What to Expect in Your First Internship Interview

If you have your first internship interview coming up, you are probably nervous in a non-specific way. You do not really know what to expect because nobody has clearly told you. Most prep guides online are written by recruiters trying to sell something, or by people who have not been on the candidate side recently.

This guide is different. It is based on what 1,000+ students actually faced in their internship interviews across 200+ companies. The patterns come from real reports submitted to Internia, not opinions.

If you want to walk into your first interview knowing what is coming, this is what you should know.

Why your first interview is the hardest one

Your first internship interview is the hardest one you will ever have. Not because you are not capable, but because:

You have less professional experience to talk about in behavioural questions
You have not yet learned how to answer technical questions under pressure
You do not know the format, so you waste energy preparing for all possible scenarios
Your stories are weaker because you have fewer real examples to draw from

The good news: the second interview is meaningfully easier than the first. The third is easier than the second. Every interview you do builds your experience, calibrates your nerves and teaches you what to fix. Most students who land their first internship were rejected from several before it. The difference is they kept going.

The students who break through faster are the ones who treat the first interview like a high-stakes event, not a casual chat.

The 3 phases of an internship interview

Most internship interviews follow the same shape. Knowing the phases helps you prep for what is actually coming, not what you imagine.

Phase 1: The screen. A 20 to 30 minute call with a recruiter or HR rep. Sometimes pre-recorded video instead (HireVue and similar tools). Mostly behavioural and resume-walkthrough. Companies use this to filter out candidates who cannot articulate their experience clearly. Most students who fail at this stage fail because they ramble, not because they lack experience.

Phase 2: The technical or case round. This is where the actual evaluation happens. For SWE roles you get coding (HackerRank, LeetCode, or live). For data roles you get SQL plus a case. For consulting you get a case study. For finance you get behavioural plus some form of modelling. The format varies by industry but the pattern is the same: this round decides if you move on.

Phase 3: The final round or superday. Mix of technical, behavioural and culture-fit. By this stage, the company is deciding whether they want to work with you, not whether you are qualified. Energy and fit matter more than answering perfectly.

Not every company runs all three phases. Smaller companies might collapse them into one or two rounds. Big banks and Big 4 often add an extra screening step. But this is the shape you should expect.

Interview formats: what they look like

Different formats require different prep.

Live interviews (virtual or in-person). The default. You talk to one or more interviewers in real time. The most common format and the one most prep guides assume.

Pre-recorded video (HireVue, Modern Hire, Talview). You record answers to set questions with no interviewer present. Most students hate this format because there is no back-and-forth, no chance to read the room, and you cannot ask clarifying questions. If your interview is pre-recorded, treat it like a presentation: prepare answers in advance, record a few takes and pick your best one. You cannot improvise your way through it the way you can in a live interview.

Behavioural interviews. All about your stories and how you think. STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is the standard structure. Do plently of research on this if you are unfamiliar.

Technical interviews. Coding, system design, SQL, or domain-specific questions. Usually time-pressured.

Case studies. Almost exclusively at consulting and finance. You analyze a problem, structure your thinking, and present a recommendation. The case is not about the answer, it is about how you reason through it.

The takeaway: figure out which format you are getting before the interview. Email the recruiter and ask. Knowing the format is half the battle.

The questions companies actually ask

We read through hundreds of interview descriptions to identify the most common patterns.

Behavioural questions

The big four show up across nearly every industry:

Resume walkthrough. Walk them through your background, then they drill into specific projects. Have a 90-second version ready that hits the highlights without listing everything on your resume.
"Tell me about a time" questions. Leadership, conflict, teamwork, failure, working under pressure. Have 5 to 6 stories ready that cover these themes. You will reuse the same stories across multiple interviews.
"Why this company?" and "Why this role?" Common at banks and consulting firms. They are testing whether you actually researched them or just submitted en masse. Have a specific answer that mentions something from their recent work, not their mission statement.
Situational/hypothetical. "How would you handle X if it happened?" They want to see your thought process, not the right answer.

