25 Kira Talent Interview Questions & Answers

Kira Talent is a cloud based platform which offers services designed to streamline admission processes for higher education institutions. Kira works with over 700 programs worldwide. The largest percentage of their customers are universities and graduate schools, from Yale, to NYU, to the Imperial College London. But they also serve private schools from K-12.

“Kira is designed to ensure consistency, flag issues, and summarize team feedback,” so each school can make fairer decisions while streamlining their admissions process. “Organizations are able to create a customized assessment and record video questions, receive candidate responses, and evaluate the responses virtually within the platform.”

By eliminating time consuming repetitive tasks and streamlining the admissions process through a more systematic approach, they enable their clients the ability to review their applicants in a more meaningful way. “Go beyond the application. Kira gives you a human perspective on each of your applicants. A grade or a test score only tells half of a student’s story. It’s time to hear the other half. Kira integrates with leading and homegrown admissions systems to create a seamless experience.”

Kira Talent distinguishes themselves for having a ‘holistic’ approach to the admissions process. “Evaluate applicants holistically using customized competency-based questions combined with existing application materials like grades, test scores, and essays.” This is partly accomplished through their fully customizable assessment experience, which allows an educational institution to create deeper engagement with all applicants by highlighting their community, culture, and campus in their welcome and closing videos. As the associate dean of one of their clients schools said, “The technology has enabled us to get a more holistic view of a candidate’s story, contributing to more depth and insight about our candidates so that we can select the very best talent.”

Their services include hosting remote live interviews which allow their clients to “interview and assess applicants in real-time from a single online platform.” They offer timed written assessments which allow their reviewers to “get an authentic sample of an applicant’s real-time written communication skills.” They also offer “Asynchronous Assessments,” where an applicant participates in a one-way recorded interview, which includes timed video assessments that allow their reviewers to “see how applicants think on their feet through unscripted, unrehearsed video responses to your customized questions.”

Most of your responses, whether written or verbal, are timed. “Each question will have a designated amount of prep and response time, and you can track your remaining time for each component on the screen.” How much time you are allowed depends on the institution.

“You’ll be able to record your responses from the comfort of your home, and you can do so in your own time. Once your responses to your asynchronous assessment have been submitted (or your interview is complete), you can’t redo your questions.” Each applicant’s recorded response is then accessible on demand in the cloud for admissions reviewers. Also, before your interview, you’ll also have the opportunity to answer several practice questions which are similar, though not specific, to the institution to which you are applying.

One of the benefits Kira advertises to their clients is how they offer randomized questions to ensure “fairness and prevent applicants from pre-preparing specific answers.” Also, each institution customizes their questions so they can align them with their programs and their values. “Kira provides the canvas for your custom questions, competencies, rubrics, and platform experience, elevating your brand in the minds of applicants.” They define their rubrics as “the criteria by which a reviewer determines how to score the applicant for a given competency.” However, the ‘customized’ and ‘randomized’ questions asked by each educational institution are modeled from generic questions which are universally aimed at assessing each candidate while mitigating bias. So, although many of these questions are phrased differently, they are essentially asking the same thing.

A few questions you’ll answer in this MockQuestions set were drawn from examples provided by applicants who shared their interview experience and the questions which they were asked. But the rest were pulled primarily from Kira’s website, grabbed either from the instructional videos they provide their clients, and lastly, a select few drawn from their list of example practice questions. Also, in this set, you’ll learn more about the competencies and rubrics which you’ll be reviewed for, as well as how their scoring system works. 

So again, even though the questions posed in this set may be phrased differently than those asked in your actual interview, they are the most common behavioral questions you’ll likely encounter, and are crafted to help prepare you for this style of interview, while better enabling you to think quickly on your feet in real time.

To assess your markers for success, every institution will ask you behavioral questions designed to categorize your personality and your soft skills, such as communication, leadership, and critical thinking. These are the questions which we will focus on in this set, which are often the most tricky questions to navigate. But remember, it’s never a trick question if you already know the answer.