Most people preparing for JPMorgan Chase are heading into one of two conversations, and they are not the same conversation. A branch seat (teller, associate banker, personal banker) usually looks like a phone call and then someone at the branch. An early-careers program usually starts with a recording. JPMorgan Chase is No. 12 on Fortune's 2026 list. That is context. The conversation you are likely to sit is still about a customer, a fact you checked, and an example that is actually yours. If STAR is new, start with our complete STAR method guide, then come back and put your own work into it.
Branch write-ups keep coming back to an upset customer and whether you can explain a simple thing, like the Chase app, without talking down. Early-careers candidates who posted HireVue questions describe an issue they caught before it grew, a time they explained something complicated, and an ethical bind. The firm's own handbook asks for context, action, and result, from your life, and it tells you not to invent one. Build a few stories around the customer, a fact you did not smooth over, and a clear explanation. Those lines are on the business principles page. Star Interview turns your own history into a Story Bank. You sign in, and the next step is checkout for the practice subscription if you do not have one yet.
When we looked, Glassdoor's Chase interview index was led by bank teller, teller, personal banker, relationship banker, and associate banker. Software engineer is on that list, further down, and the write-ups split between a coding assessment and a behavioral conversation. That is why the sketches below spend the most time on a customer you can describe and a fact you checked, then on an explanation someone outside the work can follow. A superday, the name candidates use for a string of analyst interviews, is a real stage in early-careers write-ups. It is not what a teller write-up usually describes. This guide does not invent one script that covers both.
Blind and Levels.fyi did not add branch questions we could use. Levels.fyi is pay, and this post leaves pay figures out. Wall Street Oasis threads we sampled were mostly investment-banking technicals and “why this bank,” which this guide does not try to teach. If your round is a coding screen plus a behavioral, the behavioral half is still a tell-me-about-a-time. Our software engineer behavioral questions post covers Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft. It does not cover a Chase branch, and it does not cover the HireVue prompts people have posted for JPMorgan programs. Store and warehouse guides on this blog, including Costco, Home Depot, Walmart, and Target, are a different floor. A return at a warehouse is not an account at a branch. The stories do not transfer if you only swap the logo.
JPMorgan Chase does not publish one interview script. The pages below are the hiring notes on the careers site, the early-careers handbook, and the business principles. Candidate write-ups fill in the conversation. When those disagree, believe the email that scheduled you.
The process depends on the job
The how we hire page says the interview process differs for each position, and that you can expect to meet several people across more than one round. It also says to be yourself. The how we hire FAQ says you apply on the careers site. A branch application is not something you hand to someone at the counter: the FAQ says to apply on the job search page. You will be told if that job wants an assessment. The examples they name are a structured live interview, an on-demand recorded interview, and a virtual skills assessment.
A recording, for some jobs, then more interviews
The FAQ describes an on-demand recorded interview as questions on screen and your recorded answers. You need a camera and a microphone, you get a window of time, and they recommend business attire and a quiet room. The early-careers digital handbook (the copy marked 2025) is more specific for programs: a first-round recorded interview on HireVue, and for technology also HackerRank, then one or more interviews that can be virtual or in person depending on the program. The handbook asks you to prepare two questions about the program, to say why you chose the role, and to structure an example as context, action, and result. It also says not to use an example that is not yours, not to read a script, and not to invent or exaggerate.
Branch write-ups do not match the campus flowchart
Glassdoor excerpts for associate banker describe a phone conversation and then the branch manager. Some add a later call with a regional or market manager. The questions they mention are behavioral: an angry customer, and in one write-up whether the candidate was comfortable with warm calling. Part-time associate banker excerpts include a role-play, teaching someone the Chase app, with depositing a check as the example. Licensed personal banker excerpts mention a complaint, a client on the phone, and an account problem, sometimes with a branch manager and an assistant and then a district manager. One write-up describes a room of regional managers. That is one room. Treat any of these as one branch, not a packet.
Timers and older steps we will not pretend are universal
Candidates do not agree on the HireVue clock. In a 2026 private-bank thread on r/FinancialCareers, someone who had just done a middle-market banking HireVue said the real recording gave about 30 seconds to prepare and about two minutes to answer, with no retry, and four questions. A software-internship comment on r/csMajors described about 40 seconds to think, two chances, and one to two minutes. Another said one minute to prepare and two minutes to record. A Glassdoor software engineer write-up said two attempts, one minute to prepare, up to three minutes, and generic workplace questions rather than coding. The handbook does not publish one timer. Read the screen in front of you. Older investment-banking guides, including one that dates its reports to 2016 through 2021, describe a games-style assessment before HireVue and then a superday of roughly half-hour interviews. The 2025 handbook and the FAQ do not name that games assessment. If your invitation names a step, that invitation is the one to trust.
