mediumBehaviouralMidSeniorStaff
Tell me about a time another team was blocking you and you had no authority over them.
6 min readUpdated 2026-08-15
Answer
Short answer
Show that you understood the other team's priorities before deciding they were unreasonable, that you made the cost visible in their terms and in writing, that you offered to absorb some of the work, and that any escalation went through their manager with them present.
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Likely follow-ups
- What were they working on that they considered more important, and were they right?
- At what point did you decide to escalate, and what would have made you wait longer?
- What did you build to survive the dependency, and did you have to unbuild it later?
- Tell me about a time you were the team doing the blocking.
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