How long - answers be

How long should my answers be?

Some answers can be as short as one word; others may run into
many sentences. It all depends on the question and the circumstances.
Here are some helpful guidelines on keeping your answers within
acceptable parameters.

Let’s make some reasonable assumptions. Say your interview will
run for 40 minutes. Take away five minutes for settling and the
exchange of pleasantries. That leaves you about 35 minutes. (It never
hurts to ask how long the interview will run, but ask before the
interview, not at the actual interview, lest you give the impression
that you’re in a hurry to be somewhere else.) Now, let’s say the job
contains ten main duties and requirements and that the interviewer
has prepared two questions per primary duty/requirement.

That means you have to answer, at a minimum, twenty questions within
35 minutes, which means you’ll have a little under two minutes per
question. This does not mean that you set your timer at one minute
and fifty seconds for every question—it simply means that it is
reasonable to assume the interviewers have left a little less than two
minutes to get through their primary questions.

However, it is also reasonable to assume that the interviewer
may want to spend more time on particular questions. If you’ve
done your homework, there’s a good chance that you’ll know
beforehand which questions the interviewers will wish to spend a
little extra time on. If not, it’s up to you to be as alert as possible
during the interview. Look out for any clues (such as body language
and tone of voice) that may indicate the interviewer is placing extra
importance on particular questions. The point is that it’s OK to
spend a little extra time on these sorts of questions.

Avoid subjective or liberal interpretations of questions. Listen
very carefully to the question, and answer it. This sounds obvious,
but people do have a bad habit of assuming that the interviewer is
wanting to hear a whole lot of other things. Just stick to the question.
If interviewers have other questions, there’s a good chance they’ll
ask them.