Last updated · Reviewed by the InterviewPlan AI team 16 guides · free to read · no account needed

Guides Scrapbook · the notebook

Interview guides and STAR method examples

Everything we’ve learned from 500+ interviews, cut out and taped into one notebook.

Behavioral answers you can adapt tonight, coding patterns and a system design primer, interview questions by role, résumé tailoring that never invents anything, and a plan for your first 90 days. Free, practical, and written by people who sit on both sides of the call.

Read for free. Practise with
100 AI credits when you’re ready.

01 · In plain words

What are the InterviewPlan AI interview guides?

The InterviewPlan AI guides are free, practical playbooks for every stage of a job search: STAR method examples for behavioral interviews, coding and system design walkthroughs, interview questions by role, résumé tailoring and a first-90-days plan. Each guide is written and reviewed by the InterviewPlan AI team and updated as hiring practices change.

When you’re ready to practise, every guide links to the matching tool, Behavioral Coach for rehearsal, Resume AI for tailoring, and the Interview Copilot for the real call. Weighing tools? See InterviewPlan AI vs ChatGPT.

02 · The library

Find the page you need tonight.

search it, or flip by tab ↓

Popular: STAR method examples Tell me about yourself System design primer First 90 days

Showing 15 of 15 guides

Featured Behavioral 18 min read

STAR method examples: 24 answers you can adapt tonight

Conflict, failure, leadership, ambiguity, pressure, each example shows the question, a STAR answer with a real-sounding result, and the one line interviewers remember. Then a fill-in template so the story becomes yours.

  • 24 worked examples across 8 competencies
  • A fill-in STAR template and timing guide
  • The five mistakes that make good stories forgettable
InterviewPlan AI teamUpdated 11 Oct 2026 Read the guide

Every guide in the notebook

Behavioral 9 min read Tell me about yourself: a 90-second structure that works Present, past, future, and the one sentence that makes interviewers lean in. InterviewPlan AI team · 11 Oct 2026 Behavioral 16 min read 50 behavioral interview questions, grouped by what they test Conflict, ownership, failure, influence: what each question is really asking. InterviewPlan AI team · 8 Oct 2026 Behavioral 7 min read How to answer “Tell me about a time you failed” Pick a real miss, own it in one line, spend the rest on what changed. InterviewPlan AI team · 2 Oct 2026 Behavioral 8 min read Leadership questions when you’ve never managed anyone Influence without a title, told in STAR, with three worked examples. InterviewPlan AI team · 26 Sep 2026 Technical & coding 21 min read Coding interview patterns: the 14 that cover most problems Sliding window to topological sort, each with a template and the tell that gives it away. InterviewPlan AI team · 9 Oct 2026 Technical & coding 8 min read How to think out loud in a live coding round A narration script for approach, trade-offs and testing, without rambling. InterviewPlan AI team · 30 Sep 2026 System design 24 min read System design primer: a 45-minute round, minute by minute Requirements, estimates, high-level design, deep dive, trade-offs, in that order. InterviewPlan AI team · 7 Oct 2026 System design 14 min read Designing a rate limiter: a worked system design answer Token bucket versus sliding window, where Redis fits, and the failure modes to mention. InterviewPlan AI team · 23 Sep 2026 By role 15 min read Product manager interview questions, with STAR examples Product sense, execution and the incomplete-data question, answered from a real-looking résumé. InterviewPlan AI team · 10 Oct 2026 By role 13 min read Data engineer interview prep: SQL, pipelines and the story Window functions, Airflow DAGs and how to tell the outage you rescued. InterviewPlan AI team · 5 Oct 2026 By role 11 min read ICU nurse interview questions and calm, specific answers Patient safety, teamwork and high-pressure scenarios for critical-care panels. InterviewPlan AI team · 28 Sep 2026 Résumé 10 min read Resume tailoring to a job description, without inventing anything Mirror the job description’s language using experience you actually have. InterviewPlan AI team · 6 Oct 2026 Résumé 12 min read Turning duties into metrics: 30 résumé bullet rewrites “Helped with reports” becomes a number a hiring manager remembers. InterviewPlan AI team · 24 Sep 2026 New job / first 90 days 14 min read Your first 90 days: a week-by-week plan for new hires Listen, deliver one visible win, then propose, with a printable checklist. InterviewPlan AI team · 4 Oct 2026 New job / first 90 days 6 min read Surviving your first stand-up: updates, acronyms and good questions A 30-second update format and how to ask a question without slowing the room. InterviewPlan AI team · 21 Sep 2026

03 · By role

Interview questions by role

The questions each panel actually asks, what they’re scoring, and a STAR example for the hardest one, written with people who hire for these roles.

Prefer live help for your role? See the Interview Copilot for product managers, software engineers and nurses.

04 · Popular questions

The six questions people search most, answered in one sentence.

Each answer links to the guide that goes deeper.

  1. What is the STAR method?

    STAR is a way to answer behavioral questions by describing the Situation, the Task you owned, the Action you took and the measurable Result.

    See 24 STAR examples

  2. How long should a STAR answer be?

    Aim for 60 to 120 seconds, spending most of it on the Action and ending with one crisp, numbered Result.

    Timing guide inside

  3. How do I answer “Tell me about yourself”?

    Give a 90-second present–past–future story: what you do now, one or two experiences that prove it, and why this role is the next step.

    Read the 90-second structure

  4. How should I prepare for a system design interview?

    Practise one structure, requirements, estimates, high-level design, deep dive, trade-offs, on five or six classic problems until it fits in 45 minutes.

    Open the system design primer

  5. How do I tailor my résumé to a job description?

    Mirror the job description’s key skills in your existing bullets, lead each one with a result, and never claim experience you don’t have.

    Read résumé tailoring

  6. What should I do in my first 90 days in a new job?

    Spend the first 30 days listening and mapping people, the next 30 delivering one visible win, and the last 30 proposing improvements with data.

    Get the week-by-week plan

reading is step one. hearing it live is step two →

05 · The newsletter

The Sunday Scrapbook

One email a week: a STAR example you can steal, a question that’s trending in interviews, and one small trick for the first 90 days. Unsubscribe whenever you like.

We’ll only use your email for the newsletter. See our privacy policy.

06 · FAQ

About the guides.

Who writes them, how often they change, and how they connect to practice. Start with behavioral interview questions if you’re not sure where to begin.

The InterviewPlan AI team writes and reviews every guide. Drafts draw on patterns from 500+ supported interviews and are checked by people who have hired for the roles covered; each page shows when it was last updated.

P.S.

You’ve read the notes. Now say it out loud.

Rehearse your STAR stories with Behavioral Coach, then see a live draft built from your own résumé in under a second. Five live minutes and 100 AI credits, free.

Responsible use: follow each employer’s recording and AI-assistance policies. Where live help isn’t allowed, rehearse instead, the structure comes with you.

My reading list WEEK OF 11 OCT
  • STAR method examples
  • Tell me about yourself
  • System design primer
  • Resume tailoring
  • practise it live →