Accenture HireVue Interview: Questions, Format, and a Worked Answer

Accenture uses HireVue to screen many analyst, intern, and graduate applicants. Candidates report 3 to 8 questions. Each question shows on screen for about 30 seconds, then recording starts and runs for up to 3 minutes. Candidates report no retakes on the scored questions and about five days to finish once the link arrives.

Accenture asks more about the company and about technology than most firms. Candidates report questions on what Accenture does, who it competes with, and how businesses use technology, next to the usual team and challenge stories. This page lists the reported questions, what each tests, and a worked answer for the one candidates call the hardest.

Want a run-through first? HireVue practice gives you the same timed format with your answers scored, free.

The clock and the format are the same HireVue product every employer uses. The timing guide covers what happens when the timer runs out, and how HireVue scoring works covers what the recording is scored on.

Accenture publishes six core values: client value creation, one global network, respect for the individual, best people, integrity, and stewardship. The reported questions test client value creation and teamwork most, and the company questions reward real research.

• Company knowledge. What Accenture does, who it competes with, and what sets it apart, in your own words.
• Technology awareness. A clear view of how a real business uses technology to work better.
• Teamwork. A team problem you helped fix, with your part named.
• Client focus. A time you kept a hard customer or client on side and still delivered.
• Resilience. A setback, what you did next, and what changed.

Build one story for each line above. Every question below is asking for one of them.

These are the questions candidates report from recent Accenture screens, with the competency each one is built to test. Your set will be a mix of these and close variants.

1. Why do you want to work for Accenture? (Motivation)
2. What makes Accenture different from its competitors? (Company research)
3. How do businesses use technology? (Technology awareness, communication)
4. Tell me about a challenge you faced and how you overcame it. (Resilience)
5. Tell me about a time you worked in a team or had a problem with a team member. (Teamwork, conflict)
6. Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult client. How did you handle it? (Client value creation)
7. Describe interesting ways you have used communication tools and technology. (Digital fluency)

For the shape of each answer type, see HireVue interview questions by format. For the answer structure itself, the STAR method guide has worked examples.

Question: "How do businesses use technology?"

"I'll answer with one business I know well. I worked two summers at a family-owned garden center. When I started, stock was tracked on paper, and we ran out of our best sellers every May. In my second summer the owner moved to a point-of-sale system that counted sales by item. I helped set up the product list. Within a month we could see which plants sold out on weekends and reorder on Wednesday instead of guessing. We threw away fewer plants that did not sell, and the owner said it was the first spring we did not run out of tomatoes. I see the same pattern in bigger companies. Technology helps a business know what is happening, decide faster, and serve the customer better. The hardest part is getting people to trust the new data and change how they work, and that is the part of this job I most want to learn."

Why it scores: It turns a broad question into one concrete example with a before and an after, then widens to a general point. It shows technology awareness without jargon. About 60 seconds spoken.

Specific to Accenture:

• Know the company. Learn what Accenture's main business areas do, name two or three competitors, and have one reason it differs from them in your own words.
• Prepare a technology example. Pick one business you know, from a job, a club, or a family shop, and explain how a tool changed the way it worked.
• Land the result early. The recording stops at the time limit even mid-sentence, so state your result by about the 2-minute mark.

For any HireVue:

1. Day 1. Write one story per competency in the list above. Two or three sentences each: the situation, what you decided, what happened.
2. Day 2. Say each story out loud on a two-minute timer. Most people run long the first time. Cut until each one ends on the result with time to spare.
3. Day 3. Run the reported questions cold, in one sitting, no notes. Then set up the room: quiet, camera at eye level, light on your face, wired internet if you have it.

The full setup checklist and a five-day version of this plan are in the free HireVue practice guide.

After you submit, results often take a week or more. Here is how to follow up after an interview if the window passes, and a salary negotiation email for when the offer comes. Applying for a move up where you already work? See promotion interview questions.

Company guides in this series, each with the reported questions and a worked answer:

• Goldman Sachs HireVue (investment banking)
• JPMorgan Chase HireVue (investment banking)
• Morgan Stanley HireVue (investment banking)
• Citi HireVue (banking)
• Bank of America HireVue (banking)
• Barclays HireVue (banking)
• Deutsche Bank HireVue (banking)
• Bain & Company HireVue (consulting)
• Boston Consulting Group HireVue (consulting)
• Deloitte HireVue (consulting and professional services)
• EY HireVue (professional services)
• Unilever HireVue (consumer goods)
• PepsiCo HireVue (consumer goods)
• Amazon HireVue (technology and operations)
• IBM HireVue (technology)
• Boeing HireVue (aerospace and engineering)
• Hilton HireVue (hospitality)
• Delta Air Lines HireVue (airlines)
• McDonald's HireVue (restaurants)
• Shell HireVue (energy)
• PwC HireVue (accounting and professional services)
• Vodafone HireVue (telecommunications)
• Kraft Heinz HireVue (consumer packaged goods)
• Wells Fargo HireVue (banking)
• BlackRock HireVue (asset management)
• UBS HireVue (banking)
• United Airlines HireVue (airlines)
• Emirates HireVue (airlines)
• Marriott HireVue (hospitality)
• Johnson & Johnson HireVue (health care)
• PNC HireVue (banking)
• Kaiser Permanente HireVue (health care)
• KKR HireVue (private equity)
• Keurig Dr Pepper HireVue (consumer goods)
• Target HireVue (retail)
• Walmart HireVue (retail)
• Nike HireVue (sportswear)
• Macy's HireVue (retail)