What is your biggest failure best answer?
How to answer “What is your biggest failure?” Pick a real failure that happened in the workplace, specifically a failure related to the work you're doing now. Look for a story where something didn't go as planned. Choosing the right story is important, as you want to explain a situation where only one thing went wrong.
- Not meeting others' expectations.
- Missing a deadline.
- Taking on too much/over-promising.
- Failing an assignment.
- Not getting a job.
- Not getting into a club or making a team.
The most common phrasing of this question is the simple, “Tell me about a time you failed” or “Tell me about a time you made a mistake.” There are some other variations on this theme as well: What's your greatest professional failure? Tell me about a mistake that you made.
Failure is defined as a lack of success or the inability to meet an expectation.
For example: Three years ago, we were doing A, but realized the result fell short of the goal. Things were just not working. Many saw it as a failure, but we also saw it as an opportunity to improve, so we did a thorough analysis and realized that B was a better tactic.
- Preventable failure: a failure caused by deviating from a known process. ...
- Complex failure: a failure caused by a system breakdown. ...
- Intelligent failure: a failure caused by an unsuccessful trial.
Major Failure: a system failure that disables the entire system or major part of the system, or an individual critical piece of equipment that prevents the proper operation of more than one system component.
Possible Answer #3
I was given significant time to wrap up the task. I split the work according to my deadline. When just 2 days were left, I shut down the system without saving my work. I quickly realized the mistake and restarted the work just to finish it in time.
In materials science, fatigue – the weakening of a material caused by cyclic loading resulting in progressive, brittle, localized structural damage – is the most common failure mode and the one that generally produces other types of failure.
Tell your story.
Interviewers don't ask this question to see you squirm, they want to know how you handle setbacks—so get to the part where you're dealing with the failure as quickly as possible. Start with the situation, and explain why it was challenging. Then go into what you specifically did to try and rectify it.
What do you write in biggest failure?
Talk about what you believe went wrong and caused the failure, what you would have done differently and what changes you made moving forward. For example, let's say your failure was the result of assuming what your customers wanted.
Example Answers to “Tell Me a Time When You Failed”
“I was managing a project for one of our biggest clients in my previous company, and I was so eager to please them that I told them we could finish the project within 2 weeks. I thought this was doable, but it ended up taking three weeks and they were not happy.

Think of it this way: There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit.
There are two types of files. There are Program files and Data Files. Program files, at heart, can be described as files containing software instructions. Program files are then made up by two files called, source program files and executable files.
- Preventable failures.
- Unavoidable failures.
- Intelligent failures.
Another SPOF example is where an array of servers is networked through a single network switch. If the switch failed or simply became disconnected from its power source, all of the servers connected to that switch would become inaccessible from the rest of the network. Here, the switch is a single point of failure.
- Stage 1: Shock and Surprise.
- Stage 2: Denial.
- Stage 3: Anger and Blame.
- Stage 4: Depression.
- Stage 5: Acceptance.
- Stage 6: Insight and Change.
Ill-discipline, lack of trust or negligence
The root causes vary and might be about organisational problems, individual relationships with supervisors or lack of motivation as a whole. Thus, offering a turnkey solution is impossible but being aware of these issues is always the beginning.
Failure gives us the opportunity to bounce back, to learn from our mistakes, and helps us appreciate success. Failure can be frightening, however, as Winston Churchill reminded us, "success is all about going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm".
Don't interrupt, don't offer advice, don't say that it will be all right. And don't be afraid of silence. Just listen. And then, after some time, reflect back what you heard them say, what you feel they're feeling.
What is the biggest failure in your life as a student?
Lack of self-discipline
This is probably one of the biggest causes of failure for students. The ability to put “work before play” is often times what separates the A students from the B students.
Be honest and talk about what you learned from failure.
Be honest. Declare the failure. Then tell people what you learned. The ultimate message you're sending is that you were enlightened.
- Give yourself permission to feel. ...
- Practise self-compassion. ...
- Reflect on the experience and adopt a growth mindset. ...
- Revisit your goals and create a plan for the future.
The original definition of Hidden Failure, which is a failure that remains undetected and is uncovered by another system event, is included as well as developments on Hidden Failure sequence of events and a methodology for Hidden Failure identification.
Share what you learned and focus on the positives. Frame your answer in a way that treats your failure as a blessing rather than a curse. If possible, provide a real-world example of how that experience changed you for the better. Maybe you developed new work techniques to avoid making the same mistake again.
Sony Betamax. Sony launched its cassette recording device known as Betamax in the mid-1970s. It lost the battle for market share to JVC's VHS technology, but Sony didn't stop making Betamax tapes until 2016. In the age of online streaming, very few us realized it was still in production.