Internship Interview Questions and How to Answer Them

Internship interviews are short and mostly test three things: can you communicate clearly, do you know why you are applying, and will you be reliable. You do not need clever answers. You need specific ones.

The questions below come up again and again, across law chambers, firms, companies and NGOs. For each one, here is how to structure your answer.

1. “Tell me about yourself.”

This is not a request for your life story. Give a 45 second answer in three parts: who you are now (course, year, college), one or two things you have done that are relevant, and why you are here. For example: “I am a third year BA LL.B. student at [college]. I have done a moot on [topic] and interned at a district court chamber, where I helped prepare plaint drafts. I am applying here because I want to see how a corporate team handles contracts.”

Avoid reciting your resume line by line.

2. “Why do you want to intern with us?”

Name something specific. A practice area, a reported matter the firm handled, a person you want to learn from, a type of work. “You are a reputed firm” is not an answer. Do a few minutes of research before the interview: the website, recent news, the practice areas listed. If you cannot find anything specific, say honestly what you want to learn and why this setting fits it.

3. “Why this field?”

If you are asked why litigation, or why corporate, or why marketing, give one real reason and one small piece of evidence. “I enjoyed arguing a moot on bail, and I realised I liked building an argument from the record” is better than “I have always been passionate about law.”

4. “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”

Pick a strength you can prove, such as research, writing or being organised, and give a short example. For the weakness, pick a real but manageable one and say what you are doing about it. “I tend to over-research before writing, so now I set a time limit for each stage” works. “I am a perfectionist” is a cliché that interviewers usually discount.

5. “Tell me about a time you faced a challenge.”

Use a simple structure: the situation, what you did, what happened. Keep it to a minute. Choose something small and real, such as a group project where a teammate dropped out and you redistributed the work. Do not blame others in the story.

6. Subject questions

If you are interviewing for a law internship, expect a question or two from the subjects you have studied or listed on your resume. If your resume says “arbitration”, you may be asked what the difference between conciliation and arbitration is. The best preparation is to know every claim on your own resume well enough to discuss it for three minutes.

If you do not know an answer, say so, then reason aloud: “I am not certain of the exact section, but I believe the principle is that…” Interviewers often value a candidate who is honest about a gap over one who bluffs and gets caught. Do not invent a case name or a section number.

7. “What do you know about our work?”

Have two facts ready, from a source you can name. Say them briefly and ask a related question. It shows you read about them and are curious about the work.

8. “Are you comfortable with long hours or unglamorous work?”

Many internships involve photocopying, filing, formatting, following up with a registry or reading bundles. Say yes, and mean it. You can add that you want to learn the process properly. If the hours are a real constraint because of classes, say so plainly rather than agreeing and then missing days.

9. “What is your availability, and when can you start?”

Know your dates, exams and holidays in advance. Give exact dates. If you can only do a part time schedule, say so before you are selected.

10. “Do you have any questions for us?”

Always have two. Good ones: “What would a typical week look like for an intern?” “Who would I be working under day to day?” “What would a good internship look like from your side?” Avoid asking about stipend or leave in the first minute of the conversation. If the stipend was not stated in the posting, ask it politely near the end.

Before the interview

• Test the video link and your audio ahead of time. Sit facing a window, not with a bright window behind you.
• Keep your resume open on the screen, and a notepad with two or three points.
• Dress as you would for a first day at the workplace.
• Join five minutes early.

During and after

Listen to the whole question before answering. It is fine to pause for a few seconds. If you are nervous, slow down; nervous candidates tend to speed up and say less than they know. Afterwards send a short thank you email the same day, in three lines. It is not required, but it is remembered.

A note on scams

A genuine internship interview does not ask you to pay a registration fee, buy a kit or transfer money before you start. If you are asked for payment, treat it as a warning sign and read our guide on spotting work from home internship scams.

No answer can guarantee an offer. Interviewers differ, and often the decision depends on how many places there are and who else applied. Prepare, be honest, and treat each interview as practice for the next.