Tell me about being blocked on something only one unresponsive colleague could give you. Walk me through everything you tried.

A stalled dependency is a small test with an honest reading: some candidates send the same email three times and file the missed deadline under someone else's name. "Everything you tried" invites the full sequence, showing whether they treat a colleague's silence as an excuse or as a problem to work.

• What did you try after the second nudge failed?
• What turned out to be competing for their attention?
• At what point did you involve anyone else, and how?
• What happened to your deadline in the meantime?

An escalating sequence of channels and framings rather than repeats, the ask made smaller and easier to answer, the block flagged early to whoever owned the deadline, and no bridge burned once it resolved.

One email and a shrug with the outcome filed as the colleague's fault, or the opposite — an immediate cc to their manager; the colleague described with contempt; the ask never once adapted.