Competency-based interview questions and answers: the Irish public sector guide

What a competency-based interview is, in the board’s terms

publicjobs puts it plainly on its Interview Advice page: interviews “typically follow a structured format, with candidates being questioned and assessed on the competencies or capabilities relevant to the role.” Structured means three things. Every candidate for the grade is asked about the same competencies. The board writes a mark against each competency, not a general impression. And there is a minimum in each, so one weak area can put you off the panel however strong the rest of the interview was.

The board is not marking your story. It is marking the evidence inside the story against a list of indicators for the competency being tested. Under the Civil Service Capability Framework the indicators are published for every grade. HSE job specifications print them under “Skills, competencies and/or knowledge”. Council booklets print them under each competency heading and say you will be questioned on some or all of them. Read the list for your grade before you write a single example; it tells you what earns marks.

Five bodies, five versions of the same interview

The format is shared. The lists and the marks are not. Here is what you are walking into, by employer.

The point of the table is the last column. Boards fill their panels from the top, so the total matters, but the pass mark per competency is what removes people. A candidate who is excellent on five competencies and blank on the sixth does not get a panel place in any of these systems.

The three kinds of question you will hear

Most people prepare for one kind: “Tell me about a time you…”. That is the example question, and under the Competency Model it is nearly the whole interview. Under the Capability Framework, publicjobs publishes two more kinds, and boards use them. Its own sample questions:

• Experience and behaviour: “Give your best example of utilising technology/digital solutions to address challenges.” A STAR question. The board wants a past event, your actions in the first person, a result.
• Skills, strengths and knowledge: “What strengths have you developed that would help you communicate and influence others?” and “What are your biggest knowledge gaps in relation to digital focus?” Not a story. The board wants an honest, specific answer tied to the role, and for the gap question, a plan.
• Values, motivation and interests: “What values underpinned your approach?” and “What motivates you to deliver excellence?” Again not a story. Named values, a real reason, something the board can believe.

Forcing STAR onto the second and third kind is a common way to lose marks. A candidate asked what motivates them who launches into a two-minute project story has answered a different question. Boards note it.

Two other question types turn up outside the Civil Service. HSE and council boards ask knowledge questions (the HSE structure since 2024, your council’s budget) and mark purpose, implications and your own view. Garda, Prison Officer and some council boards ask what-would-you-do questions and mark the order of your actions, your reasoning, who you would involve and where you would escalate.

Competency-based interview questions, by competency

These are the shapes that come up, written the way boards ask them. The wording changes; the competency behind it does not. The bank on this site has several hundred of them tagged to the published indicators, with the follow-up a board would ask; these are a sample.

Delivering results, planning and organising

• Tell me about a time you had several tasks due at once. How did you decide what to do first?
• Describe a time you spotted a mistake, your own or someone else’s, before it caused a problem.
• Tell me about a time you had to plan and prioritise a heavy workload, your own or a team’s, to hit a deadline.
• Describe a time you had to deliver with fewer resources than the work required.
• Tell me about a time an error got through. What did you put in place so it did not happen again?

Handling information, analysis and decision making

• Tell me about a time you had to pull information together from different places to complete a task.
• Describe a decision you made using numbers or data. What did the figures show, and what did you do?
• Tell me about a time you had to escalate an issue to someone more senior. How did you decide it was time?
• Describe a time you handled sensitive or confidential information. What did you do to protect it?
• Give me an example of a complex problem you solved in a logical way: what information you gathered, the options you explored, and what you escalated.

Communicating, collaborating and customer service

• Give me an example of dealing with a difficult or upset customer and getting them what they needed.
• Describe a time you had to explain something complicated to someone in a simple way.
• Tell me about a time you received feedback you did not agree with. What did you do?
• Give me an example of getting co-operation from another section or organisation that did not have to help you.
• Tell me about a difficult conversation you handled with professionalism, with a colleague, a manager or a customer.

