Give me an example of a time when you were not able to meet a commitment.
Asked at:
Meta
Amazon
Snowflake
Anthropic
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What is this question about
Interviewers are testing reliability, ownership, and your judgment under pressure when plans change. They want to see if you surface risks early, reset expectations responsibly, and protect outcomes when a slip is unavoidable. The strongest answers show candid accountability, thoughtful mitigation, and a learning loop that permanently improves how you make and keep commitments.
Key Insights
- Pick a consequential miss and quantify the impact; then show how you reduced harm. You’re signaling how you behave when reliability is most tested.
- Own your part without defensiveness. Name what you controlled, what you missed, and what you changed so it won’t recur.
- Show the early warning system: what signals you watched, when you flagged risk, and how you renegotiated scope or dates with clear options.
What interviewers probe atlevel
Top Priority
Show you monitored progress, spotted trouble early, and asked for help to reset scope or dates.
Good examples
🟢Mid-week my burn-down showed I was behind; I flagged it to my lead and we cut a non-critical subtask to make a partial delivery.
🟢When a dependency slipped, I immediately proposed swapping my next ticket to unblock them and asked to move my due date.
Bad examples
🔴I realized the day before that I wouldn’t finish and sent a quick message asking for an extension.
🔴I kept trying to make it work until the deadline, hoping I’d pull it off.
Weak answers reveal last-minute discovery and magical thinking; strong ones highlight early signals and concrete renegotiation.
Own the miss plainly, name your contribution, and show you sought guidance early the next time.
Good examples
🟢I underestimated edge cases in the parser and didn’t ask for a design review early. I owned the slip to my lead and adjusted the plan.
🟢I overcommitted while juggling a second task. I told my mentor I mis-scoped it and asked to narrow the first task to hit a revised date.
Bad examples
🔴I couldn’t finish because the backend team kept changing the API, so the delay wasn’t on me.
🔴QA filed bugs really late, which pushed me past the date; I didn’t have control over that.
Weak answers deflect blame and imply the miss was inevitable; strong answers clearly own the candidate’s decisions and missteps and describe corrective actions they drove.
Valuable
Be concise and timely: say what changed, the impact, and what you propose next.
Good examples
🟢I messaged: ‘I’m behind by ~1 day due to X. Options: cut Y now or move the date to Friday. I recommend cutting Y to unblock QA.’
🟢I wrote a short status with risks, new ETA, and asked for a quick thumbs-up to proceed with the adjusted plan.
Bad examples
🔴I posted a vague standup update: ‘Still working, a few blockers,’ and hoped it was fine.
🔴I DMed my PM late at night that I needed more time without details.
Weak answers are late and fuzzy; strong ones are timely, specific, and offer options.
Show practical steps you took to reduce harm, even if you couldn’t hit the original date.
Good examples
🟢I proposed shipping read-only mode first to unblock QA and users needing visibility.
🟢I split the work, delivered the API ahead of the UI, and documented how to consume it.
Bad examples
🔴I kept building everything as planned even though I knew we’d miss.
🔴I rushed to ship all features at once with minimal testing.
Weak answers ignore mitigation or risk quality; strong ones deliver partial value safely.
Question Timeline
See when this question was last asked and where, including any notes left by other candidates.
Mid December, 2025
Meta
Manager
Mid December, 2025
Meta
Manager
Late November, 2025
Meta
Manager
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