Common ChatGPT Interview Questions and How to Prepare

With constant technological advancements and generative AI, ensuring you stay competitive in roles demanding ChatGPT capabilities requires continuous learning. If you want to keep up with employers’ standards and excel in roles requiring ChatGPT capabilities, actively engaging with the platform and staying abreast of its rapid evolution is a good idea. After all, ChatGPT is one of the fastest-growing platforms in history. Adopting a proactive approach can help you feel well-prepared when interviewing for sectors prioritizing generative AI skills.

You can better position yourself and increase your confidence by practicing your responses to some of the possible ChatGPT interview questions you’ll encounter. Getting feedback from colleagues, friends, or family can also help you become equipped with the skills necessary to appropriately use ChatGPT in a work setting. Read on to learn more.

10 Common ChatGPT Interview Questions

Practicing the possible questions you’ll face during an interview can help you craft effective answers and increase your confidence. Before your next practice interview session, brush up on what you may encounter to begin developing thoughtful responses.

Whether you’re interested in working directly with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, or in a position in a field like marketing or software development, which can use the technology to improve processes, having a solid knowledge base in this platform can help you succeed. Explore 10 typical ChatGPT interview questions to help you prepare for your job interview and demonstrate a firm grasp of the application. 

1. What is ChatGPT?

What they’re really asking: How familiar are you with the technology?

ChatGPT stands for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer.” It is a type of artificial intelligence—a language-processing chatbot —trained using a transformer algorithm that functions similarly to human cognition. It offers various uses—however, its primary function is essentially understanding language and predicting the best words in the optimum order to respond to any given prompt.

Other forms this question may take:

• What are some of ChatGPT’s uses?

• What does ChatGPT stand for?

2. How does ChatGPT work?

What they’re really asking: Do you understand LLMs and generative AI?

ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM) that trains using large amounts of data to learn language structure patterns. It uses algorithms to generate content, including text responses, videos, and programming code. ChatGPT also uses adversarial training, which uses chatbots to “trick” it into creating responses not included in its training data to increase stability, aid it in ignoring attacks, and reduce the potential of malicious users fooling it into introducing potential threats. 

Other forms this question may take:

• How does ChatGPT use adversarial training?

• What technology powers genAI’s ability to create human-like responses?

3. What are the limitations of ChatGPT?

What they’re really asking: Can you navigate the complexities of using generative AI? 

While ChatGPT can be a helpful and powerful tool, it's important to remember that, as with any AI, occasional inaccuracies can occur. This is a natural aspect of its learning and improvement. This is because it can receive conflicting information from the web with input biases from humans. Also, if you give it information that contradicts something it already believes to be true, it may generate an odd and factually inaccurate response, called a hallucination. You should use ChatGPT to help you brainstorm and come up with new ideas. You should not use it to substitute research and should always fact-check it.

Other forms this question may take:

• Can you take ChatGPT responses at face value?

• What should you do if you receive an incorrect response from ChatGPT?

4. How can ChatGPT be used in different industries and applications?

What they’re really asking: Are you aware of ChatGPT’s various use cases across sectors?

With all of these potential ChatGPT use cases existing in everyday jobs, it’s important to know how best to implement it as a tool. You can use ChatGPT in a variety of industries, including:

• Customer service: ChatGPT can troubleshoot solutions and act as a help bot.

• Health care: It can simulate a therapist and give helpful responses to mental health challenges, providing an alternative resource when in-person assistance is perhaps unavailable.

• Education: ChatGPT can generate a lesson plan or summarize textbook chapters.

• Retail: ChatGPT can answer product-related questions to assist customers and offer tailored product recommendations.

• Finance: The application can give financial advice and analyze budget data.

• Politics: ChatGPT can output statistics and advise political campaign strategies.

• Marketing: ChatGPT can generate digital content like blogs or social media posts.

• Recruitment: ChatGPT can sort through resumes to look for keywords and qualifications.

Other forms this question may take:

• What are some use cases for ChatGPT in other industries?

• How would you use ChatGPT in an [industry] environment?

5. What are the ethical implications of using ChatGPT?

What they’re really asking: Are you aware of the potential pitfalls associated with this tool?

ChatGPT can be an excellent tool for brainstorming a project and generating new ideas. However, when people become too reliant on AI to do certain writing tasks, it can lead to plagiarism and the spread of misinformation. Furthermore, although ChatGPT can learn to output more humanistic responses, it lacks empathy and can struggle to understand the context. That being said, it will never be a substitute for real human interaction and content. Some primary ethical concerns include:

• Difficulty distinguishing AI versus human text makes validating authorship challenging

• Data integrity and privacy

• Potential for bias; difficulty determining sources

• Possibility of infringing on intellectual property

Other forms this question may take:

• What can’t ChatGPT do well?

• Does using ChatGPT pose potential ethical issues?

