Checked 5 November 2026. Interview guidance, competency lists and the 2026 YPP job opening as published on careers.un.org and hr.un.org, read 5 November 2026. Each job opening names its own competencies, and the UN Secretariat's newer Values and Behaviours Framework says it will also inform recruitment: check the competencies or behaviours in the opening you apply to.
A UN competency-based interview is a structured interview in which a panel asks you for real examples from your past. The UN says past behaviour is the best indicator of future performance, that the competencies in the job opening "will be probed in your interview", and that your answer should follow Situation, Action, Result. For the Young Professionals Programme (YPP), the oral exam is a competency-based interview by video conference; the 2026 job opening names three competencies for it: Professionalism, Planning and Organizing, and Teamwork. Independent guide. ProSyllabus is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the United Nations.
This guide sets out what the UN itself says about the interview, which competencies it can test, typical questions for each, two worked answers, and a rehearsal script. Eligibility, the written exam and pay are in the YPP exam structure and syllabus guide, the participating countries and eligibility guide and the YPP salary guide.
FreeTests: UN Charter and organs · Written communication · Teamwork · Economics
UN YPP Exam Practice: free sample
Answer 4 questions against the clock, like the real exam. You then see the right answer, the reason and your time on each. About 5 minutes · free · no sign-in.
4 questions to answer
Start nowabout 5 minThis one is free · no sign-in needed
Your result shows how long each question took you.
Key facts: the UN competency-based interview
| Fact | Detail | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A structured interview; the UN says such interviews are also called behavioural or criterion-based interviews | UN Careers, How to apply: At Your Interview |
| The idea behind it | Past behaviour and experience are treated as the best indicator of future performance | How to apply: At Your Interview |
| What is assessed | The competencies named in the job opening; the UN says they "will be probed in your interview" | How to apply: At Your Interview |
| Answer shape the UN asks for | Situation, Action, Result; prepare "a wide range of brief real-life stories" and include the positive outcome or lesson learned | How to apply: At Your Interview |
| How it is held (regular jobs) | By telephone, video conference or in person; you are told the time, duration and means in advance | How to apply: application process |
| YPP oral exam | Only for those successful in the overall written exam; held by online video conference; assesses the key competencies for the job family in the job opening | Job opening 285586, Assessment |
| YPP 2026 competencies | Professionalism, Planning and Organizing, Teamwork (Development and Sustainability) | Job opening 285586, Competencies |
| YPP 2026 timing | Oral examinations anticipated mid-2027; the YPP page's general timeline, given for reference only and varying yearly, puts interviews and results in June to August | Job opening 285586; YPP page, timeline |
| Verification | Before, during or after the oral exam, the final stage may include checking your Specialized Paper answers and the information in your profile | Job opening 285586, Assessment |
| Fail the YPP oral exam? | You apply again in a later cycle and repeat the whole process; results do not carry over | YPP FAQ |
Read the guidance yourself on the UN Careers How to apply page (open "At Your Interview") and in the 2026 YPP job opening.
Before you pay anyone for interview coaching
The UN's YPP page warns that for-profit companies sell YPP exam and interview preparation, some claiming inside information, and says the UN does not collaborate or partner with any of them. It charges no fees at any stage.
ProSyllabus is not connected to the UN either. We have never sat on a UN panel, we do not know the questions, and nothing here predicts what you will be asked. The questions below are typical of the format and written by us, except the three the UN publishes itself, which are marked. Source: UN Careers YPP page, warning regarding for-profit companies.
