What UX designer interviews test
- How you choose research methods and turn findings into decisions
- Usability testing, prioritising issues and iterating
- Accessibility beyond a checklist
- Information architecture and interaction detail
- A portfolio walkthrough and, often, a live design exercise
The 110 questions below cover 3 portfolio, 33 behavioral, 25 design challenge, 8 app critique, 41 research questions. The first 10 are questions candidates report being asked. The rest are practice questions in the same style, sorted from level 1 to level 10.
How to answer each type of question
- PortfolioPick one project and tell it as a story: the problem, your role, the options you weighed, what shipped and what changed. Interviewers are checking that you can separate your decisions from the team's and that you know the outcome.
- BehavioralAnswer with one specific situation, not a philosophy. Say what was at stake, what you did, what happened and what you would do differently. Two minutes, then stop and let them dig.
- Design challengeDon't jump to screens. Clarify the goal and the user, name the problem, set a success metric, then sketch one direction and its trade-offs. The whiteboard challenge guide walks through it stage by stage.
- App critiqueStart with who the product is for and what it is trying to do, then judge it against that. Say what works before what does not, back each point with a user need or principle, and finish with the one change you would ship first.
- ResearchShow that the question picks the method, not habit. Say what you need to learn, how you would learn it, from whom, and which decision the findings would change.
Questions candidates report being asked
Collected from candidate reports on Glassdoor, Reddit and Levels.fyi, including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Meta loops. Not confirmed by the companies.
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01
Walk me through your design process from research to final delivery.
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02
How do you handle disagreements with engineers about what's technically feasible?
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03
Design a better experience for Google Search on mobile.
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04
What does accessibility mean to you and how do you implement it?
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05
How do you know when a design is done?
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06
Tell me about a time your research findings changed the direction of a product.
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07
Critique the Maps app on iOS — what would you improve?
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08
How do you prioritize which usability issues to fix first?
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09
Design an onboarding experience for a complex enterprise tool.
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10
How do you present design work to non-designers?
Practice questions by level
100 practice questions, 10 levels from foundations to expert. If you're early in your career, start at level 1. If you're interviewing for senior roles, levels 7 to 10 are where the loop will go.
Level 1 · Foundations
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11
What is the difference between UX and UI design? Give an example of a decision that is purely UX vs. purely UI.
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12
Explain what a user persona is and describe how you would create one for a ride-sharing app.
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13
What does accessibility mean in digital design? Name three WCAG guidelines you know and why they matter.
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14
Critique the Instagram Stories camera interface. What is confusing for new users and how would you simplify it?
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15
What is the difference between a moderated and unmoderated usability test? When would you choose each for a mobile e-commerce app?
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16
What is an affinity diagram and how would you use one after conducting 8 user interviews about a food delivery app?
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17
Explain what a user journey map is and create a simple one for a person booking a doctor's appointment online for the first time.
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18
What is cognitive load and how would you reduce it in a 6-step checkout form?
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19
What is a heuristic evaluation and how is it different from a usability test? Walk me through the difference.
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20
Critique the Google Maps turn-by-turn navigation UX. What three interactions consistently confuse first-time users?
Level 2 · Foundations
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21
Show me a piece of work where your design significantly changed after user feedback. What changed and why?
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22
What is Fitts' Law and how does it influence the placement of interactive elements like buttons?
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23
Walk me through how you would run a five-second test. What insights can you reliably gather from it?
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24
Redesign the Airbnb search experience for users browsing on a slow 3G connection. What do you cut and why?
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25
What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative research? Give an example where each is more appropriate.
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26
How would you run a guerrilla usability test for a coffee ordering app with zero budget and five participants from a nearby café?
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27
What is information architecture and how would you explain a poorly organised IA to a developer using an analogy?
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28
What is chunking and how does Miller's Law apply to a 15-field sign-up form? How would you restructure it?
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29
How would you write a recruitment screener to find the right participants for a usability study on a B2B expense management tool?
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30
Design the error state for a flight booking form where users enter a return date before a departure date. What must the error message include?
Level 3 · Foundations
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31
How do you conduct usability testing? Walk me through recruiting participants, running sessions, and synthesising results.
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32
What is a jobs-to-be-done framework? Apply it to redesign the Microsoft Teams meeting-join experience.
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33
How would you set up a card-sorting study to inform the information architecture of an enterprise software product?
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34
How do micro-interactions improve perceived performance? Give two real product examples you find well-executed.
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35
Explain the concept of progressive disclosure and show how Apple uses it effectively in one of its native apps.
