Interview Questions/Behavioral & Leadership/Recovering from a Poor On-call Handoff
IntermediateBehavioral
5 min

Recovering from a Poor On-call Handoff

On-callRunbooksProcess Improvement
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Interview Question

Describe a situation where a bad on-call handoff caused problems. What did you do in the moment and what did you change afterwards?

Key Points to Cover
  • Explains the handoff gap and impact
  • Shows calm triage and missing context resolution
  • Introduces improvements (checklists, templates)
  • Measures effectiveness in future rotations
Evaluation Rubric
Explains handoff failure impact25% weight
Handles triage effectively25% weight
Implements durable fixes25% weight
Shows measurable results25% weight
Hints
  • 💡Think: paging rules, dashboards, templates.
Potential Follow-up Questions
  • What change had the biggest effect?
  • How did you align teams on quality?
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