How ChatGPT can help you prepare for an interview

ChatGPT can aid job preparation by helping you practice answering common interview questions through simulated interview scenarios. If you ask it to “Help me prepare for my job interview,” the tool could generate some basic interview questions, including:

• “Why do you want to work here?”

• “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”

• “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

You can prompt ChatGPT to give you possible answers to the generated questions, and you can build on those answers to start crafting original responses. ChatGPT can provide constructive feedback on your interview answers, helping you better prepare for job interviews. It not only assists you in practicing your responses to common interview questions but also offers suggestions for improvement and ways to frame your answers more effectively.

6. What is the role of prompt engineering in ChatGPT?

What they’re really asking: Do you know what it takes to improve results and refine ChatGPT’s outputs?

Prompt engineering is like a guide to getting better results from ChatGPT and other LLMs. It involves carefully crafted prompts, causing the chatbot to produce specific desired results. Learning prompt engineering can make you a master of ChatGPT so you get only the optimum results from your prompts.

Other forms this question may take:

• What is prompt engineering?

• How can you optimize your ChatGPT results?

7. How can you use ChatGPT for code generation and debugging?

What they’re really asking: Are you familiar with its ability to aid in programming?

ChatGPT uses language-based patterns and algorithms for training. The first thing that comes to mind when you hear this could be a computer that sorts through standard vernacular English and picks out the best words to use in the appropriate order. While that is technically true, it can find patterns in more than just vernacular. Code is also a language, and ChatGPT can interpret, generate, and correct code patterns like natural language. In terms of debugging, ChatGPT can help streamline the process by providing tailored assistance, isolating problems, generating test cases, understanding complex and outdated code, and offering effective debugging tips.

Other forms this question may take:

• Have you tried using ChatGPT for programming?

• What value does generative AI have in writing code?

8. What is the future of ChatGPT and similar language models?

What they’re really asking: How up-to-date are you on emerging technologies?

The future of ChatGPT and similar language models is potentially twofold; creators will make improvements and advancements, with ChatGPT seeing further integration into daily life. With greater advancements in AI technology, ChatGPT and similar language models can devise more accurate responses with fewer precise interactions from users. 

Future models may also have more advanced memory capabilities and be better equipped to retrieve and utilize stored interactions. Advancements can also broaden AI’s use of context clues to understand the meaning behind prompts and generate responses tailored to the known context. As for further integration, you may see common usage of virtual assistants in completing trivial tasks and increased consumption of AI-generated content.

Other forms this question may take:

• Where do you see generative AI in five years?

• How do you envision ChatGPT evolving?

9. What are the challenges in developing and deploying large language models like ChatGPT?

What they’re really asking: How much do you understand about the development of LLMs?

While large language models like ChatGPT have many common uses, AI developers may also encounter many challenges in development and deployment. A few examples may include:

• Bias: Large language models like ChatGPT can amplify bias if it comes across it in training data, which can create unfair biases in outputs.

• Quality control: Creators of large language models need to ensure that the output their chatbots provide users is of exceptional quality. This involves following certain guidelines to ensure appropriateness and accuracy.

• Data privacy: Since large language models constantly collect user data, their creators must protect it.

• Ethical concerns: Creators of large language models also need to weigh ethical concerns when risking the possibility of spreading misinformation through model output responses.

Other forms this question may take:

• Do you understand the LLM development process?

• How would you overcome potential obstacles in creating an LLM?

10. How can people use ChatGPT for education and training?

What they’re really asking: Can ChatGPT provide educational uses like continual learning?

People use ChatGPT in many ways for education and training. The main way you can use it is to create a lesson plan, action plan, project plan, or agenda. One of its skills is taking information and organizing it in a way that makes sense. Therefore, if you have a lot you need to get through, you can compile your thoughts in a presentable manner to conduct your business more efficiently.

Other forms this question may take:

• How would you use ChatGPT to create employee training?

• What are a few use cases for this technology in learning environments?

ChatGPT interview tips

To have a successful interview for a position using ChatGPT, you need to hold a few mock interviews to practice your responses. It’s also valuable to become well-versed in the following key topics:

• Know the purpose: AI is meant to guide and inspire thought, not to replace it. If you want a position that uses ChatGPT, it’s essential to understand its role in your success as a tool to assist you in your work.

• Know the technology: If you have the skills and know how to use AI, it can yield superior results. Practice using the platform as you would in your intended career to optimize outputs and gain familiarity with its abilities. 

• Be confident: When you have a solid understanding of ChatGPT, other LLMs, generative AI, prompt engineering, and AI data analysis, you will hopefully feel better prepared and confident going into your interview, which can help you communicate better and make a powerful impression. 

Preparing for ChatGPT interview questions on Coursera

Answering possible questions can help you feel more confident in your next interview. You can also boost your confidence and resume with continued learning and building in-demand skills. For example, you might develop your prompt engineering skills with Vanderbilt University’s three-course Prompt Engineering Specialization or better understand machine learning algorithms and neural networks with the IBM AI Engineering Professional Certificate.