Tell me about a problem that kept coming back in a past role and never got fixed on your watch. What kept it alive?

Initiative shows as clearly in what someone tolerated as in what they fixed — and everyone has a problem they lived with. The honest version reveals how the candidate weighs cost against comfort, which a success story never touches.

• What did living with it cost, per week or per month?
• Did you ever raise it, and what happened when you did?
• What would have made fixing it worth your time?

An honest pick with real cost attached, a clear-eyed account of why fixing it kept losing to other work, and some deliberate call — even a documented workaround — rather than drift.

Can't name one ("I fix everything"), the barrier is entirely other people or "management", or they never once raised it and can't say why.