For first-timers: do not panic about not having professional experience. Class projects, volunteer work, group assignments, sports teams and part-time jobs all count. The interviewer is testing your ability to tell a structured story, not your career history.

Technical questions

The technical landscape is different from what most students assume.

SQL. The most frequently mentioned technical skill across the entire dataset. SQL appears in twice as many interviews as Python. It comes up in banks, tech, consulting, and any data role. If you are going to learn one technical skill before your next interview, learn SQL. Specifically: JOIN logic, GROUP BY, window functions, and writing queries against a database you have not seen before.
Coding challenges. HackerRank and LeetCode style problems. For interns, most companies stick to easy and medium difficulty. Hard problems are rare unless you are interviewing at quant firms or top-tier tech.
System design. Almost exclusively at tech companies and for senior co-op roles. If you are a first or second year, you can probably skip this.
Data structures and algorithms. Underlies most coding challenges even when not stated explicitly.
Case studies. Heavy in consulting and finance. Students described analyzing company financials, building recommendations, presenting findings.

The takeaway most students miss: SQL beats Python by 2 to 1 in actual interviews. A lot of students grind LeetCode for months and then freeze on a basic JOIN question.

What interviews look like by industry

Different industries run different processes.

Banks (RBC, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC)

Banks lean heavily behavioural even for technical roles. Common pattern:

Round 1: behavioural with HR or a recruiter
Round 2: hiring manager, often situational questions about client interactions
Round 3 (for some roles): financial modelling, Excel, basic accounting
For SWE and data roles: pair programming or coding challenges

The hidden filter: banks screen heavily for fit. Banking culture is conservative. Show up looking professional, do not crack jokes, and use formal language even when the interviewer seems casual.

Big Tech (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Shopify, Meta, Apple)

The most technical category. Standard format:

Online assessment first (usually 2 medium LeetCode problems on HackerRank)
2 to 3 back-to-back 45-minute technical rounds
One behavioural round (often blended into technical)
For some companies (Amazon, Microsoft), an additional system design round

LeetCode-style problems dominate. Microsoft and Google frequently use back-to-back 45-minute technical rounds where the first 30 minutes is coding and the last 15 is behavioural and questions for the interviewer.

Big Tech is the most competitive bucket. Do not be discouraged if you do not convert on your first try. Even strong candidates often need multiple cycles to break in.

Consulting and Big 4 (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, McKinsey, BCG, Bain)

The most varied category. Common format:

Behavioural screen with HR
Take-home case study (sometimes 48 hours, sometimes 1 week)
Final round: 1 case interview plus behavioural
For audit and tax roles: Excel test plus behavioural

Cases at Big 4 are usually less brutal than at MBB but still require structured thinking. Practice case interview frameworks before going in.

Finance and investment banking

Heavy technical focus. Common pattern:

Behavioural and resume walkthrough
Technical round: accounting, valuation, modelling, market sizing
Stock pitch (you bring one)
Superday with multiple back-to-back interviews

If you are interviewing for IB, you need to know your DCF cold and have a stock pitch prepared. Showing up without one is an immediate fail.

What you can control vs what you cannot

A lot of factors affect whether you get the offer, but only some are in your control.

You cannot control:

Your GPA (in the short term)
How many internships you have done before
What year you are in
How many other students applied
The interviewer's mood

You can control:

How well you researched the company
Whether you can articulate your stories cleanly in 60-90 seconds
Whether you have practiced SQL and the right technical questions for the role
Whether you treated a HireVue like a presentation or winged it
How you follow up after

The data is clear that GPA, prior internship count and year level all correlate with offer rates. But the bigger predictor is preparation. Students who walk in over-prepared convert at much higher rates than students who rely on their resume to do the work for them. You cannot raise your GPA in a week, but you can raise your preparation level dramatically.

