Imagine your manager assigns you a task but the requirements are unclear and your manager is unavailable for the rest of the day. What do you do?

situational · Junior level · general

What the interviewer is really asking

Assess ability to handle ambiguity independently while knowing when to escalate.

What to say

• Describe the steps you'd take to extract clarity from existing resources: tickets, specs, similar past work, or a trusted teammate.
• Explain how you'd document your assumptions so they're visible and reviewable.
• State when and how you'd loop your manager back in — don't just go silent.

What to avoid

• Don't say you'd wait until your manager returns without doing anything.
• Avoid saying you'd just make assumptions and ship without flagging them.
• Don't claim you'd always immediately escalate — show some independent problem-solving first.

Example answers

Strong: I'd start by reviewing the ticket, any linked docs, and similar completed tasks for patterns. If still unclear on two or three key points, I'd write my assumptions in a comment on the ticket and start on the parts I'm confident about. When my manager is reachable again I'd share what I assumed and ask for a quick confirmation before going further.

Weak: I'd sit tight and not start anything until I had complete requirements.