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Story bank

  • Behavioral
  • Asked in most interview loops
  • About 3 h to learn
  • 3 vetted resources
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What this topic covers

A story bank is a short written set of six to eight real projects, each prepared once and reused across many behavioral questions. You pick work with real scope, write down your own part in “I” terms, attach numbers (latency, cost, eval scores, users, time saved), and note which classic prompts each story can answer: a failure, a conflict, disagreeing with someone senior, a mistake you owned, a tight deadline, an ambiguous problem. Interviewers rarely trip candidates on the first answer; they do it on the third follow-up, so each story needs the trade-offs, the alternatives you rejected and what you would do differently. For AI/LLM engineers, good raw material is a launch that slipped because evals disagreed with demos, a prompt or model change that regressed in production, or a push-back on a stakeholder who wanted a feature the model could not yet do reliably.

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You’re ready when you can

What interviewers check, from the resources below.

  • Has six to eight written stories, each with scope, your contribution, a measured impact and the main difficulty
  • Every classic prompt (failure, conflict, senior disagreement, owned mistake, deadline, ambiguity) has at least one story
  • Says “I” for every action and decision, “we” only for team context
  • Has recorded and replayed at least two stories and cut what dragged
  • Has a list of past projects with at least one number attached to most of them
  • Includes the less visible work: reviews, mentoring, incident follow-ups, design docs
  • Has chosen six to eight entries to turn into interview stories
  • Each story is tagged with the two signal areas it shows best
  • Every signal area is covered by at least one story
  • Has written answers to three likely follow-ups per story, including a “what would you change” answer

What to study, in order

Each link opened and checked by hand; the date says when.

  1. Start here

    Learnings from conducting ~1,000 interviews at Amazon (opens in a new tab)

    The Pragmatic Engineer · Steve Huynh and Gergely Orosz · 60 min · Free · checked 22 Oct 2026

    Why
    A former Amazon principal engineer and Bar Raiser who ran about a thousand interviews explains why candidates lose behavioral rounds they could have won with ten hours of story prep, and gives you four dimensions to choose and sharpen stories with.
    What to read
    Read “Learning #1” to “Learning #3”, then the book excerpt, especially “The Four Dimensions That Determine Your Level” (scope, contribution, impact, difficulty). Then pick six to eight real projects, and for each write one paragraph covering those four dimensions, with your own part in “I” and at least one number. Tag each story with the classic prompts it can answer: a failure, a conflict, disagreeing with someone senior, a mistake you owned, a tight deadline, ambiguity. Record yourself telling two of them aloud.
    What to skip
    Skim “Understanding Fit: Role and Company” and Gergely’s “Takeaways” if you are short on time; the values research is covered in the company values topic.

  2. Free alternative

    Get your work recognized: write a brag document (opens in a new tab)

    Julia Evans · Julia Evans · 45 min · Free · checked 22 Oct 2026

    Why
    Most people can’t recall their best work, or its numbers, when they sit down to write stories. A brag document, written by an engineer for engineers, is the raw material your story bank is cut from.
    What to read
    Read the main post, especially “you don’t remember everything you did”, “explain the big picture”, “use your brag document to notice patterns” and “don’t forget to include the fuzzy work”. Then fill in the template’s “Projects”, “Collaboration & mentorship” and “Design & documentation” sections for the last two to three years, answering its prompt about numbers for each project, and circle the six to eight entries with the most scope.
    What to skip
    Skip “the brag workshop” and “biweekly brag document writing session” unless you want to run one with friends, and the “Goals” and “Outside of work” template sections.

  3. Go deeper

    Deeper dive into the signal areas for behavioral interviews (opens in a new tab)

    Mastering Behavioral Interviews · Austen McDonald · 30 min · Free · checked 22 Oct 2026

    Why
    Follow-ups are where stories fall apart, and they follow the signal the interviewer is scoring. A former Meta hiring committee chair walks through each signal area and what interviewers dig for, so you can stress-test every story in your bank.
    What to read
    Read all seven sections: Scope, Initiative, Ambiguity, Perseverance, Conflict Resolution, Growth and Communication. For each story in your bank, note which two signals it shows best, then write the three follow-up questions an interviewer would ask for that signal and your answers, including what you would do differently.
    What to skip
    Nothing major to skip; skim the subscribe prompts and the book mentions.

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