Which competencies a UN panel can test
The UN Careers How to apply page lists three groups. The ones that matter for you are those named in your job opening: a YPP candidate is not interviewed on all of them. The descriptions in the right-hand column are our plain summaries of the UN's published behavioural indicators: for the three 2026 YPP competencies, those in the job opening; for the rest, those in the UN's Competency Development practical guide (2010).
| Group | Name | In plain words (our summary) |
|---|---|---|
| Core values | Integrity | Acting honestly and without personal gain, and resisting pressure to bend the rules |
| Core values | Professionalism (YPP 2026) | Competent, reliable work: meeting deadlines, persisting with hard problems, staying calm under stress, and including a gender perspective |
| Core values | Respect for Diversity | Working well with people of every background and checking your own assumptions |
| Core competencies | Communication | Clear speaking and writing, listening, and adapting to the audience |
| Core competencies | Teamwork (YPP 2026) | Valuing others' ideas, putting the team agenda first, backing the group decision, sharing credit and owning shortfalls |
| Core competencies | Planning and Organizing (YPP 2026) | Clear goals, priorities that shift when needed, realistic time and resources, risks foreseen, plans monitored |
| Core competencies | Accountability | Owning your commitments and your mistakes, and delivering to agreed standards |
| Core competencies | Client Orientation | Understanding what the people you serve need and keeping them informed |
| Core competencies | Creativity | Proposing new ways to solve problems and trying them |
| Core competencies | Technological Awareness | Keeping up with useful technology and using it in your work |
| Core competencies | Commitment to Continuous Learning | Learning from experience and feedback and keeping your skills current |
| Managerial competencies | Vision, Leadership, Empowering Others, Managing Performance, Building Trust, Judgement/Decision-making | For staff who manage or supervise; not part of the YPP 2026 opening |
The newer framework: Values and Behaviours
- Four values: Inclusion, Integrity, Humility, Humanity.
- Five behaviours: Connect and collaborate; Analyse and plan; Deliver results with positive impact; Learn and develop; Adapt and innovate.
- The UN Office of Human Resources says the framework builds on the 1999 "Competencies for the Future" and will inform recruitment, among other HR processes.
- The 2026 YPP job opening and the How to apply page still use the older competency names above.
Our advice: prepare for the competencies printed in your job opening, word for word. If an opening uses the newer names, the same stories usually fit: Teamwork maps closely to Connect and collaborate, and Planning and Organizing to Analyse and plan. Source: UN Values and Behaviours Framework.
Questions by competency
The UN gives three example questions of its own on the How to apply page: "Tell us about a situation when you went above and beyond your manager's expectations", "Give an example of a time when you used your problem solving abilities to resolve an issue?" and "Tell us about a time where you had a number of demands being made on you at the same time? How did you handle it?" The UN also says you should be ready to talk about challenges in each competency, not only successes. The questions below are ours, written in that style; they are not UN questions.
| Competency | Typical question (ours) | Second question (ours) |
|---|---|---|
| Professionalism | Tell us about a time you kept to a high standard of work when you were under real pressure. | Describe a difficult problem you kept working on after others had given up. What happened? |
| Planning and Organizing | Tell us about a piece of work you planned from start to finish. How did you set priorities? | Describe a time a plan went off track. What did you see first, and what did you change? |
| Teamwork | Give an example of a time you supported a team decision you did not fully agree with. | Tell us about a time your team fell short. What was your part, and what did you do? |
| Communication | Tell us about a time you had to explain something complex to people outside your field. | Describe a misunderstanding you caused or had to fix. What did you learn? |
| Integrity | Tell us about a time you were asked to do something you thought was wrong. | Describe a situation where acting fairly cost you time or popularity. |
| Respect for Diversity | Tell us about a time you worked closely with someone whose background or view was very different from yours. | Describe a time you noticed someone was being left out. What did you do? |
| Accountability | Tell us about a mistake you made at work or in your studies. How did you handle it? | Describe a commitment you could not keep. What did you do about it? |
| Client Orientation | Tell us about a time you had to meet the needs of someone who was difficult to satisfy. | Describe how you kept a client or partner informed when a project changed. |
| Creativity | Tell us about an idea of yours that changed how something was done. | Describe a time you tried a new approach that did not work. What next? |
| Technological Awareness | Tell us about a tool you learned on your own that made your work better. | Describe a time you helped others take up a new system. |
| Commitment to Continuous Learning | Tell us about feedback that changed how you work. | What have you learned in the last year that you now use, and how? |
Our advice: listen for the competency behind each question. A question about a plan going off track can sound like a question about failure, but it gives you a chance to show Planning and Organizing; a question about a decision you disagreed with is a chance to show Teamwork, not to prove who was right. Answer the question actually asked, with the competencies in your job opening in mind.