If your GPA is below 2.5, compensate hard. Strong projects, side projects, prior internship experience, or a polished portfolio all help recruiters look past your transcript.

The 5 biggest mistakes first-time students make

These came up over and over in the data, in students' own words about what cost them the offer.

1. Generic answers to "why this company?"

Almost every interview at a major company asks this. Students who said something like "I'm interested in the financial services industry" got rejected. Students who referenced a specific recent project, deal, or strategic move got offers. Spend 20 minutes on the company's recent news before the interview.

2. Underprepping for SQL

Students strong on Python and LeetCode but weak on SQL kept failing technical rounds at banks and data-focused tech companies. SQL appears in twice as many interviews as Python. If you have not written 50 SQL queries from scratch, you are underprepared.

3. Treating HireVue like a regular interview

Pre-recorded video interviews require a different prep approach than live ones. The students who succeed prepare answers in advance, record themselves, and re-record until it sounds natural. The students who wing it usually fail.

4. Rambling in behavioural answers

The most common feedback in submitted reports: "I went on too long." Behavioural answers should be 60 to 90 seconds. If you are still talking after 2 minutes, the interviewer has stopped listening. Practice timing yourself out loud.

5. Apologizing for being a first-year or first-timer

Several students opened with "I know I do not have a lot of experience..." That kind of self-deprecation flags you as low-confidence. Never apologize for what you do not have. Talk confidently about what you do have, even if it is just class projects and side projects.

A 7-day prep plan

If you have a week before your interview, here is what to do.

Day 1 to 2: Research the company and prep your resume

Read the company's recent news, investor calls, or product launches. Find the team page if it exists. Walk through your resume out loud. Identify the 3 projects you would want to talk about most.

Day 3: Prepare your behavioural stories

Write 5 to 6 stories using the STAR format covering leadership, conflict, failure, teamwork, working under pressure. Each should be 60 to 90 seconds when spoken. Practice them out loud, not in your head. Time yourself.

Day 4: Technical prep specific to the company and role

For SWE roles: 5 to 10 medium LeetCode problems. For data roles: practice SQL on a real dataset. For consulting: do 2 mock case interviews from Case in Point. For finance: review your DCF and prepare a stock pitch.

Day 5: Read interview reports for this exact company

Search for the company on Internia and read every report. You will see patterns: which questions they always ask, which interview format they use, how the rounds are structured. This is the cheapest, highest-leverage prep step you can do.

Day 6: Mock interview

Get a friend or use AI to simulate the interview. Speak your answers out loud. Get feedback on length, clarity, and energy. Identify your weakest 2 areas and prep them more.

Day 7: Light review and rest

Review your stories and key technical concepts in the morning. In the afternoon, do something completely unrelated to interviewing. Sleep early. Show up rested.

The biggest prep mistake is doing too much in the final 24 hours and showing up exhausted. Energy in the interview matters as much as preparation.

What to do after the interview

Most students miss this entirely.

Within 24 hours: Send a brief thank-you email to your interviewer. Reference something specific you discussed. Two sentences max.

Days 2 to 7: Wait. Do not follow up. Do not check your email obsessively. Spend the time on other applications.

Day 7 and after: If you have not heard back, send a polite follow-up. Reference your interview date and ask about expected timeline. Most companies have a 1 to 3 week response time.

If you have not heard back after 3 weeks, it is reasonable to mentally move on and focus on other applications. Some companies will still come back later, but the longer the silence, the lower the odds.

Where to go from here

This guide covers the patterns. The next step is reading actual interview reports for the companies you are targeting. Every company has its own quirks, and the only way to prep for them is to know what students before you faced.

Internia has 1,000+ anonymous interview reports across 200+ companies. Free to read, no signup required. Filter by company, program, role, or interview type to find what is relevant to your next interview.

If you have done an internship interview, share your experience. It takes 2 minutes and helps the next student walk in prepared.