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

UBS sends a pre-recorded video interview to early-career applicants who pass its online assessments, and candidates report it runs on HireVue. Most report 5 to 7 questions, with about 30 seconds to think and up to 2 minutes to answer. Candidates say you cannot re-record an answer. Some markets candidates report a 1-minute limit.

UBS lists its steps in public: an application, online assessments, the video interview, then final-round interviews. The questions are mostly behavioral and ask how you reacted when something changed or went wrong. Markets candidates also report a stock or market question. This page has the reported questions, what each tests, and a worked answer.

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.

UBS publishes three principles (client centricity, connectivity, sustainable impact) and three behaviors (accountability with integrity, collaboration, innovation). The reported video questions test the behaviors most. The Culture Match test that comes before the video is built on the same principles and behaviors.

• Collaboration. Working through a disagreement and keeping the team moving.
• Accountability with integrity. Owning a choice, including a risky one, and what came of it.
• Adaptability. Changing your plan when priorities shifted, and saying how.
• Motivation for UBS. A reason for UBS and the role that is specific to the firm.
• Market awareness. A current financial event and its effect, for markets roles.

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

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

1. Why UBS, and why this role? (Motivation)
2. Tell us about a time you disagreed with someone. How did you react? (Collaboration)
3. Tell us about a time you had to change your priorities. How did you react? (Adaptability)
4. Tell us about a time you had to work outside of your comfort zone. (Learning, resilience)
5. Tell me about a time you made a risky decision. (Judgment, accountability)
6. Tell me about a time you faced challenges working in a team. (Teamwork)
7. Talk about a current financial event and how it affected the economy. (Market awareness)

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: "Tell us about a time you disagreed with someone. How did you react?"

"In my final-year group project we had to build a pricing model for a small coffee chain. I disagreed with our team lead about the data. He wanted to use national price averages because they were quick to find. I thought we needed the chain's own sales, because its stores were in college towns where prices behave differently. I did not argue in the group chat. I asked him for ten minutes after class and showed him two weeks of the chain's receipts next to the national numbers. The gap was about 15 percent. He still worried about time, so I offered to clean the store data myself over the weekend. He agreed. Our model used the store data, and the owner kept using it after the project ended. I learned that a disagreement goes better when I bring evidence and offer to do the extra work."

Why it scores: A real disagreement handled in private, evidence in place of volume, and a fix the person paid for with their own time. About 60 seconds spoken.

Specific to UBS:

• Prepare "how did you react" stories. UBS asks about the moment something changed, so spend most of the answer on what you did next.
• If you applied to markets, have one stock or market event ready with two reasons. Candidates on those tracks report a market question in the video.
• Take the Culture Match test seriously. It comes before the video and uses the same principles and behaviors, so it is your first rehearsal.

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)
• Accenture HireVue (consulting and technology services)
• Vodafone HireVue (telecommunications)
• Kraft Heinz HireVue (consumer packaged goods)
• Wells Fargo HireVue (banking)
• BlackRock HireVue (asset management)
• 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)