What was the hardest interview question you have ever been asked and what was your answer?

The hardest question I have experienced, and I subsequently use, is "Describe a time to me you failed. How did you deal with failure, and what did you learn?" This type of experience based question catches people off guard, causes them to provide an objective response, and then quickly turn that into a selling point. It is very easy to detect the sincere responses from the marketing.

As an HR leader, I find that behavioral questions in interviewing are usually the best indicator of future performance. Rob Belcher is right on with his comments. Questions that start with "Tell me about a time" or "Describe a situation" are great ways to lead off on questions. It's important to be able to drill down to get specifics of the situation if you are conducting the interview.

Questions that talk about "What would you do" or "How would you handle" tend to interview for thought process. Most candidates can game the interview with these and give the interviewer what they are ideally looking for in the question.

I highly recommend the book "Your Not the Person I Hired!" by Barry Deutsch as a guide to recruiting. It's a must-read.

As for the toughest question I have ever been asked, I will need to set this up. I was in an interview for the Naval Academy at a State Senator's office in New Jersey. The person conducting the interview essentially asked me if I was spoiled after a long diatribe. My response wasn't the best, and I almost walked out. I didn't get the Nomination from the Senator, but I did get one from a Congressman. I am still proud of the fact that I stood up for what I believed in. Moral of the story, don't change who you are. Be proud. Just don't be offensive.

This is a very good question. And, though I'm going to decline to answer (because I can't remember any, my memory sucks), I would like to point out that ONLY enlisted actually answered the quest and didn't try to sell something. Other than the man posing the question, every officer tried to derail without giving a full answer (typical), and one officer pointed to a book to answer the question for him! THIS is why enlisted personnel constantly complain about the CoC failing them, very few officers have enough respect for anyone else to actually give THEIR OWN COMPLETE answer to the questions asked. They expect everyone else do respect them enough to do it, but will not do it themselves.