What do you think of diversity and inclusivity?
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What is this question about
Interviewers are usually not looking for a political speech here. They want to understand whether you treat diversity and inclusion as part of doing effective work with other humans, and whether your behavior helps create an environment where different people can contribute well. At higher levels, they are also testing whether you can translate inclusive values into concrete team norms, decisions, and outcomes rather than keeping it at the level of abstract agreement.
Key Insights
- You should move beyond "I think it's important" and show how that belief changes what you actually do: how you communicate, make decisions, run meetings, give opportunities, or notice who is excluded.
- A common miss is treating diversity and inclusion as HR's job or as something solved by good intentions. Strong answers show that inclusion affects engineering quality, collaboration, hiring, onboarding, and decision-making.
- You do not need a grand social-impact story. A grounded example about making teammates feel safe to contribute, adapting your communication, or improving fairness in a process is often more credible than a generic statement of values.
What interviewers probe atlevel
Top Priority
At junior level, the bar is showing respectful, concrete habits that help others participate, not solving organizational inequity alone.
Good examples
🟢I think inclusion shows up in small behaviors. On my last team I noticed some people were getting cut off in standup, so I started pausing before moving on and asking if anyone who hadn't spoken wanted to add context.
🟢To me, diversity matters because different backgrounds change what risks and user needs people notice. As a newer engineer, I try to write clearly, avoid inside jokes in team channels, and make sure questions from interns or new hires get answered respectfully.
Bad examples
🔴I think diversity is important because everyone should be treated the same, so I just focus on doing my work and staying out of those conversations.
🔴Inclusivity matters, but I don't really think about it much because if people are professional, things usually work themselves out.
Weak answers treat inclusion as a passive belief or personal niceness; strong answers show specific habits that affect how work actually gets done.
Valuable
Example answers atlevel
Great answers
I think diversity and inclusivity matter because teams work better when different people can contribute comfortably, not just be present. On my last team, I noticed that newer people, including me, sometimes stayed quiet because a few teammates had a lot of shared context and moved quickly in discussions. I started writing short summaries after meetings and sharing links to past decisions so people who were less familiar with the history could catch up and ask questions. I also tried to be deliberate about answering basic questions respectfully in chat, because I know those moments can shape whether someone speaks up again. I'm still early in my career, so I don't pretend I've solved this at a big scale, but I do think inclusion shows up in those day-to-day habits.
I see diversity and inclusivity as essential to building products that serve real people, not just a narrow subset. When I worked on a small UI feature during my internship, I realized we were ignoring basic accessibility — keyboard navigation and image descriptions were missing — so I added those and created a short accessibility checklist for future small tasks. I also noticed a few interns were hesitant to ask for help, so I proposed a simple buddy system where each newcomer had one assigned peer to check in with; my manager adopted it for the next intern cohort. Those two changes cut down on follow-up bugs and made newcomers more likely to ask questions, which for me shows inclusion is both about the users we design for and the teammates we bring along.
Poor answers
I think diversity and inclusivity are very important. Personally I treat everyone the same and try to be nice, so I think that covers most of it. I haven't really seen major issues on my teams, which is a good sign to me. As long as people are professional and focused on the work, things usually go pretty smoothly.
Question Timeline
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Mid January, 2025
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