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36
Walk me through how you would conduct a cognitive walkthrough on a competitor's mobile checkout experience.
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37
How would you map the mental model of a first-time investor using a stock trading app? What research methods would you use?
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38
What is a diary study and when would it be more valuable than a single lab-based usability test session?
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39
Design the empty state and first-time experience for a habit tracking app when a user has no habits logged yet.
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40
Critique the accessibility of the Twitter/X mobile app for users who rely entirely on VoiceOver or TalkBack for navigation.
Level 4 · Intermediate
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41
Walk me through a project where you designed for an underrepresented or disabled user group. What did you learn?
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42
How do you use heuristic evaluation? Walk me through applying Nielsen's 10 heuristics to a checkout flow.
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43
Redesign the Google Drive file-picker for users who work across 10+ shared team drives daily.
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44
What is the difference between tree testing and card sorting, and when would you choose one over the other?
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45
How do you design for trust in a marketplace like Airbnb? What signals reassure guests about a listing's legitimacy?
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46
How would you design a study to validate that a proposed navigation redesign actually improves findability before you build it?
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47
Redesign the iOS accessibility settings panel for a user with limited motor control. What essential controls must be immediately visible?
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48
How do you create a research synthesis wall and turn sticky-note clusters into actionable design recommendations?
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49
Write a usability test script for testing whether new Airbnb users can successfully book a listing within 5 minutes. What are your 3 key tasks?
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50
Design the feedback, loading, and error-recovery states for a bank's mobile P2P transfer flow when the transfer fails due to insufficient funds.
Level 5 · Intermediate
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51
Redesign the Google Maps experience for elderly users aged 70+. What assumptions are you challenging?
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52
How would you measure the success of a redesigned search experience? Define three metrics and explain your reasoning.
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53
How do you handle situations where A/B test results contradict what users told you during qualitative research?
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54
Design a longitudinal diary study to understand how new habits form over 30 days in a meditation app. What are your key touchpoints?
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55
Redesign the LinkedIn job search filters for a UX recruiter who runs 20 searches per day. What interaction changes deliver the most value?
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56
You need research insights in 48 hours, not 2 weeks. How do you decide what to cut from a research plan without losing critical validity?
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57
Tell me about a time user research revealed a user need completely opposite to what your team assumed. What did you do with that finding?
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58
Design the onboarding interaction model for a voice-first interface with no visual screen. What principles govern your decisions?
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59
How would you run a mental model mapping session with power users to redesign a SaaS analytics dashboard navigation?
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60
Critique Slack's channel sidebar information architecture. Why do teams with more than 50 channels report findability as a major pain point?
Level 6 · Intermediate
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61
How would you evaluate and improve the accessibility of an existing product with zero prior accessibility documentation?
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62
Walk me through how you would run a design sprint for a problem with high ambiguity and three competing hypotheses.
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63
How would you build a continuous discovery practice from scratch at a 50-person startup that has never spoken to a user?
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64
Design the reading accessibility experience for a news app targeting users with dyslexia — covering typography, spacing, and customisation controls.
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65
How do you triangulate findings when user interviews, analytics data, and customer support tickets all point to different root causes?
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66
Walk me through how you would facilitate a journey mapping workshop where five stakeholders have fundamentally different assumptions about the user.
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67
Redesign Amazon's return initiation flow for power buyers who return 5+ items per month. What friction is deliberately acceptable?
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68
Design a usability benchmark study that lets you track UX quality improvements across 4 quarterly product releases.
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69
How do you present research findings to a leadership team that has already announced what they're building?
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70
Design the information architecture and role-based navigation for a B2B SaaS product serving 3 distinct user types with zero feature overlap.
Level 7 · Advanced
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71
How do you distinguish between a signal worth acting on from user research vs. noise that should be deprioritised?
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72
Design the permissions and consent UX for an Apple health data sharing feature used with third-party apps.
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73
Design a research programme to understand why premium subscribers of a $200/year app churn after exactly 90 days.
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74
Redesign Microsoft Teams' meeting scheduling flow to reduce the number of required actions for recurring weekly team meetings to under 4 taps.
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75
A UX change was shipped 6 months ago with no baseline measurement. How do you retroactively evaluate whether it improved the experience?
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76
How has AI-assisted synthesis changed your qualitative research methodology? What has it made better and what has it made worse?
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77
Design the complete interaction model for a smart home control app managing 40+ heterogeneous devices across 6 rooms.
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78
How do you build a shared, living understanding of the user across engineering, product, and marketing that doesn't immediately become stale?