FreeTests: UN Charter and organs · Written communication · Teamwork · Economics
UN YPP Exam Practice: free sample
Answer 4 questions against the clock, like the real exam. You then see the right answer, the reason and your time on each. About 5 minutes · free · no sign-in.
4 questions to answer
Start nowabout 5 minThis one is free · no sign-in needed
Your result shows how long each question took you.
STAR or SAR? The answer shape the UN asks for
The UN Careers page asks for Situation, Action, Result. STAR, a common interview method, adds Task between Situation and Action. Our advice: keep the UN's Situation, Action, Result shape and fold the task into the situation in a sentence. Our suggestion, for an answer of about two minutes:
| Part | Share of the answer | What to say |
|---|---|---|
| Situation (and task) | About 20% | Where you were, what was at stake and what your job was, in two or three sentences |
| Action | About 60% | What you did, step by step, with "I", not "we"; the reasons for your choices |
| Result | About 20% | What changed, with a number if you have one, and what you learned or would do differently |
These shares are our rule of thumb, not a UN rule. The UN asks you to keep to the point and be as specific as possible. Our advice: keep the situation brief so you have time to explain your actions and the result.
Two worked answers for the 2026 YPP competencies
Both examples below are invented, written by us for a graduate with a few years of work or study. Do not reuse them: use your own experiences, so you can explain your actions and answer follow-up questions accurately. Use them to see the shape.
Worked answer 1 · Planning and Organizing
"Tell us about a time a plan went off track. What did you see first, and what did you change?"
Situation: In my last job at a regional statistics office, I coordinated a household survey report due to the ministry in ten weeks. In week four, two of the six field teams reported that their data would arrive three weeks late because of flooding in their districts.
Action: I had built the plan with a weekly check on each team's returns, so I saw the gap in week four rather than in week eight. I listed which chapters needed the late districts and which did not, and moved the analysis of the four complete districts forward. I asked the director whether we could deliver the national figures on time and add the two districts in an annex two weeks later, and I set out the risk: the national totals might shift slightly. She agreed. I then set new dates with the two team leaders and checked in with them twice a week.
Result: The main report went in on the original date and the annex followed twelve days later; the national totals moved by less than one percentage point. Since then I build a fallback for any input I do not control before a project starts, not after it slips.
What it shows: Several Planning and Organizing indicators in the job opening: monitoring and adjusting plans, and adjusting priorities as required; the closing lesson points to foreseeing risks next time. It also has a number, a clear "I", and a lesson.
The weak version: "Our data was late, so we worked harder and got it done." No warning sign, no choice, no result anyone could check.
Our own invented example, written for this guide. It is not a UN answer, a model the UN has approved or a prediction of what a panel will ask.
Worked answer 2 · Teamwork
"Give an example of a time you supported a team decision you did not fully agree with."
Situation: During my master's, I was one of four students writing a policy paper on rural water access for a local non-governmental organization. The group had to choose between two case-study districts.
Action: I argued for the district where I had contacts, because I thought interviews would be easier to arrange there. Two teammates preferred the other district, because its records went back further. I asked each of them to explain their reasons and saw that a longer data series mattered more to the client than easy interviews. When we voted, I was outvoted, and I said in the meeting that I would back the choice. I then offered my contacts to a teammate who was struggling to set up interviews in the chosen district, and two of them agreed to speak to her.
Result: We delivered the paper on time and the client used our trend analysis in a funding proposal. I learned to ask what the client values before I argue for my own option.