Leading, supporting and developing others (EO and up, Grade V, CNM)

• Tell me about a time you led, supported or motivated others to reach a goal, whether or not you were their manager.
• Give me an example of coaching or giving feedback to a colleague to help them improve.
• Describe managing an underperformance issue, formally or informally.
• Give me an example of allocating work according to people’s strengths and development needs.
• Tell me about creating an environment where people felt safe to speak up or disagree with you.

Building future readiness, change and digital

• Tell me about a time you used technology or a digital tool to make a process more efficient or a service better.
• Describe a change to your work that you were not sure about at first. How did you approach it?
• Tell me about a skill you deliberately set out to develop in the last two years. How did you go about it?
• What does your team need to do over the next two years to be ready for how the work will change, and what is your part in that?

Specialist knowledge and the organisation

• What do you know about the work of this organisation, and where do you see an Executive Officer fitting in?
• Tell me about an area of your work where colleagues come to you for guidance. How did you build that expertise?
• Since 2024 the HSE has been organised into health regions. What does that change for someone in this post?
• What did the members of this council decide on the Local Property Tax this year, and why does it matter to your section?

Values, motivation and drive

• What motivates you to deliver excellence?
• Tell me about a time you kept going towards an objective despite obstacles or setbacks.
• Give me an example of putting the customer at the centre of a decision when it was not the easiest option.
• What are your main strengths and your main development areas, and what are you doing about the development areas?

How an answer earns the marks

For the example questions, the board fills in Situation, Task, Action, Result in that order and then probes for what you learned. That is the STAR method, and there is a full guide to it here. The short version for this page:

• One event, past tense. Boards are trained to ask for “one time” because “what do you usually do” produces generalities. Pick a single situation with a date.
• Scene-setting under a quarter of the answer. Two sentences of Situation and Task, then Action.
• “I”, not “we”. The mark sheet has your name on it. If a team did it, say what your part was.
• A result someone could check. A number, a date met, what the customer or manager said afterwards. “It went well” is not a result.
• The learning. Irish boards now ask “what would you do differently” and “what values guided you” as standard follow-ups. Have it ready rather than inventing it live.

For the skills and values questions: answer the question that was asked, name specific strengths with a line of evidence each, and tie them to the grade. For a development area, say what you are doing about it. Boards mark honesty and a plan, and they mark down “I work too hard”.

Two board-side rules that decide marginal answers

Interviewer training in the public sector is fairly consistent, and two rules from it explain most surprises on a mark sheet.

Negative evidence counts. Boards keep a list of positives and negatives per competency. Blaming a colleague or a manager, taking credit for the team’s work, describing a real customer or patient in enough detail to identify them, being proud of skipping a procedure: each is written down and each costs. One remark can keep a strong answer out of the top band. Two can put it under the pass line.

Fluent is not the same as evidenced. The Northern Ireland interview standards handout tells boards: “Beware, too, of highly-articulate candidates; they can sometimes make a very good impression but be over-rated when the evidence is reviewed objectively.” The correction boards apply is to strip the adjectives and count what is left: named steps, tools, numbers, dates, what was actually said. If what is left is thin, the mark is adequate at best.

What to prepare, in order

1. Find out which framework you are being interviewed under. Your email says. Candidates who prepared for the wrong one describe interviews that felt off from the first question.
2. Print the competency list for your grade with the indicators. Read the verbs; they are what the board asks about.
3. Write one example per competency, plus one spare. Different events. Boards notice the same project appearing under three headings.
4. For each example, write the result as a number or a checkable fact, and one sentence on what you learned.
5. Prepare the non-STAR questions: your motivation for this grade, two strengths with evidence, one honest development area with a plan, and the knowledge block for HSE and council boards.
6. Say every answer out loud against a clock. Two to three minutes. What reads well on paper often runs to five minutes spoken, and boards cut people off.

Fair enough, that is a lot of writing before you say a word. It is also the difference between a candidate who is placed and one who is told they interviewed well and were not reached.