Competency interview
Fit & BehaviouralAn interview probing past behaviour as evidence of future performance, answered in structured examples rather than claims.
Also written: behavioural interview, fit interview
A competency interview asks for evidence: a time you led something, handled conflict, worked under pressure, or failed. The premise is that what you actually did previously predicts what you will do next, better than what you say you are like.
That is why claims score badly and examples score well. I am a strong team player is unfalsifiable; a specific situation with a specific action you personally took is checkable and memorable.
The STAR structure exists for exactly this format, and the time budget is the useful part: most of the answer should be the action you took, in the first person singular, not the background.
Interviewers probe rather than accept. Expect follow ups on what you specifically contributed, what you would do differently, and what happened afterwards, which is why fabricated examples come apart quickly.
Worked example
Asked for a time you disagreed with a manager, a weak answer describes the disagreement and stops.
A strong one states what was at stake, what you specifically did, and how it resolved, then handles the inevitable follow ups: what would you do differently, and what did they say afterwards.
Those follow ups are why invented examples come apart. The structure has to sit on something that actually happened.