Tell me about a teammate who wasn't delivering their share of the work. What did you try before anyone with authority got involved?

The easy moves are silent resentment, quiet covering, and instant escalation — none of which fix anything. The question locates the candidate on that spectrum: whether they raised it with the person directly, and whether the team's result stayed protected while it played out.

• How did you first raise it with them directly?
• How did you decide what was yours to fix and what wasn't?
• What happened to the team's commitments while this played out?
• At what point would you have escalated, and to whom?

They went to the teammate first, plainly and without an audience, treated it as a work problem rather than a character verdict, kept the team's commitments covered in the meantime, and escalated with facts rather than grievances once direct attempts failed.

They covered for the person silently to avoid "making it a thing", the first move was the manager, the account is about fairness to themselves rather than the team's result, or the teammate is dismissed as lazy with no attempt ever made.