"Describe a time you solved a problem": how to answer

What recruiters look for

• Finding the cause. You looked into the problem before jumping to a fix.
• Using evidence. You gathered information, data or advice.
• Weighing options. You considered more than one approach and chose for a reason.
• Following through. You checked whether the fix worked.

For example, the Civil Service's Making effective decisions behaviour is about using "evidence and knowledge to support accurate, expert decisions" and considering "alternative options, implications and risks" (checked 25 October 2026). The Civil Service isn't connected with Aplara and doesn't endorse it.

A structure to follow

1. The problem: what was wrong and why it mattered, briefly.
2. Finding the cause: what you checked, measured or asked.
3. The options: two or three ways forward, and why you picked one.
4. The result: what happened, how you know, and what you'd do next time.

Technical problems from labs, coding or placements work well, but so do problems from part-time jobs, like a rota that kept clashing or a complaint that kept coming back.

Example answer

Sam is a fictional second-year mechanical engineering student. The details are invented to show the shape of a good answer. Use your own.

On our second-year robotics project, our line-following robot kept drifting off course at the same corner, and the team's first idea was to rewrite the control code. Before changing anything, I logged the sensor readings over several runs and found they dropped sharply at that corner, where light from a window hit the track. We considered recalibrating the sensors every session, adding a software filter, or shielding the sensors. I suggested shielding, because it was quickest to test and didn't depend on the room's lighting. A card shield fixed the drift on our next ten test runs, and we kept the logging in place to catch problems early. I now check the data before deciding on a fix.

About 120 words.

Common mistakes

• Skipping the diagnosis. Jumping straight to the fix hides the thinking recruiters want to see.
• A problem someone else solved. Be clear which steps were yours.
• Too much jargon. Explain technical terms so a recruiter who isn't an engineer can follow.
• No result. Say whether it worked, and how you know.
• A generic AI answer. "I used my analytical skills to resolve the issue" says nothing. The steps do.

FAQs