What it shows: The Teamwork indicators in the job opening: soliciting input by genuinely valuing others' ideas, supporting the final group decision even when it does not reflect your position, and placing the team agenda before your own.
The weak version: An answer that explains at length why you were right, or one where "we" did everything and the panel cannot see what you did.
Our own invented example, written for this guide. It is not a UN answer, a model the UN has approved or a prediction of what a panel will ask.
FreeTests: UN Charter and organs · Written communication · Teamwork · Economics
UN YPP Exam Practice: free sample
Answer 4 questions against the clock, like the real exam. You then see the right answer, the reason and your time on each. About 5 minutes · free · no sign-in.
4 questions to answer
Start nowabout 5 minThis one is free · no sign-in needed
Your result shows how long each question took you.
For the YPP, only candidates successful in the overall written exam are invited to the interview, so the written exam comes first. The free questions above come from our independent UN YPP Exam Practice kit: multiple-choice practice in the written-exam format, with every answer explained. They are our own questions, not UN questions, and the kit does not train the interview. The written stages are set out in the YPP sample questions guide.
What the panel looks like, and what the UN does not publish
For regular jobs, the UN says you will be told the time, duration and means (telephone, video or in person) in advance. For the YPP, the 2026 job opening says the oral exam is held by online video conference. The official pages read for this guide do not say how many people sit on a UN panel.
Not published on the official pages read for this guide
- How many people sit on the panel.
- How long the interview lasts, or how many questions are asked per competency.
- The rating scale or how many marks a competency is worth.
- A pass mark for the YPP oral exam.
Pages read 5 November 2026. Follow the details given in your own invitation. The job opening also says knowledge of UN languages may be tested at any stage, and that the final stage may include checking your Specialized Paper answers and your profile, so know both well.
A 30-minute practice script
Our suggestion for one rehearsal, with a friend reading the questions or on your own with a recording. Repeat it with different questions until each story fits in about two minutes.
| Minutes | Step | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 3 | Opening | Have your friend ask why you want to work for the UN and what you would bring. Answer in about one minute, tied to the job family |
| 3 to 9 | Competency 1 | One question from the table above, your answer, then one follow-up from your friend: "What would you do differently?" |
| 9 to 15 | Competency 2 | Same pattern, with a question you have not seen before |
| 15 to 21 | Competency 3 | Same pattern; this time a question about a challenge or a setback, since the UN advises preparing to discuss challenges in each competency |
| 21 to 24 | Your questions | Ask one question about the work, prepared from what you have read about the department or programme |
| 24 to 30 | Review | Replay the recording. For each answer: did it name a real situation, use "I", give a result, and stay near two minutes? |
On video, test your camera, sound and connection the day before, sit at eye level with the camera, and practise speaking naturally without reading a script. Follow any instructions in your invitation about notes.
Your story bank
The UN asks for "a wide range" of stories. Our suggestion: at least two for each competency in your job opening, one success and one challenge, and a few spares that could cover several. Tick each off once you can tell it in about two minutes. The tracker saves in this browser only.
UN interview story bank
One line per story; tick it when you can tell it in about two minutes.
0 of 12 done
Ticks are saved only in this browser on this device.
Common mistakes: our advice
| Mistake | Why it hurts | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Hypothetical answers | The UN asks for real-life stories; "I would..." gives the panel no evidence of past behaviour | For questions about past behaviour, start with a specific real situation |
| "We" all the way through | The UN says the interview is about your own combination of skills, based on your earlier experiences | Our advice: make your own contribution clear while acknowledging the team's work |
| No result | The UN asks you to include the positive outcome or lesson learned | End with what changed and what you learned |
| Only success stories | The UN says to be ready to discuss challenges in each competency | Prepare one challenge story per competency |
| One story for every question | One example stretched across many questions can answer some of them poorly | Our advice: prepare varied stories (the bank above) and choose the one that best answers each question |
| Preparing the wrong list | Each job opening names its own competencies | Copy the competencies from your job opening and prepare those first |
| Forgetting your written answers | For the YPP, the final stage may verify your Specialized Paper answers and your profile | Reread your profile and recall what you wrote before the interview |
FreeTests: UN Charter and organs · Written communication · Teamwork · Economics
UN YPP Exam Practice: free sample
Answer 4 questions against the clock, like the real exam. You then see the right answer, the reason and your time on each. About 5 minutes · free · no sign-in.