The firm's words for how to answer are in the handbook, not in a public question bank. The questions below are themes from candidate reports. Where a write-up gave a wording, it is one person's memory of one screen or one room. Links: how we hire, the hiring FAQ, and the early-careers digital handbook.
An upset customer, or an account that is already wrong
This is the branch core. Associate banker and personal banker excerpts on Glassdoor describe an angry customer, a complaint, a client calling about an account, and how you handled it. “I love people” does not give them the account, the limit, or the next step you could keep. If you have never worked a branch, a retail or service moment still works, as long as the limit in the story is real.
Can you explain the simple version
Part-time associate banker excerpts include a role-play: how you would teach someone the Chase app, for example how to deposit a check. On r/csMajors, one HireVue memory was a time you explained a topic to a friend. In the r/FinancialCareers thread, one of the four posted questions was a time you had to present complicated information to someone who did not know the subject. The story they can score has a person, the words you actually used, and the part you did not skip because it was awkward.
An ethical bind, or a fact you did not smooth over
The same HireVue post listed a time you were challenged ethically at work or at school, and a time you noticed a problem and did something before it became a real one. An older investment-banking write-up of Glassdoor reports includes a difficult client, and a time you went and got the information before you made a plan. The handbook’s don’t list is the same instinct from the firm’s side: do not fabricate. Your story should be a moment where the easy answer was a favor, a fudge, or a silence, and you did not take it.
Why this program, in work you can point to
HireVue posts on r/internships and r/FinancialCareers include why JPMorgan Chase and why that role, and one screen asked what steps you had taken to learn about the program. That is not a STAR story, and a slogan will not carry it. Name the program, one thing you read, and one question you still have. The handbook tells you to bring two questions. Have them.
Software: a coding check, then an ordinary behavioral
The handbook says technology candidates may sit HackerRank as well as HireVue. The FAQ says a technical assessment can be an online test or a live interview, and that many assessments cannot be retaken for a period you will be told. Reddit internship comments describe an online assessment and then a day with one technical conversation and one behavioral. A Glassdoor software engineer write-up said the recording itself was workplace questions, not code. We could not find one public page that lists the behavioral prompts for every engineering team. Use the three sketches if the question is a tell-me-about-a-time. Do not pretend a branch complaint script is a system-design round.
Same four parts as any other behavioral interview. One incident, about two minutes, then stop so there is room for a follow-up. The letters are in our complete STAR method guide. The in-the-room sequence is in how to answer behavioral questions with STAR. The handbook does not use the word STAR. It asks for context, what you did, and the outcome, which is the same shape with the task folded into the setup. A later reflection note on the careers site mentions another four-letter outline and says it is guidance, not a requirement. You do not need three frameworks. Use STAR. If they ask what you learned, that is the last beat, not a new story. If the second round is several interviews back to back, our rapid-fire behavioral guide is the general version of keeping each one short.
Where and when, in two or three sentences.
Name the counter, the call, the class project, or the bug, and the shape of the moment: a customer who is already upset, a number that does not match, a person who needs the plain version. Skip the history of the firm.
What you were responsible for, in one sentence.
Separate your job from the bank’s job. The task is the person still standing there, the fact that is not checked yet, or the explanation that has to land. “Focus on the customer” is a principle. It is not the task.
What you did, in order, in the first person.
Include the option you did not take. You did not waive a fee you had not checked. You did not hide a mismatch to finish the meeting. You did not talk over the person who was lost. Those refusals are actions someone can score.
What changed, in words you could defend.
The customer left with a next step you could keep, the mismatch was in front of the right person, the listener could repeat the point back. If you have a count you can point to, that count is [your number]. If you do not, leave the number out.
On the business principles page, the firm says it is defined by four tenets: exceptional client service, operational excellence, a commitment to integrity, fairness and responsibility, and a great team and winning culture. Under client service, the first principle is to focus on the customer: see it from their side, read complaints, and do not let a short-term win get in the way of what is right for them. Under integrity, the page says to do the right thing even when it is not the easy thing, and to face facts, including admitting a mistake. Under operational excellence, it says raising a red flag is every employee's responsibility, and that you execute with both skill and urgency.
The three below are the ones the questions in this post actually touch. They are a prep map, not a claim that your interviewer will score you on a published rubric. The firm does not post that rubric for candidates. Our post on building four strong STAR stories, not twenty is the general version of keeping the set small.
