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Situational interviews when AI can suggest an answer

Make a choice. Explain the trade-off. Adapt when the facts change.

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Saturday, 8:40 · Pellbrook What do you do first?

It’s 8:40 on Saturday and you’re Pellbrook’s weekend on-call coordinator. A flash sale on a garden furniture set opens at 10:00, and an email promising “180 sets” goes to 30,000 customers at the same moment. The warehouse supervisor messages: “System says 180 sets. We found 120 on the shelves.”

  1. Ask the supervisor where she counted: every location, or just the shelves?
  2. Cap the sale at 120 now, then find out more.
  3. Text the head of e-commerce and ask her to call off the sale.
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Practice interviews

02 Weigh obligations that pull apart

“If an SI question does not contain a dilemma, the answer to an interview question may be a response to what the interviewee infers the interviewer hopes to hear.”

Gary P. Latham and Guy Itzchakov, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto (Latham); Department of Human Services, University of Haifa (Itzchakov) · Frontiers in Psychology, Jul 27, 2021

Name who loses under each option. A dilemma without a cost is usually just a slogan.

Situational judgment · Trade-offsYour biggest buyer wants stock promised to someone else. What would you do?Example

03 Know what to own and what to escalate

“And then you have to continuously refresh them so candidates don’t compare notes and come prepared with all the answers.”

Laszlo Bock, Senior Vice President of People Operations, Google · WIRED (book excerpt), Apr 7, 2015

Own the first safe step and name the person who can approve the rest. A rehearsed answer breaks when the owner is away.

Situational judgment · OwnershipA broken promo goes out at 9:00 and its owner is away. What would you do?Example
Free toolPlay a scenario: one Saturday at Pellbrook, three decisions, and where each one leads

Sources

  1. Bronté Chappell, Talent Acquisition Manager, Greenhouse, at the time. Greenhouse blog, “Interviewing in the age of AI: How to see past the scripts and find the real candidate”, Jan 23, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  2. Gary P. Latham and Guy Itzchakov, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto (Latham); Department of Human Services, University of Haifa (Itzchakov), at the time. Frontiers in Psychology, “The Effect of a Dilemma on the Relationship Between Ability to Identify the Criterion (ATIC) and Scores on a Validated Situational Interview”, Jul 27, 2021. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  3. Laszlo Bock, Senior Vice President of People Operations, Google, at the time. WIRED (book excerpt), “Here's Google's Secret to Hiring the Best People”, Apr 7, 2015. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  4. Roland Busch, President and CEO, at the time. Siemens, “Siemens and NVIDIA are advancing Industrial AI”, Oct 22, 2026. Open the source. Checked against the published text.
  5. Navio Kwok, Leadership adviser, Russell Reynolds Associates, at the time. MIT Sloan Management Review, “When Candidates Use Generative AI for the Interview”, Jan 9, 2025. Open the source. Checked against the published text.

Last reviewed Nov 10, 2026