UBS HireVue Interview Questions and How to Answer Them
UBS uses a recorded video interview to screen early careers applicants after its online assessments. These are the HireVue questions candidates report, grouped by type, with how to answer them for UBS.
Your first session is free with a free account. After that, Interview Access is £5 once for up to 20 sessions, with no subscription.
How the UBS HireVue works
UBS HireVue questions candidates report
16 questions from UBS HireVue interviews. Prepare a story for each type rather than a script for each question.
Motivation and fit
Tell me about yourself.
Why are you interested in UBS?
Why investment banking?
Why work in New York specifically?
How does this role contribute to the whole company?
What are your strengths and weaknesses, and what skills will help you succeed here?
Behavioural
Describe a time you had to do something new.
How do you lead a team?
Tell me about a time you made a risky decision.
Tell me about a time you received positive and negative feedback.
Markets and commercial awareness
Tell me about one M&A deal you are following. What do you think of it?
How do you stay current with financial trends? Discuss a recent financial event and its impact on the economy.
Pitch me a stock, and walk me through how you’d build the pitch.
Curveballs
Apart from F1, what is a different sport that UBS should sponsor?
If you could choose to sponsor one sport globally, which sport would you choose, and why?
What is the most interesting thing you know?
How to answer UBS HireVue questions
Build “Why UBS” on its principles
UBS names three principles: client centricity (“Clients are at the heart of everything we do”), connectivity and sustainable impact (“Act today with tomorrow in mind”). Pick the one that fits the division you applied to and back it with something you have done, not a line from the website.
Show the three behaviours in your stories
UBS asks for accountability with integrity (“Take ownership”), collaboration (“Work as one UBS”) and innovation (“Improve every day”). The reported behavioural questions map onto them: a risky decision and feedback test ownership, leading a team tests collaboration, and doing something new tests innovation. Say which choice was yours and what you changed afterwards.
Place your role inside the whole bank
One reported question asks how your role contributes to the whole company. UBS runs Global Wealth Management, the Investment Bank, Asset Management, and Personal & Corporate Banking in Switzerland, supported by Group Functions and Technology. Explain what your team does for clients and how it connects to at least one other division.
Have a deal and a market view ready
Candidates report questions on an M&A deal they are following, a recent financial event and a stock pitch. Prepare one deal with your view on whether it makes sense, and one event you can explain in three steps: what happened, what it did to markets, and what it means for UBS’s clients. UBS’s own advice is to know the business area you applied for.
Treat the curveballs as a test of reasoning
The sport sponsorship questions tell you UBS already backs F1. Give a clear pick, then the reason in UBS’s terms: which clients it reaches, in which markets, and why it suits a global wealth manager. For “the most interesting thing you know”, choose something you can explain simply in a minute and enjoy talking about.
Be honest about the gaps
UBS tells candidates “If you don’t know something, just say so” and says finance expertise is not required for a video interview. If a market question goes past what you know, say what you do know and how you would find the rest, rather than bluffing.
Tips for recording your answers
- Record a few practice answers first to check your camera, sound and lighting. Candidates report no retakes once you submit.
- Use the thinking time to pick one example and its result. With about 90 seconds you have room for a short outline, not a script.
- Aim to finish inside about 100 seconds of the two minutes, so the timer never cuts off your result.
- Decide before you start what you want the reviewer to remember about you, and come back to it in more than one answer.
- Look into the lens and keep the background clear, with nothing moving behind you.
- Record when you are ready: UBS sends the questions and lets you answer at a convenient time within the deadline.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are in the UBS HireVue?
UBS does not publish a number. Candidates report six to eight questions, mostly motivation and behavioural, with one or two on markets.
How long do you get to answer UBS HireVue questions?
Candidates report about 90 seconds to think and about two minutes to answer each question. UBS does not publish the timings.
Can you retake answers in the UBS HireVue?
Candidates report no retakes once an answer is submitted. You can record practice answers before the real questions.
Does the UBS video interview have technical questions?
Most questions are about motivation and behaviour. Candidates also report market questions, such as an M&A deal you are following or a stock pitch, and curveballs such as which sport UBS should sponsor.
What happens after the UBS video interview?
If you pass, UBS invites you to a final assessment day: a series of interviews focused on how well you fit the role you applied for.
Practise for the UBS HireVue
Our AI interview practice uses the same one-way format: five questions on screen, 60 seconds to prepare, then up to a minute to answer on camera. Choose the finance focus and the questions lean towards finance, with feedback on relevance, clarity and structure and on what finance assessors look for, such as commercial awareness and integrity. You also get a model answer to your weakest question.
The questions are ours, not UBS’s. Start answering before the 60 seconds are up to match a shorter thinking time, and since practice lets you re-record, do one session in a single take.
Your first session is free with a free account. After that, Interview Access is £5 once for up to 20 sessions, with no subscription.