Policy Administration interview questions

Quote, bind, issue, endorse, renew and cancel, and the temporal data model underneath.

3 questions in Insurance.

Insurance Domain Knowledge for EngineersA 19-minute read on how the topic fits together, before the questions.Insurance domain fundamentals58 short answers on one page, for revising rather than studying.

hard3

hardDesignScenario

A broker asks you to backdate a cover change to three months ago. How do you model the policy so that works?

A backdated endorsement in an insurance policy needs a bitemporal model: effective date for when cover changes and recorded date for when the insurer learned it. Store append-only versions so cover, premium and documents can be rebuilt for any past date. Use this policy administration answer to show the decision, trade-off, and evidence rather than a memorised definition.

5 minmid, senior, staff

hardScenarioConcept

A customer bought cover on your site last night and this morning the card payment failed. Are they on risk, and what does your system do next?

They are almost certainly on risk, because the contract was formed when you accepted the risk and not when the money cleared. The remedy is cancellation for non-payment, which runs forwards from a notice date rather than erasing the policy, so the system needs a pending-cancellation state and an answer for a claim inside the unpaid window.

6 minmid, senior, staff

hardConceptScenarioDesign

A customer cancels a twelve-month policy after four months. How much do you refund?

It depends on who cancelled and why: pro rata returns the unused share, short rate keeps a penalty, and which applies is set by the policy wording and the jurisdiction rather than by the system. Fees are usually not refundable, and the calculation has to be reproducible years later.

5 minmid, senior