Describe a situation where you received criticism
Asked at:
Meta
Monzo
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Practice with feedback and follow-up questions
What is this question about
Interviewers use this question to assess self-awareness, coachability, and whether you can turn uncomfortable feedback into better performance. They are usually less interested in the criticism itself than in how honestly you received it, how deeply you understood it, and whether your behavior actually changed afterward. At higher levels, they also look for whether you build feedback loops for yourself and model healthy response to criticism for others.
“Tell me about a time someone gave you difficult feedback. What did you do with it?”
“What's a piece of constructive criticism you've received that changed how you work?”
“Describe an instance where a manager or peer called out something you needed to improve.”
“Can you share a time when feedback you got was hard to hear?”
“What's an example of criticism you received and how you responded afterward?”
Key Insights
- You do not need a dramatic failure story. A strong answer is often a real, meaningful piece of criticism that exposed a pattern you then worked to change.
- You should resist the urge to explain away the feedback. Even if the criticism was imperfectly delivered, interviewers want to hear what truth you extracted from it and what you did next.
- You should close the loop. Many candidates describe receiving feedback and making a one-time adjustment, but strong answers show sustained behavior change and some evidence that the criticism was actually addressed.
What interviewers probe atlevel
Top Priority
Your answer should include a real improvement plan, not just a promise to do better next time.
Good examples
🟢I started writing a short summary before asking for review so people had context, and for a while I asked a teammate to tell me if it was still unclear.
🟢I began asking for help after spending a fixed amount of time blocked, and I kept a note of where I got stuck so I could spot patterns.
Bad examples
🔴After that conversation, I was more careful and things were better.
🔴I took the feedback on board and tried to keep it in mind on future tasks.
Weak answers rely on intention; strong answers describe specific habits, constraints, or routines that made change likely.
Pick a real criticism and show that you accepted your part in it without turning the answer into an excuse or a fake weakness.
Good examples
🟢A teammate told me my updates were hard to follow because I jumped straight into implementation details. That stung a bit, but they were right.
🟢I was told I waited too long to ask for help and spent extra time stuck on problems. I could see that pattern once I looked back at a few tasks.
Bad examples
🔴My manager said I was too detail-oriented, but honestly that was mostly because everyone else was missing things and I had to compensate.
🔴I got feedback that I asked too many questions early on, but I think that was just because the onboarding docs were bad.
Weak answers minimize the truth of the feedback; strong answers acknowledge the criticism as credible and own the candidate's contribution.
Valuable
Close the story by showing how you know the change worked, even if the proof is simple.
Good examples
🟢A few weeks later my reviewer told me my code reviews were much easier to follow, which was a good sign the change was working.
🟢On later tasks I was finishing closer to my estimates, and my manager mentioned that my planning had become more realistic.
Bad examples
🔴I think it got better because nobody mentioned it again.
🔴After that, I just kept doing my work and assumed I had improved.
Weak answers leave improvement unverified; strong answers provide believable signals that the learning stuck.
Example answers atlevel
Great answers
Early in my first internship, my mentor told me that my code reviews were hard to follow because my changes mixed bug fixes, refactoring, and formatting all in one submission. I initially thought the work itself was correct, but when he walked through one example, I saw that I was making it harder for others to review and support me. After that, I started breaking my work into smaller parts and adding a short summary of what changed and what I wanted feedback on. I also asked him to tell me if my next few reviews were still too hard to read. Within a couple of weeks he said they were much easier to review, and I noticed comments became more about the actual solution instead of asking me to reorganize everything.
At my second job at a small SaaS startup I was called out by our customer success lead for coming across as dismissive when customers reported bugs — I'd often reply "can't reproduce" without much follow-up. I was defensive at first, but I asked for examples and realized I wasn't putting in the effort to reproduce issues or explain what I had tried, which left customers and teammates frustrated. I started following a simple reproduction checklist, recording a quick screen capture when I couldn't reproduce locally, and including exact environment details and next steps in my replies, plus a short note acknowledging the user's frustration. I also invited the customer success rep to sit in on a few debugging sessions so we could align on expectations. Within a month we had fewer escalations and the rep told me customers appreciated the clearer updates and that trust between teams improved.
Poor answers
One time I got criticism that I asked too many questions when I started on a project. I understood where that was coming from, but I think it was mainly because the system was new and there wasn't much documentation. After that I tried to be more independent and not bother people as much. Things went pretty smoothly after that, and I was able to finish my tasks.
Question Timeline
See when this question was last asked and where, including any notes left by other candidates.
Mid February, 2026
Meta
Staff
Mid December, 2025
Meta
Mid-level
Late April, 2025
Monzo
Mid-level
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