceptable when — a) you are doing some interview test/assignment b) you are looking up some of the questions you’d wanted to ask the interviewer. 

What questions I should ask the interviewer?

As a prospective intern, here are some good questions to ask the interviewer before leaving the room:

• Can you please describe your onboarding process for interns? 
• What qualities do you think made other interns successful? 
• What type of resources would I have access to during the internship?
• Do you offer interns any follow-up opportunities e.g. part-time or full-time work?
• Did I answer all your questions? Is there anything else you’d like to know? 

How do I get my first internship with no experience?

Be persistent and don’t be afraid to approach different employers, including those without a formal internship program in place. Show that you are enthusiastic and eager to learn in your application documents and explain what type of value you could generate for the business if they hire you. For example, save time during the busy season; assist with an upcoming project; etc.

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