I notice the goals when asking the rote questions posted by angel.co and others in the thread, while very sensible, differ quite a bit. And many interviewers a

I notice the goals when asking the rote questions posted by angel.co and others in the thread, while very sensible, differ quite a bit. And many interviewers are less capable and just ask these questions because those are the questions you are supposed to ask. They make up a reason for them after the fact. Like so much of hiring, it seems a fair example of a cargo cult practice to which a few smarter interviewers have invented a tolerable use. For example, in a workplace that shall remain nameless, the question "Tell Me About A Time You Failed" really was to naively see how badly the candidate messed up in the past. And for "Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years" there was one correct answer: "manager" even though there was no expected need.