Las preguntas más comunes en entrevistas técnicas en inglés (y cómo responderlas)
Una entrevista técnica en inglés no es un examen de gramática. Te evalúan por tu experiencia y por cómo piensas, pero todo eso pasa por el idioma. Las preguntas se repiten bastante de una empresa a otra, así que prepararlas con tiempo es la forma más directa de llegar tranquilo. Aquí tienes las más comunes, una estructura para cada una y respuestas de ejemplo que puedes adaptar.
El método STAR en 1 minuto
Para cualquier pregunta que empiece con "Tell me about a time when…" o "Give me an example of…", usa STAR:
- Situation: el contexto, en una o dos frases.
- Task: cuál era tu responsabilidad.
- Action: qué hiciste tú. Es la parte más larga.
- Result: qué pasó al final, idealmente con un número o un aprendizaje.
El error típico es quedarse 80% del tiempo en la situación. El entrevistador quiere escuchar la acción y el resultado. Y recuerda: usa I para lo que hiciste tú, no we para todo.
Preguntas sobre ti y tu motivación
1. Tell me about yourself.
Estructura: presente → pasado → futuro, en 30 a 60 segundos. La explico en detalle, con ejemplos por rol, en cómo responder "Tell me about yourself" en inglés.
2. Why do you want to work here? / Why this company?
Estructura: algo concreto de la empresa + cómo conecta con tu experiencia o tus objetivos.
"I've been following your engineering blog, and I like how your team approaches observability. I've spent the last two years improving monitoring in my current job, so I think I can contribute from day one, and also learn from a team that's further ahead."
3. Why are you leaving your current job?
Estructura: mira hacia adelante, nunca hables mal de tu empleador actual.
"I've learned a lot there, but I'm looking for a bigger technical challenge and the chance to work with an international team."
4. What are your strengths?
Estructura: una fortaleza + un ejemplo que la demuestre.
"I'm good at breaking down complex problems. For example, when our deployment pipeline kept failing randomly, I isolated each stage and found that the issue was a race condition in our tests."
5. What's your biggest weakness?
Estructura: una debilidad real pero no crítica para el puesto + qué estás haciendo para mejorarla. Evita el cliché "I'm a perfectionist".
"I used to have trouble delegating. I tended to take on too much myself. Now I make a point of splitting tasks during planning and asking for help earlier."
Preguntas de comportamiento (behavioral)
6. Tell me about a challenging project.
"Last year we had to migrate our main database to the cloud with almost no downtime. I was responsible for the data sync strategy. I set up replication, ran three rehearsals in staging and wrote a rollback plan. The final cutover took less than ten minutes, and we didn't lose any data."
7. Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a teammate.
Estructura: STAR, con foco en cómo lo resolviste hablando, no en quién tenía la razón.
"A colleague and I disagreed on whether to refactor a module or patch it. Instead of arguing in the PR, I suggested a quick call. We listed the risks of each option and agreed to patch it now and plan the refactor for the next sprint. It worked, and we started doing short calls for disagreements like that."
8. Tell me about a time you failed.
Estructura: reconoce el error sin excusas, explica qué cambiaste después.
"I once deployed a config change on a Friday without enough testing, and it broke the login for some users. I rolled it back quickly and wrote the incident report. Since then, I always use a checklist for config changes, and our team stopped doing risky deploys on Fridays."
9. How do you handle tight deadlines?
"First, I make sure I understand what's really essential. Then I talk to the stakeholders early if something is at risk, instead of waiting until the last day."
Preguntas técnicas
10. Walk me through your solution.
Te lo piden después de un ejercicio de código o de diseño. Estructura: enfoque general → pasos → trade-offs.
"My approach was to use a hash map to store the values I've already seen. First, I loop through the array once. For each number, I check if its complement is in the map. That gives us O(n) time, but it uses extra memory. If memory were a concern, I could sort the array first and use two pointers instead."
Conectores útiles: First…, Then…, The reason I chose this is…, The trade-off is…
11. How would you debug a slow API?
Estructura: piensa en voz alta y ordena los pasos.
"I'd start by checking the metrics to see if it's slow for all requests or only some endpoints. Then I'd look at the logs and traces to find where the time goes: the database, an external call or the code itself. If it's the database, I'd check the query plan and the indexes. And I'd try to reproduce it in a lower environment before changing anything."
12. Tell me about a technical decision you made.
"We had to choose between a message queue and direct HTTP calls between two services. I recommended the queue because the second service had frequent downtime, and we couldn't afford to lose events. It added some complexity, but it made the system much more resilient."
13. What would you do if you didn't know the answer?
Esta también puede pasar en vivo. Ser honesto suma más que inventar:
"I haven't worked with that directly, but here's how I'd approach it…"
Salario y preguntas para la empresa
14. What are your salary expectations?
Estructura: investiga el rango antes, da un rango (no una cifra) y deja espacio para conversar.
"Based on my research and my experience, I'm looking for something in the range of X to Y. But I'm open to discussing it, depending on the full package."
Si prefieres no decir un número todavía: "I'd like to learn more about the role first. Could you share the range you have in mind?"
15. Do you have any questions for us?
Nunca respondas "No, I think that's all." Ten dos o tres preparadas:
- What does a typical day look like for this role?
- How does the team handle code reviews and deployments?
- What would success look like in the first three months?
- What's the biggest technical challenge the team is facing right now?
Frases para ganar tiempo y aclarar
Quedarse en silencio cinco segundos es normal en una entrevista técnica, pero es mejor llenar ese espacio con una frase que muestre que estás pensando:
- That's a good question. Let me think about it for a second.
- Let me make sure I understand the question.
- Could you repeat that, please?
- Just to clarify, do you mean…?
- Can I assume the input is always sorted?
- Let me think out loud.
| ❌ Lo que decimos | ✅ Lo que se dice | Por qué |
|---|---|---|
| Can you explain me the question? | Can you explain the question to me? | Explain no lleva la persona justo después. |
| Can I make a question? | Can I ask a question? | Las preguntas se ask, no se make. |
| I'm agree with that approach. | I agree with that approach. | Agree es un verbo, no un adjetivo: no lleva am. |
Prepara tu entrevista en 5 días
El mini-curso gratis te guía paso a paso: tu pitch, frases para hablar de tu experiencia, la pronunciación de palabras técnicas y la pregunta "Why do you want this job?". Una lección corta por email cada día.
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