4 questions to answer
Start nowabout 5 minThis one is free · no sign-in needed
Your result shows how long each question took you.
Frequently asked questions
What is a UN competency-based interview?
A structured interview in which a panel asks for real examples from your past for each competency in the job opening. The UN says past behaviour and experience are the best indicator of future performance, and calls such interviews behavioural or criterion-based interviews.
Which competencies are assessed in the YPP 2026 interview?
The 2026 Development and Sustainability job opening (285586) names Professionalism, Planning and Organizing, and Teamwork, and says the oral exam assesses the key competencies for the job family described in the job opening.
Should I use STAR or SAR in a UN interview?
The UN Careers page asks for Situation, Action, Result. STAR adds Task. Our advice: keep the UN's shape and fold the task into the situation in a sentence, then spend most of the answer on what you did and what resulted.
How is the YPP interview held?
By online video conference, and only for candidates who were successful in the overall written exam. The 2026 job opening anticipates the oral exams in mid-2027.
How long is a UN competency-based interview?
The official pages read for this guide do not say. For regular jobs, the UN says you are told the time, duration and means of the interview in advance.
What are the UN core values and competencies?
The UN Careers How to apply page lists three core values (Integrity, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity), eight core competencies (Communication, Teamwork, Planning and Organizing, Accountability, Client Orientation, Creativity, Technological Awareness, Commitment to Continuous Learning) and six managerial competencies.
What is the UN Values and Behaviours Framework?
A newer framework from the UN Office of Human Resources with four values (Inclusion, Integrity, Humility, Humanity) and five behaviours (Connect and collaborate; Analyse and plan; Deliver results with positive impact; Learn and develop; Adapt and innovate). It says it will inform recruitment. The 2026 YPP job opening still uses the older competency names.
If I fail the YPP interview, do I keep my written exam result?
No. The YPP FAQ says you must go through the entire process again in a later cycle, starting with a new application; results do not carry over from one exam year to another.
Is ProSyllabus connected to the UN?
No. ProSyllabus is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the United Nations. We have no inside knowledge of panels or questions. The UN says it partners with no company offering YPP-related services and charges no fees.
Independent practice for the stage before the interview
UN YPP Exam Practice (independent)
- General-paper style multiple-choice sets: reasoning, UN values, the UN system
- Specialised sets for the current exam area, with every answer explained and sourced to a public UN document
- Written-exam practice only: it does not train the interview, and the worked answers on this page are not in it
See what is in the practice kit →
Independent guide. ProSyllabus is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the United Nations. Original practice only: no inside information, no real or past questions, no application review.
Sources
- official — UN Careers: How to apply (competency-based interview; At Your Interview; core values, core competencies and managerial competencies; sections updated 9 July 2026)
- official — UN Careers: Young Professionals Programme (exam structure, interview stage, timeline, warning regarding for-profit companies) and YPP FAQ
- official — UN Careers: YPP 2026 job opening 285586, Development and Sustainability (competencies: Professionalism, Planning and Organizing, Teamwork; oral examination by video conference, anticipated mid-2027)
- official — United Nations: UN Competency Development, A Practical Guide (2010; behavioural indicators for each core value, core competency and managerial competency), UN Digital Library record 700591
- official — UN Office of Human Resources: Values and Behaviours Framework (four values, five behaviours; English PDF, file of May 2025)
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
