What are your Strengths and Weaknesses?

March 6, 2025

Strengths and Weaknesses in Interview

“Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses” or “What are your strengths and weaknesses” etc. are some of the most important questions that are 9 out of 10 times asked in HR interviews of all service based and product based companies. It is a very common question to ask about a candidate’s “strengths” and “weaknesses”, therefore you should prepare an answer before appearing for any interview.

Page Highlights:

  • What are strengths and weaknesses?
  • Why interviewers ask this Question?
  • How to answer: ”What are your strengths and weaknesses”
  • Sample Answer: “What are your strengths and weaknesses”
how to answer what are your strengths and weaknesses in an interview

What are strengths and weaknesses?

Strengths:

 Strengths are the skills, qualities, and traits that make you a good fit for the job. These can be:

  • Technical skills: Like knowing how to use specific software, tools, or programming languages.
  • Soft skills: Such as communication, teamwork, or leadership.
  • Personal traits: For example, being adaptable, good at solving problems, or staying resilient under pressure.

Weaknesses:

Weaknesses are areas where you might not be as strong or confident. The trick is to talk about them in a way that shows you’re aware of them and are actively working to improve.

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Why "What are your Strengths and Weaknesses?" is Asked

Interviewers ask about your strengths and weaknesses to:

  • Evaluate Self-Awareness: They check if you can honestly recognize your skills and areas for improvement.
  • Gauge Cultural Fit: Your strengths should match the company’s values and what they need.
  • Assess Growth Mindset: Talking about weaknesses shows if you’re willing to learn and improve.
  • Test Honesty: If your answer sounds too perfect, they might doubt its truthfulness.

How to answer: “Tell me about your Strengths and Weaknesses”

Let us break down the question into two parts, :strengths and weaknesses, and look at them as individual factors. Before answering this question, a candidate should first be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses.

What are your strengths?

The definition of strengths in this context means qualities that make you a suitable candidate for the job profile. This does not include your technical skills, but more of your personality and behavioral skills.

what are your strengths

Strengths you can include

  • communication skills
  • Teamwork
  • Critical thinking/Creative thinking skills
  • Adaptability
  • leadership skills
  • Punctuality
  • Focused/Detail oriented
  • Self learning/continuous learning
  • Likes challenges
  • Diligent

What are your weaknesses?

A candidate is asked to share their “Weaknesses” in order to check how much a candidate knows about their drawback and whether they are trying to improve it or not. Mentioning your “weaknesses” is sometimes more tricky than mentioning your “strengths”. Some of the weaknesses you can mention include:

What are your weaknesses?

Weaknesses you can mention

  • Being too critical
  • Multitasking
  • Want to please everyone
  • Lack of experience
  • Take on too much responsibility
  • Being unfamiliar with technologies
  • Not punctual
  • Lack of attention/concentration

How to Structure your Answer

Step 1: Highlight Relevant Strengths

  • Pick strengths that match the job: Choose skills that fit the role. If teamwork is important, mention your ability to work well with others.
  • Give examples: Use a simple method like STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to explain your strengths.
  • Example: “I’m good at solving problems. In my last job, I found a workflow issue and introduced a new system that made work 20% more efficient.”

Step 2: Discuss Your Weaknesses Carefully

  • Be honest but strategic: Choose a weakness that won’t hurt your chances of getting the job.
  • Show improvement: Explain what you’re doing to get better.
  • Example: “I used to find public speaking difficult, but I’ve been attending workshops and have gained a lot more confidence.”

Step 3: Balance your Answer

  • End on a positive note by showing that your strengths are stronger than your weaknesses and that you’re working to improve.
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Myths vs. Facts:

Don’t let these common misconceptions trip you up in your next interview. Here’s what you need to know!

❌ Myth: "You should never mention a real weakness."
✅ Fact: HR professionals value honesty and self-awareness.
💡 Tip: Frame your weakness in a way that highlights your efforts to overcome it.
❌ Myth: "You should always turn a weakness into a strength."
✅ Fact: Overdoing this can come across as dishonest.
💡 Tip: Be honest about your weakness and focus on how you’re working to improve it.
Example: "I sometimes get too focused on details, but I’ve learned to set time limits for tasks."

"What are your strengths and weaknesses": Sample Answer

Sample Answer 1

I have extremely strong writing skills. Having worked as a copy editor for five years, I have a deep attention to detail when it comes to my writing. I have also written for a variety of publications, so I know how to shape my writing style to fit the task and audience. As a marketing assistant, I will be able to effectively write and edit press releases and update web content with accuracy and ease

Sample Answer 2

My strength I could say is knowing group work dynamics. I am a groupie and I love to work and collaborate with people on several projects. So when it comes to assigning roles, creating content or working around several areas in a project I have the potential to give proper directions and make sure that our task is completed with set goals and objectives.

Inspiring the team mates to give their all and maintaining cordial relationships between is something that I have fostered in these years. This has also helped me to increase my productivity ten folds during a certain task.

Sample Answer 3

I have been told that my words of criticism can be sharp or harsh sometimes. Giving constructive criticism can help the other person to improve their skills or performance. So in the recent times I am trying to filter my criticism and use words that may seem encouraging and constructive instead of judgmental or harsh. This practice has considerably helped me to gain trust, respect and stronger professional relationships.

Sample Answer 4

To state my strength and weakness can be a little confusing because both of the two concepts are same for me. My quality of being self motivated. I can work hard and consistently to achieve a goal if that helps me in growing and learning. I can motivate myself to do a task even when there are multiple obstacles and I can complete it. However, my weakness is being over self motivated because in that process I lose myself and get too goal oriented. If it is a team task then my self goals become a burden for them and as a result, I come across clashes and group breakdowns. I have been working on this for the last few months where I set a limit for myself and for the team and try not to affect my goals and objectives becomes a pressure for the others.

Hence, both my strength and weakness arise from the same quality.

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  • Can you work night shifts. Answer
  • Are you willing to relocate? Answer
  • What was the toughest decision you ever had to make? Answer
  • Tell me something which is not mentioned in your resume. Answer
  • What are you expecting from this job? Answer
  • What are your plans for higher studies? Answer
  • Explain how would you be an asset to this organization. Answer
  • Do you have any questions for me.  Answer

FAQ on Tell me your strengths and weaknesses

Question: How many strengths and weaknesses should I list in an interview?

Answer:-

It is very easy to go overboard with when stating our strengths, however you should avoid listing too many strengths. Try to keep it up to 5 at max. And mention the strengths that are relevant to the job profile. As for weakness, try to mention at least 1-2 weaknesses.

Question: Will my weakness affect my overall performance in the interview?

Answer:-

No, mentioning your weakness will not affect your performance negatively. However saying that you have no weaknesses will make you sound arrogant.

Question: Can I include technical skills in strengths?

Answer:-

For the most part, strengths should include your soft skills. This question is mostly asked to check a candidate’s behavioral skills, your technical skills are tested in your technical interview.

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