Branch candidates hear this as an upset person, a complaint, or someone who needs the app explained. The story they can write down has a person, a limit, and a next step you could keep. A speech about loving the brand does not name what you checked before you promised anything.
HireVue posts ask for an ethical situation and for a problem you caught early. The principles page puts integrity in the same place: no compromise, and face the facts. The story is the favor, the fudge, or the silence you did not choose, and who you told instead.
Operational excellence, at the size of one task, is the detail you did not skip because the line was long or the meeting was almost over. On a branch that can be a mismatch in an account. On a project or a codebase it can be a number or a test that did not hold. Urgency is still in the principle. The story includes what you did after you spoke up, not only that you spoke up.
Teamwork is a real tenet, and candidates do report a time they worked with other people. The principles page says teamwork can mean getting along, and it can also mean standing alone to do the right thing. You do not need a fourth incident for that. The flag you raised, told as who you brought in, is already a team story. Do not recite all twenty principles unless they ask what you know about the firm. If they do, the four tenets are the part worth knowing, in the firm's words, not a slogan you wrote on the train.
These are composite sketches. They are not a script, not a recommended invention, and not an account of a particular branch or program. They follow the reports above: a customer you did not over-promise, a problem you flagged before it grew, and an explanation for someone who does not live in the work. Swap the setting and the outcome for something you did. Where a number would be tempting, the sketch leaves [your number].
Use this for an upset customer, which is the question branch write-ups keep circling: a complaint, a client on the phone, an account that is already wrong. It also covers the “difficult client” shape in older analyst reports. Our conflict question guide covers disagreement in general. This sketch is the bank version: the kind answer is still a next step the firm can keep.
Someone is upset about a fee, a balance, a product they did not expect, or a problem that has already been passed along once. Other people can hear, which makes a quick yes feel kind. You do not yet know whether you are allowed to change it.
Get them to a next step you can stand behind, without promising a waiver, a product, or an account change you have not checked.
You let them finish. You repeat the actual problem, in plain words, so they know you heard the account and not just the volume. You look up the limit or you get the person whose job is that decision. You tell them what you can do today, and you say the part you cannot. If the answer is a no, you do not deliver it as a speech about policy. You stay long enough that they are not handed off cold. The option you reject is a fee waiver or a product you invented to end the conversation.
They left with the change the rules allowed, or with a clear no and the name of who said it. If you learned the limit, say how you used it with the next person. Do not invent a satisfaction score you never saw.
The question sounds like the one posted from that middle-market HireVue: a potential issue you caught, and what you did before it became a real problem. The ethical prompt is the same story if the easy path was to leave it alone. On a branch, the issue might be a figure that does not match or a customer about to take a product that does not fit what they asked for. On a project or a codebase, it might be a number that does not tie, or a test that failed and would have been quiet if you had not looked. The principles page calls raising a red flag everyone's job, and it also asks you to face facts.
Something is off, and it would be easy to keep going. A total does not match the paperwork. A customer is about to sign something that answers a different question than the one they asked. A check you ran does not pass, and the meeting or the line would rather you did not mention it.
Put the mismatch in front of the person who can act on it, with enough detail that they do not have to start over.
You stop and name the specific miss, not a mood. You check it once more so you are not escalating a typo you could have fixed. Then you tell the person whose decision it is, the same day, with the two figures or the two sentences that disagree. You tell the customer or the teammate what you are checking, in one sentence, so the pause has a reason. The option you reject is smoothing the number, skipping the disclosure, or waiting to see if anyone else notices.
The decision got made on the real facts: the product changed, the number was corrected, or the release waited. Say who decided. A count of dollars, days, or defects, if you kept one, is [your number]. “We stayed compliant” is a mood. Name the check.
Branch excerpts ask you to teach the Chase app, sometimes with a check deposit as the example. HireVue posts ask for a time you explained something complicated to a non-expert, or even to a friend. The failure mode is a brochure. You either talk over them, or you hide the part that matters because it is fiddly. Principle 19 on the same page is to communicate honestly, clearly, and consistently. That includes the limit.
Someone needs to do a thing they have not done before. At a branch it might be a mobile deposit, a transfer, or a product they asked about in one sentence. On a project it might be a teammate, a client, or a classmate who has to use what you built and does not share your vocabulary.
Get them through the actual step, including the part that can go wrong, without making them feel slow.
You ask what they have already tried. You do the next step in their words, then you stop and let them do it. You name the one mistake that actually happens (the photo of the check that cuts off the amount, the button that looks done before it is sent, the assumption in the number). You do not stack three features they did not ask about. The option you reject is a tour of the product that never lands on their task.
