30 HSBC interview questions you could be asked in Hong Kong

If you’re applying for a job at HSBC in Hong Kong, it’s a good idea to get to grips with the type of interview questions you might potentially be asked. To give you a head start, we went through some of the HSBC interview questions that Hong Kong-based applicants have posted online (mainly via Glassdoor) over the past three years. We filtered out obvious ones (e.g. “tell me about yourself”) and technical ones that only apply to niche jobs. Then we grouped them into the six categories below.

Many of the HSBC interview questions were supplied by front-office candidates for analyst and associate jobs, so they will be particularly relevant if you’re looking for work at a junior level. While it’s impossible to second guess exactly what you’ll be asked, the questions below should help you prepare for some of the broad themes you’ll likely to encounter at your interview.

Showing your thought process

• How would you describe the financial crisis of 2008?

• Estimate the number of people Hong Kong Airport handles on a day in October. (Pre-Covid)

• Do you use intuition or logic? 

• Analyze this news article and state whether you agree or disagree with the opinions. 

• Pitch me something.

Dilemmas

• Your client wants to transfer a sum of money to another company's account, but the system rejects the transaction due to 'suspicious behavior'. Your client cannot supply the necessary documents but still wants you to complete the transfer. How would you respond? 

• How would you react if your manager asks you to do something you don’t think is right?

• If you’re a supervisor and have a heavy workload, would you ask an intern for help (you might need to spend time to train them) or finish everything on your own?

Questions about colleagues/teams

• You are working with a group of analysts from different departments on an M&A deal. How would you handle that task?

• Tell me about when you’ve managed a quarrel between your colleagues.

• How would you react when you face a conflict with your peers? 

• How do you approach working with a project team that consists of people from different functional units?

• How do you position yourself in a team? 

• How do you network with your colleagues? 

• How do you react to negative feedback given to you? 

Questions about HSBC

• What makes HSBC stand out from its peers? / How is HSBC different from other banks? 

• If you could make one change to HSBC (policy, for instance), what would you suggest?

• Tell me some recent news about HSBC. 

• What are the values of HSBC? And how do you fit into these? 

• Illustrate three of HSBC's values with your own examples.

Leadership

• Describe the leadership experiences you've had in the past.

• Give me an example in which you demonstrated your leadership skills. 

• Describe a time when you were a leader of a team and failed to achieve your goals.

• Would you describe yourself as a role model? 

Approach to work

• If you found that new business isn’t as good as expected, how would you help boost the sale of our products? 

• Describe a time when you solved a difficult task.

• Tell me about a time when you had to think out of the box.

• What was the most difficult scenario you encountered in your previous projects, and how did you handle it? 

• Describe a time when you had to work under pressure.

• Tell me how you deal with multiple deadlines. 

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