Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager or technical lead.
- Technology:
- Behavioral
Quick answer
Show respectful disagreement, evidence-based reasoning, willingness to listen and commitment after the final decision.
What the interviewer is evaluating
- Professional disagreement
- Influence
- Respect
- Decision commitment
How to structure your answer (STAR)
- Situation: disagreement.
- Task: reach a good decision.
- Action: evidence and discussion.
- Result: decision and support afterwards.
Example answer
My lead preferred a large refactor before adding a feature, while I believed we could isolate the change and reduce immediate delivery risk.
I documented both options with effort, risk and rollback considerations and discussed the long-term maintenance concern behind the refactor.
We chose a smaller change for the immediate release and created a follow-up item for the highest-value refactoring. I supported the decision and helped define the follow-up scope.
Discussion
Disagreeing professionally is healthy. The key is to challenge the decision rather than the person.
Explain what evidence you brought, what you learned from their perspective and how the final decision was made.
If the decision went against your recommendation, explain how you supported it afterwards.
Key points
- Challenge ideas, not people
- Use evidence
- Listen to constraints
- Disagree and commit
Common mistakes
- Making the manager look incompetent.
- Treating disagreement as winning or losing.
- Continuing to resist after the decision.
Follow-up questions
- What if they still disagreed?
- What did you learn from their perspective?