Degree apprenticeship interview questions and how to answer them
Employers rarely have a secret list of questions. They ask the same few kinds of question in different words: why this role, tell me about a time, and how would you handle this. Practise the kinds and you can answer any version.
The main question types
- Motivation: why this employer, why this role, why an apprenticeship rather than university.
- Behavioural: tell me about a time you worked in a team, solved a problem, handled pressure or learned from a mistake.
- Situational: what would you do if... a deadline was at risk, a colleague disagreed, you made an error.
- Commercial awareness: what is happening in this industry, and why might it matter to the employer?
Use STAR for behavioural questions
Situation (one sentence), Task (what you needed to do), Action (what you did, not what the team did), Result (what happened and what you learned). Spend most of the time on action and result. Have six to eight real stories ready: teamwork, problem solving, resilience, initiative, leadership and a mistake you learned from. One story can answer several questions.
Example questions to practise
- Why do you want to do an apprenticeship with us rather than go to university? (example)
- Tell me about a time you had to work with someone you found difficult. (example)
- Describe a time you had a lot to do and not much time. How did you decide what to do first? (example)
- What is one thing happening in our industry right now, and why does it matter? (example)
For recorded video interviews
- Look at the camera lens, not the screen.
- Answer out loud with a timer when you practise. Most timed answers are one to three minutes.
- Do not read from a script. Use two or three key words as prompts.
- Test your camera, sound, lighting and connection first, and have a backup plan for technical problems.
Keep reading
Last updated 6 October 2026. This guide describes common practice; always check the employer's own advert and rules.