Epic’s behavioral questions test how you work with others, what you are proud of, and how well you know yourself, and they come up in both the phone interview and the final interview. The most common are tell me about a project you are proud of (and what you would do differently), a time you compromised with or had a conflict with a teammate, why Epic, and an unusual self-description prompt: “What are five things you are not?”
In the Epic interview process, the phone interview is 15-30 minutes with a developer or recruiter, and the final interview includes a behavioral interview with the recruiter of about 30 minutes for developers and longer for quality and project manager roles. Full reports are on the Epic interview experience page.
How Epic’s behavioral rounds differ by role
- Software developers: Short behavioral questions in the phone interview, and a 30-minute recruiter behavioral interview in the final.
- Quality managers and project managers: STAR-style behavioral questions, self-description prompts, a brief case and sometimes a 10-minute presentation on any subject with no slides.
- Technical services and technical solutions engineers: Scenario questions about prioritizing client and internal work, plus small-group interviews.
Epic does not publish a list of values that interviews are scored against. The questions below come from 2024 and 2025 candidate reports.
Common Epic behavioral questions
1. What are five things you are not?
What to cover: Give five honest, specific traits that are true of you by their absence, and add a short reason for one or two. For example: not impatient with repeated questions, not a perfectionist about first drafts, not territorial about code, not easily rattled by a long day, not a fan of meetings without an agenda. Avoid disguised boasts like not lazy.
A variant reported in July 2025 asks for five words that describe you. Prepare both lists.
2. Tell me about a project you are proud of
What to cover: Pick one project where you owned a clear part, state the problem, what you built, a number that shows the result, and one thing you would do differently. Epic phone interviewers asked this in December 2024 and August 2025 reports, sometimes with the follow-up on what you would change.
Sample answer: “I built a scheduling tool for our campus tutoring center. Students booked through a shared spreadsheet and double-bookings happened about 15 times a week. I wrote a small web app with a database constraint on tutor and time slot, so double-booking became impossible. Double-bookings went to zero and the coordinator saved about three hours a week. I would add reminders by text next time, since no-shows became the next problem.”
3. Tell me about a time you compromised with a teammate
What to cover: Describe what each of you wanted, the middle ground you chose, and why it was better than either starting position. Show that the compromise came from the goal of the project, not from avoiding conflict.
Sample answer: “My partner wanted to build every feature before testing; I wanted tests first. We agreed to write tests only for the data layer up front and test the UI by hand. We shipped on time and the data tests caught two bugs before the demo.”
4. Describe a time in a project you had a conflict
What to cover: State the conflict in one sentence, the steps you took to understand the other person, how it was resolved, and the result. Keep blame out of it; Epic’s final interviews include a recruiter behavioral round that probes how you work with others.
5. Why Epic?
What to cover: Connect healthcare software to something specific: patient safety, the scale of Epic’s customers, or the training Epic gives new hires. Mention that you are ready to live in the Madison area, since every role is on the Verona campus.
6. Where have you shown initiative in your own life?
What to cover: Pick something outside a class assignment or job description that you started yourself, such as a club, a tool, or a fix nobody asked for. Say what prompted it, what you did, and what changed because of it.
7. Describe a time you took charge to change something at your job
STAR sample: “Situation: Our team’s bug reports had no template, so half were missing steps to reproduce. Task: Nobody owned the process. Action: I drafted a three-field template, tried it for two weeks with one tester, then presented the before and after counts to the team. Result: Reports missing reproduction steps fell from about half to under one in ten.”
8. What specific libraries or technologies have you used in your projects?
Sample direction: Name the tool, the problem it solved, and one limitation you hit. An October 2025 candidate got this in a 30-minute phone interview; interviewers want depth on one or two tools rather than a list.
9. Are you more of a listener or a communicator?
Sample direction: Reported in project manager reviews. Pick one honestly, then give an example where you used the other skill on purpose, such as listening to a frustrated user before proposing a fix.
10. Explain a process you find interesting
Sample direction: Choose something you can explain in two minutes to a non-expert, such as how a hospital pharmacy verifies an order or how a compiler turns code into machine instructions. Structure it in three steps. Quality manager candidates may be asked to give a 10-minute version as a presentation without slides.
11. How would you handle a client who is upset about a bug?
Sample direction: Acknowledge the impact, give a time for the next update, find out whether patient care is affected, and escalate if so. Then follow up when you said you would.
12. Are you comfortable relocating to Madison?
Sample direction: Answer directly. Epic’s process ends with a paid trip to Madison, and roles are on the Verona campus.
Stories to prepare for Epic
| Story | Where it is asked | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Project you are proud of | Phone interview | Ownership and depth |
| Compromise or conflict | Phone and final | Working with others |
| Initiative outside work | Final interview | Self-direction |
| Took charge of a change | Quality and project manager finals | Leadership without title |
| Five things you are not | Quality and project manager finals | Self-awareness |
Answers that hurt at Epic
- Treating “five things you are not” as a joke or listing only virtues
- A proud-project story where your own part is unclear
- Hesitating on relocation to Madison
- Conflict stories that end with the other person being wrong
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