Is Grokking the Behavioral Interview worth it? [Educative.io course]

Grokking the Behavioral Interview is a new course on the Educative.io platform.

You read that right… There’s a course on how to pass the behavioral portion of a tech interview.

“What are behavioral interview questions, anyway?”

Behavioral interview questions examine how you’ve handled work situations to reveal your skills, personality and culture fit.

Some examples of behavioral interview questions include:

• Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond at work.
• How do you react when a coworker annoys you?
• Give me an example of a time you did something wrong. How did you handle it?

“But I already know those answers. Why practice?”

Because interviews can be stressful.

This can lead to rambling, fumbling, spacing out, and an endless list of other unflattering side effects.

And it’s that nervous response that may lead to you not getting the job… Even if you do great with the technical stuff.

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Can a behavioral interview course really help?

Absolutely. Affirmative. Yes!

Preparing for the behavioral interview is just like prepping for any other type of interview.

❌ You wouldn’t go to a coding interview without hashing out a few problems beforehand.

❌ And you probably wouldn’t go to a system design interview without doing a bit of research.

❌ Data structures and algorithms? Not a chance you’d go to that interview blindly.

And you shouldn’t go to a behavioral interview without brushing up on your behavioral skills.

Want to know more about the Grokking series on Educative?
Check out our full review list.

Grokking the Behavioral Interview

⚠️ Level: Beginner

Estimated completion time: 5 hours

Lessons: 36

Quizzes: 5

Illustrations: 9

Grokking the Behavioral Interview is broken down into 5 modules:

🔷 Why Prepare?

🔷 Preparing/Homework

🔷 Patterns for Behavioral Questions

🔷 Interview Etiquette

🔷 Quizzes

Included are tons of questions you can expect to be asked by interviewers. Plus, you’re provided with a number of questions you can ask employers.

👍 Bonus #1:

Questions throughout this course offer example answers for software engineers, project managers, product managers and engineering managers.

For example, clicking on the software engineer button will give you an appropriate answer for that career path.

👍 Bonus #2:

Educative has a new embedded video recorder. So you can record yourself answering various questions contained in this course.

And from there, you can assess your performance using the course rubric and see what needs tweaking. This is a great tool for preparing for behavioral interviews.

Now let’s take a closer look at what else Grokking the Behavioral Interview has to offer.

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✨ i. Why Prepare?

If you can anticipate behavioral interview questions, you can prepare for them.

And preparation is half the battle.

This section covers:

✅ authenticity – communicating with company language, not sounding rehearsed

✅ everyone is an interviewer – importance of behaving professionally with everyone you meet at a company

✅ the purpose of behavioral interviews – behavior predictors, interviewer assessments

So you’ll understand how authenticity and professionalism go hand in hand in behavioral interviews.

✨ ii. Preparing/Homework

Researching an organization is one of the most important things you can do before an interview.

“During interviews, I always ask the applicant a company-related question. I know within 30 seconds whether or not they took the time to research the company.”

– Beth, Head of Student Success at RealToughCandy.io

This gives you a better understanding of the company culture, values and goals. And it can help you decide if working for that company is right for you.

So in this section, you’ll learn about:

✅ how to research an organization – learn about who you’re applying to work for

✅ the STAR technique – Situation, Task, Action, Result

✅ borrowing from other disciplines – clarifying questions, answering questions specifically, pace control, and more

✅ being a cultural anthropologist – studying the company’s culture and artifacts

And, you’ll work on a few exercises such as listing organization values and creating a list of experiences.

✨ iii. Patterns for Behavioral Questions

Here’s where you’ll learn how to spot behavioral interview questions. And use small talk to your advantage.

Then, this Grokking the Behavioral Interview module goes over:

✅ prior experience questions – parsing questions, sample questions, and exercises

✅ hypotheticals – parsing and answering hypothetical questions, why interviewers ask them

✅ values-based questions – examining if your values are a good fit for the company

✅ asking questions – good questions to ask, rules to remember, addressing a panel

And much more.

Then you’ll take a quiz to test your knowledge.

✨ iv. Interview Etiquette

Note: This module is sufficient for beginners. But for a nuanced explanation of how to follow up with employers, you should check out How to Get a Job in Web Development.

While interviews are difficult, there is a predictable pattern.

So if you do your research and practice, you can have a successful behavioral interview.

And this module will show you how to navigate the ins and outs of:

✅ cultural interviews – first impressions

✅ phone interviews – scheduled and unscheduled, following up

✅ video conference interviews – camera angle, lighting, background, techniques

✅ body language – posture, eye contact, hand gestures

✅ rejection – how to deal when you don’t get the job

✅ ways to practice – interview problem exercises, scenarios

And more.

✨ v. Quizzes

The conclusion of this course includes especially difficult interview questions. We won’t tell you about them here, but we’re squirming just thinking about them! 🐛

Use the embedded video recorder to practice your responses.

💰 Cost

It’s currently free to enroll in this behavioral interview course.

However, you may want to consider subscribing to Educative for these perks:

	Grokking the Behavioral Interview Course	Monthly Subscription	Yearly Subscription
Cost	$0	$59 per month	$21 per month
Access to 170+ courses	❌	✅	✅
Early access to new courses	❌	❌	✅
Certificate of Completion (New!)	✅	✅	✅

You can check out Grokking the Behavioral Interview here.

Is Grokking the Behavioral Interview worth it? Conclusion

There is a lot of information in this behavioral interview course. And because it’s free, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of a wealth of knowledge.

This course is ideal for beginners who want to improve their behavioral skills by:

• preparing
• practicing
• learning behavioral question patterns
• interview etiquette

And much more.

Up Next: What is RealToughCandy.io? A New Style of Learning for Software Developers