Interview guides
Interview guides,
In-depth guides to the interviews UK graduates and career changers face, from STAR answers and follow-up questions to SQL rounds, data projects, the Civil Service and the NHS. Each one starts with the short answer, works through realistic examples and ends with a checklist and questions to practise out loud.
Data interviews
Data analyst and interviews
The parts of a data interview most guides skip: talking through your own project, explaining SQL while you write it, a junior pipeline design round, and answering as someone changing career.
- 7 min read
How to talk through a data project in an interview
A five-part structure, a worked example, a one-minute version and the follow-ups you’ll get.
- 7 min read
How to explain your SQL out loud in an interview
What to say before, during and after a live SQL task, and how to recover from a mistake.
- 7 min read
How to answer a data pipeline design question as a junior data engineer
A route from source to users, the reliability questions that matter, and a worked council example.
- 7 min read
Changing career into data: how to answer the interview questions
The questions career changers get, what’s behind each, and worked answers from three careers.
Answering well
Answers that
How to build answers from your own experience, what changes between competency, strengths and values questions, and how to handle the questions that come after your first answer.
- 10 min read
STAR method examples: six worked answers for graduates
Six complete worked answers, how long each part should take, and how to build your own story bank.
- 7 min read
Competency, strengths or values interview? How to tell, and how to answer each
How to spot each style, and one experience answered three different ways.
- 6 min read
How to handle follow-up questions in an interview
The six kinds of follow-up question, why interviewers ask them, and how to stay steady.
- 6 min read
Questions to ask at the end of an interview, and which to choose when
Questions grouped by interview stage and interviewer, plus data-team questions and what to avoid.
Sector interviews
Public sector, law
Interviews with a framework of their own: Civil Service Success Profiles, the NHS values, and the commercial awareness questions law, finance and consulting firms ask.
- 6 min read
Civil Service interviews: behaviours, strengths and Success Profiles
The nine behaviours as spoken questions, how strengths questions differ, and worked examples.
- 6 min read
NHS values-based interviews: how to answer, with examples
The six NHS values as interview questions, with examples from clinical and non-clinical roles.
- 7 min read
Commercial awareness interview questions: how to answer with one good story
Follow the money, build one story in depth, and think out loud about winners and losers.
Stages and formats
Every stage,
Telephone and first-round calls, case studies and estimates, presenting an analysis, placement and internship interviews, and a plan for the week before.
- 6 min read
Telephone and first-round interviews: what they ask and how to prepare
What screening calls ask, how to sound good on the phone, and a 30-minute preparation plan.
- 6 min read
Case study and estimation questions: a worked walkthrough
A five-step method and two fully worked UK examples: a bakery case and a driving lessons estimate.
- 6 min read
How to present an analysis at interview with 10 minutes to prepare
A minute-by-minute prep plan, a worked five-minute outline, and handling the questions after.
- 6 min read
Internship, placement and apprenticeship interviews: how to answer as a student
What they ask, how to answer with little work experience, and worked examples from students.
- 7 min read
How to prepare for an interview in a week: a day-by-day plan
Seven days of about an hour each: research, stories, out-loud practice, a mock and the day before.
Editorial standards
How we write
Written by the Deeplink Interview team for people practising, not to sell a course or rank for a keyword. Here’s what that means in practice.
- Original examples. Every worked example is invented for the guide, to show the shape of a strong answer from a realistic UK graduate or career changer. None is copied, and none is a real person’s answer.
- The short answer first. Each guide opens with two to four sentences that answer its main question, then explains the reasoning under clear headings.
- No employer involvement. We don’t work with or speak for any employer, and we never say what a particular employer will ask or how it scores. Where a framework is public, such as the Civil Service Success Profiles or the NHS values, we explain it from the published material.
- Practice, not promises. The guides are general practice advice. Nothing here, or in our feedback, predicts a hiring decision.
- Linked to real practice. Every question a guide mentions is in our practice bank, with its own page, so you can move from reading to answering out loud.
- Reviewed and dated. Each guide shows when it was last reviewed. We check them when a framework changes or when members tell us something is out of date: email us at coaching@deeplink.uk. How we write and check our questions has the rest.
These guides are general practice advice written by Deeplink. They aren’t linked to any employer, and our feedback is practice guidance, not a prediction of any hiring decision.