Should You Reuse Stories in Behavioral Interviews?
A common question especially for senior candidates
I had multiple conversations with mentees this week where this question came up, mostly L7s since they have multiple behavioral rounds. I thought adding it to my upcoming book, Mastering Behavioral Interviews, would be helpful—and also sharing it with you here!
Keep following for more updates on the book.
"Is it okay to repeat the same project across different behavioral questions?" This question comes up frequently in mock interview sessions. I can hear the anxiety in candidates' voices—they're worried about seeming one-dimensional or like they only have one meaningful project to discuss.
The concern is understandable. You want to showcase the breadth of your experience, and repeating the same story feels like you're limiting yourself to a single data point. But that’s probably not the thing you want to optimize for.
Spoiler alert: Focus on telling the best response for the question, even if that means using the same project, but do seek opportunities to show different projects when the quality is comparable. Beyond that, the answer is probably, “it depends.”
The Golden Rule: Choose Your Best Response
Quality trumps variety every time in behavioral interviews. An interviewer would rather hear one compelling, detailed example that perfectly demonstrates the skill they're assessing than three mediocre stories from different projects.
Always prioritize the strongest answer to the specific question being asked. If your database migration project from three years ago provides the best example of conflict resolution you've ever navigated, use it—even if you already discussed that project when answering about technical challenges.
The key is understanding what the interviewer is really looking for. Each behavioral question targets specific signal areas like communication, conflict resolution, or driving results. Your job is to provide the clearest evidence that you possess those capabilities, regardless of which story you use to demonstrate them.
When Variety Matters (And When It Doesn't)
But surely variety matters sometime right? Yes, but the importance of story variety depends on interview context:
Single behavioral interview: Repetition is less concerning. In a standard 45-minute behavioral session, you might only tell 2-3 detailed stories anyway. If your best examples happen to come from the same project, so be it.
Multiple behavioral sessions: This is where repetition becomes more tempting and potentially more of a risk, especially in senior loops that include specialized interviews. For Manager and Principal+ roles, you might face a general behavioral interview plus a dedicated project retrospective session, or a cross-functional collaboration interview, etc.
But the thing to keep in mind is that the real goal isn't demonstrating breadth of projects—it's demonstrating breadth of capabilities. A single, complex, multi-year initiative often provides rich material for showcasing diverse skills: technical problem-solving, stakeholder management, conflict resolution, and team leadership all within one project scope.
Follow-up interviews: If you’re going into a follow up interview, consider the reason for the follow up. If you think it’s because of the interviewer not collecting the proper signal, then reusing the same stories is probably fine. But if you suspect the reason is story choice or lack of signal in the stories you told, be careful. A mock interview with a skilled coach can be really helpful here. Read more about reasons for follow up behaviorals.
Strategies for Smart Story Reuse & Mitigation
Even though reusing stories is fine in many circumstances, here are some tips to minimize the potential downsides.
The Menu Technique
When you have multiple relevant examples for a question and the most relevant one is a previously discussed story, present them as options to the interviewer, calling out the repetition, instead of just barreling ahead with the reused one:
Tell me a story about how you resolved a conflict.
I could tell you about two different approaches I've taken to conflict resolution. One involved a disagreement with another engineering team about technical architecture—which I discussed before—and another was about resource allocation with my manager, but might not fit the question as well. Which would be more useful for you to hear?
This approach demonstrates that you have multiple examples while focusing the conversation on what's most valuable to the interviewer.
Read more about the Menu Technique.
The Halo Effect
In cases where you’re pretty sure it’s better to reuse a previous story, but there are some perhaps less-related stories that have traces of relevant signal, you can use lists to engage the Halo Effect and help dispel the perception that you have limited experience:
Tell me a story about how you resolved a conflict.
I’ve resolved conflicts across multiple roles, and with multiple stakeholders, including other eng partners and PMs, but I think the best example is one I mentioned in another interview. Let me tell you how I resolved a technical architecture dispute with another engineering team…
Read more about the Halo Effect.
Red Flags to Avoid
Don't apologize for reusing a story. Saying "I know I mentioned this project before, but..." signals insecurity and draws unnecessary attention to the repetition.
Don't use identical details every time you reference the same project. Adapt your focus and emphasis based on what each specific question is trying to assess. The same database migration might emphasize technical complexity for one question and stakeholder management for another.
Don't stick to one project if you genuinely have other strong examples. Breadth does help.
Conclusion
Reframe the question from "Am I repeating myself?" to "Am I giving the strongest possible answer?" Your goal is to convince interviewers that you can repeat your successes in their organization—and that requires showcasing your most compelling examples of the behaviors they value.
The right interviewer will appreciate depth and substance over artificial variety. They'd rather hire someone who can point to one transformative project where they demonstrated exceptional leadership, technical judgment, and business impact than someone who dabbled in many areas without leaving a meaningful mark.
Focus on your best stories. Tell them well. Let the quality of your examples speak to the quality of your work.
What do you think? When is it ok to reuse stories across the same behavioral interview? What about across multiple interviews?