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79
Walk me through a usability problem you discovered two weeks before launch. How did you make the case to delay?
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80
Critique the YouTube mobile comments section UX for communities dealing with high-volume toxic content. What structural UX changes would reduce harm?
Level 8 · Advanced
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81
How do you create a research repository and ensure it is actually used by PMs and engineers, not just designers?
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82
Design a multi-method research plan for a healthcare product entering a new country market where no analogous digital health behaviour exists.
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83
How do you set up a UX research repository that 50 people can actively contribute to and search usefully two years from now?
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84
Design the complete interaction and navigation model for a screen-reader-first version of Google Docs. What conventions must be reinvented?
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85
How do you build ethical informed consent into research studies when participants are in a vulnerable context — e.g. mental health crisis or financial hardship?
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86
How would you conduct a full information architecture audit of a 10-year-old enterprise product with 3,000 pages and no existing sitemap?
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87
Design a way to measure and visualise cognitive load across a complex multi-step B2B workflow so that engineers understand which steps to simplify.
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88
As conversational AI interfaces replace form-based UIs, how have your frameworks for measuring usability changed?
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89
Walk me through how you maintain user advocacy on a team where dark patterns are being introduced under commercial pressure.
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90
Critique the information architecture of a national health service website. What would a modern, task-centred IA look like?
Level 9 · Expert
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91
How do you build a UX research practice that survives leadership changes, budget cuts, and layoffs? What makes it institutionally durable?
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92
Design the universal design system for a global consumer product that must function without modification across 15 languages, including RTL scripts.
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93
How do you measure whether your design team's research is actually changing product decisions — not just being read and appreciated?
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94
Walk me through how you would audit and rebuild trust with a user base that was subjected to a dark pattern by a previous product team.
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95
Redesign the consent and data transparency architecture for a health app with a 2% opt-in consent rate. What is causing users to decline?
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96
How do you evaluate a product's full task ecosystem — not individual features — to find systemic UX failures that cross team boundaries?
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97
Describe how you have influenced a product roadmap to prioritise accessibility work without framing it as a legal compliance task.
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98
Design the research and co-design process for a government digital service that must serve users across 8 distinct digital literacy levels.
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99
How do you build a culture where product managers and engineers run their own lightweight usability sessions without requiring researcher sign-off?
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100
Walk me through how you have navigated a situation where user research clearly showed users wanted something ethically questionable or commercially harmful.
Level 10 · Expert
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101
How would you approach building an inclusive research programme that genuinely captures marginalised voices at a company with 500M users?
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102
How do you define 'good UX' at an organisational level in a way that is measurable and not reducible to aesthetic opinion?
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103
Design the UX governance model for a company where 30 product teams independently build and release UI components without design review.
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104
How would you build a longitudinal research programme that tracks how human behaviour changes as AI becomes embedded across every daily digital interaction?
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105
Walk me through how you would shift a company from a sales-led product culture — where enterprise customer requests become features — to a user-research-led one.
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106
Design the ethical review process for a consumer AI product that learns from and adapts to individual user behaviour in real time.
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107
How do you evaluate whether your company's digital product is genuinely accessible versus WCAG-compliant on paper? What is the gap and how do you close it?
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108
How do you maintain UX craft standards across a design organisation growing from 20 to 200 designers in 18 months, without quality regressing to the mean?
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109
Critique the user research methodology of a major platform — Google, YouTube, or Amazon — based solely on UX decisions observable in the product.
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110
You are Head of UX Research at a company that just had a major privacy scandal affecting 50M users. How do you use design and research to rebuild trust?
Practice these out loud, with feedback
ZeroPrep scores every answer
Knowing an answer and saying it well under pressure are different skills. ZeroPrep gives you UX designer questions pitched at your level, lets you type or speak your answer, then scores it out of 10, tells you what was missing and shows what a strong answer sounds like. Free, no account needed.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most common UX designer interview questions?
“Walk me through your design process”, “Tell me about a time your research changed the direction of a product”, “How do you prioritise which usability issues to fix first?” and “What does accessibility mean to you?” come up again and again. All four are in the reported list on this page.
How should I prepare for a UX designer interview?
Rehearse out loud, not in your head. Prepare two portfolio projects you can tell in five minutes and in twenty, five or six stories for behavioral questions, one app critique, and at least one timed whiteboard challenge.
Do UX designer interviews include a whiteboard challenge?
Many do, as a 30 to 60 minute live design exercise on a whiteboard or a shared canvas. Some companies use a take-home instead. Ask your recruiter which to expect, and practice with real reported prompts.