They completed the step, or they could tell you the step back. If they hit the mistake you named, say what you did then. Do not claim they became a power user. One finished deposit, one repeated sentence, is enough.
The same incident answers a client-service question if you lead with the person, and an integrity question if you lead with the limit you refused to skip. The work does not change. The opening line does.
The question sounds like the branch write-ups: “Tell me about a time you handled an angry customer,” or a complaint, or an account problem on the phone. Both versions are shapes, not a transcript from a Chase interview. Sketch 1 is the longer form of the stronger shape.
“I'm really good with people and I always stay calm. The customer is always right, so if someone is upset I apologize and do whatever it takes to make them happy. Sometimes that means waiving a fee or offering another product. At JPMorgan Chase, client service is about attitude.”
There is no account, no fee, and no limit. “Whatever it takes” can mean a promise you are not allowed to make, which fights the line about doing the right thing when it is not the easy thing. “I always” answers a personality question. They asked for a time. The handbook also tells you not to invent an example. This answer has nowhere to stand.
“On a [your day] at [the counter, the phone, or the desk], a customer was upset because [the specific miss: a fee, a balance, a product that was not what they expected]. I let them finish, then repeated the actual problem. I did not promise a waiver I had not checked. I [looked up the limit / got the person who owns that decision / offered the next step I could keep]. I told them what I could not do. They left with [the plan]. If a count was involved, the only figure I used was one I could point to, written here as [your number].”
Replace every bracket with your work. If you memorize this paragraph, you are reciting a sketch, which is the thing the handbook tells you not to do on camera. The cards above are the same rule, stretched into STAR, for three questions people actually report.
Short on purpose. A fuller week-by-week plan is in our behavioral interview preparation checklist. The incidents in it should still be yours.
Write four moments, matched to the seat
A customer you did not over-promise, a mismatch you flagged, an explanation that landed, and why this program in one concrete thing you read. A branch interview may only use the first and the third. A HireVue may use the second. An analyst day may ask you to retell the same incident as teamwork.
Label each story with the line you will lead with
Focus on the customer, do the right thing, raise the flag. The same long story becomes a client story or an integrity story depending on the first sentence.
Ask what the conversation is before you invent a process
Recorded or live, whether there is a coding assessment, how many people, and whether anyone will ask you to explain the app out loud. That is a normal question. It is more useful than an anonymous write-up of someone else’s timer, including the games-style step the current handbook does not name.
Cut each story to about two minutes, and test the setup
Unrehearsed answers grow a tour of the firm. Two minutes leaves room for “what did you decide not to do?” If the round is recorded, the FAQ already tells you the practical part: camera, microphone, a quiet room, clothes you would wear to the branch. Do one take in that setup before the real window.
Say them out loud once, without the page
Record one. You will hear a Situation that ran long, or a stretch of “we.” The handbook says not to read notes during the interview. If your branch uses an app role-play, practice the first sentence you would say to someone who has never deposited a check on a phone.
Strip any number you cannot point to
If it is not on a note, a report, or a receipt you actually saw, it does not go in the story. [Your number] in these sketches means a figure from your work, or no figure. Leave pass rates, pay, and anyone else’s drawer out of it.
The slow part is pulling a few real moments out of your own history and saying them often enough that the limit still shows up when you are nervous, including on a camera with a short clock. Star Interview is built for that. You sign in, and the next step is checkout for the practice subscription if you do not have one yet.
A small Story Bank from your own experience
Upload your resume, pick JPMorgan Chase, and your Story Bank comes back as Situation-Task-Action-Result answers built from your history. Edit them until they sound like the way you talk about a counter, a call, or a project. Keep the set small. Replace any number the draft smoothed over with one you can point to, or take it out.
More than one bank when the seat changes
A branch interview and a HireVue do not want the same lead. You can keep more than one Story Bank for the same employer and put the customer story first in one and the flag you raised first in the other.
Company-specific coach audio
Podcast-style episodes walk through how behavioral rounds run at specific companies, with worked examples, so you can hear where a follow-up lands before you are in the room or on the recording. Use JPMorgan Chase if that is the company you are interviewing with.
Hear the probing, then ask it of yourself
A two-host conversation pulling an answer apart is a useful model for the questions these rounds actually ask: what you did, what you refused to promise, who you told. Run those on your own stories after you listen.
Practice between the shifts you already have
If you are still on a floor, or the HireVue window is this week, prep has to fit around a schedule. Audio turns a commute into a rep, and you can pick up where you left off.
Save your strongest STAR stories in one place, then practice with a coach for the company you're interviewing at.
Start free practice