Internship interview questions, with a student’s answers
9 questions internship interviews ask, what each one is really checking, and how a student might answer it, aloud.
The questions
1. Tell me about yourself.
What they’re checking: Whether you can say what you study, what you have built or done, and why this internship, in under a minute.
“I’m Aditya, a third-year B.Tech Computer Science student at College of Engineering Pune. Last semester I built a canteen pre-order app in React Native that about 300 students use. I applied here because your team builds mobile apps for small shops, and I want to learn how that is done at scale.”
2. Why do you want this internship?
What they’re checking: Whether you chose them, or are applying everywhere.
“Two reasons. Your product is something I already use, so I understand the problem it solves. And the posting says interns ship to production, which is the experience my college projects can’t give me.”
3. Walk me through a project you have done.
What they’re checking: Whether you did the work you claim, and can explain the choices.
“The canteen app: students pre-order lunch so the queue moves faster. I built the React Native front end and a small Node.js API. The hardest part was handling orders when the canteen ran out of an item; I added a stock count the staff update from a simple screen. Waiting time at lunch dropped from about twenty minutes to five.”
4. You have no work experience. Why should we pick you?
What they’re checking: Whether you can turn projects and college work into evidence.
“I haven’t had a job yet, but I have shipped something people use every day, and I learned the tools on my own to do it. I’d bring the same habit here: learn what’s needed fast, and finish things.”
5. How do you learn something new?
What they’re checking: Whether you can work without being taught everything.
“I start with the official docs and build something tiny that works, then something real. For React Native I followed the docs for a weekend, built a to-do app, and then started the canteen app the week after.”
6. Tell me about a mistake you made.
What they’re checking: Whether you own it and learned from it.
“In the first week of the canteen app I pushed an update without testing on older phones, and it crashed for about fifty students at lunch. I rolled it back in ten minutes, and since then I test on two old phones before every release.”
7. What are your dates and hours?
What they’re checking: Whether the internship fits your college calendar.
“I can work full time from 15 May to 15 July, and part time, about twenty hours a week, once college reopens if you need me to continue.”
8. What stipend do you expect?
What they’re checking: Whether you have a reasonable expectation, and whether learning matters to you.
“I’d go with your standard stipend for this internship. The work and the mentoring matter most to me at this stage.”
9. Do you have any questions for us?
What they’re checking: Whether you are interested enough to ask.
“Yes. What does an intern on this team usually ship in the first month? And who would I go to with questions day to day?”
The sample student is made up.
Questions people ask
What should I study before an internship interview?
Your own project, line by line: interviewers ask most about what is on your résumé. Then the basics of the main skill in the posting, and one thing about the company.
Are internship interviews easier than job interviews?
Shorter, usually, and more about how you learn than what you know. They still expect you to explain your project clearly and to show you chose them.
Get to the interview first
A student résumé with projects written result-first, and an email to the companies with no posting open.