Auditor Interview
Questions

25 Auditor Interview Questions

By: Samantha Hamilton

Question 1 of 25

Have you ever discovered fraud in an audit?

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This is a yes or no question. You shouldn't dig too deep into it because you've likely signed a NDA and providing details would be inappropriate. If they do ask for details, give broad answers that don't disclose major details.

If you've never discovered any fraud, that's something to celebrate.

Example Answer

"I've discovered discrepancies that were later revealed to be attempts at fraud. I escalated it and upper management resolved it. Unfortunately, I signed an NDA so that's all I can say on the matter."

Entry Level Example

"I've never encountered this issue and I hope that the company I work for will never have that issue. I'd hope that everyone has strong enough ethics and loyalty not to steal from the company."

Experienced Example

"I've encountered that in the past and it was a rare moment in my career. I took it to the CFO, who dealt with it directly after we traced it to the source. It was handled legally and our company was better for it."

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Question 2 of 25

If you find a process that's time consuming and frustrating, what would you do?

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This is a way of asking if you'd consider improving a process or suggesting an improvement without being asked. It's important as an auditor to help client companies grow and become independent. To accomplish this, auditors are often frequently required to review and improve the processes.

If you haven't done this, admit it rather than fabricate something. This isn't something you generally learn in school so being honest is the best policy. This could be a good place to show problem solving in different way from personal experience.

Example Answer

"When I worked with a client for about three months, I realized they were doing all their calculations manually. I created an Excel spreadsheet to show them how valuable the formulas were and how much time could be saved. They took my suggestion and implemented it, transforming a five-day process to a one-day process by removing all the menial manual work."

Entry Level Example

"I've never had the opportunity in the professional world to do, that but when I was a kid both my parents were laid off within days of each other so I came up with the idea for my brother and I to start a lawn care company. At first my dad laughed when we took the mower and went door to door, but when we came home with two hundred dollars covered in grass and dirt and gave him the money, it showed him that we cared about our family's financial situation."

Experienced Example

"One of the companies I use to work for was still in the Dark Ages. They could hardly use Excel and had no idea what kind of platforms were available that could help them with their process. They had just recently gone public and only had about a hundred employees, so I went in and helped them improve their systems through training and getting them to use Quickbooks as well as other programs. They quickly caught on and have been thriving ever since."

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Question 3 of 25

Everyone has to bend or break rules sometimes. Give me an example when you had to that in auditing or accounting.

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This is a double-edged sword question. You don't want them to think you're a rule breaker, but if if you need to be flexible, at times it could be necessary. The best way to answer this question is to fall back on your ethics and find a compromise rather than bend or break the rules. It's a violation of SOX compliance to break the rules regarding auditing. This is how CPA's lose their licenses and even go to prison. Be careful how you answer this question.

If you have no auditing experience, this is a much safer question to answer but I'd still be very careful about anything you decide to share. No one wants to hire a criminal but they do want you to play ball.

Example Answer

"I've never broken the auditing or SOX compliance rules knowingly because that would threaten my license. When struggling with an audit, I've made safe compromises with a client. I had one client who was in trouble with the audit and I helped them process some exemption forms before handing the documentation to the external auditors. This allowed them time to get their documentation in line but didn't break any rules."

Entry Level Example

"I have no real world auditing experience, but I do know that ethically you can't break the rules of SOX compliance. There are ways to bend the rules slightly by finding middle ground or exemptions to disallow for failures on certain aspects. I'm unsure of the exact process, but I can and will find out how that's done. Ethics is what makes or breaks an accountant or auditor so you should never want someone to break the rules while working with your company because they can be criminally charged."

Experienced Example

"Bending and breaking rules is nothing that should ever happen. If you've heard of ENRON or WorldCom, then you know that when auditors break rules it's a legal matter than can get not only the auditor arrested and de-certificated but the company management as well. Now, if you're looking for a compromise where we can avoid failing an audit, there are options by scoping or documenting processes to give the auditors. Or there are exemption reports we can submit to disallow external auditors from looking for that documentation for a certain period of time. This just delays when they'll look for the documentation."

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Question 4 of 25

Why do you want a career as an auditor?

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This is a subjective question. This is basically asking why you want this position. If you don't know why you want to be an auditor, then probably won't enjoy it. Auditing is reviewing the work of others and checking for errors, and finding where the documentation came from and determining if the information provided can be supported by proof for outside auditors to review and accept. It entails many caveats and details that are easily overlooked but must be understood.

This is a field for people who enjoy details and like puzzles. The more difficult the puzzle, the more you'll be paid.

Example Answer

"I want to be an auditor because I love puzzles and mysteries. I love to find out the root cause of an issue or a document and know that I found the origin. It makes me happy to help a company be compliant with their financials and information."

Entry Level Example

"I want to be an auditor because in school, that was my favorite course. I had a lot of classmates that said auditing was boring and redundant and I went into the class with the same attitude. I quickly discovered that it was like a puzzle. I love puzzles! It's like be an investigator for a company to ensure they're protected when it comes to compliance."

Experienced Example

"I've been an auditor for ten years. I'm an auditor certified by the AICPA. I knew I wanted to be an auditor because while I was still in school, I took a temp job as a first line auditor for information security and fell in love with the field. I love discovering issues with a process and fixing it. I helped a company that was regularly failing their audit to pass within a year after I started. It has been a very rewarding career and I intend to continue with it until retirement."

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Question 5 of 25

Have you ever had a documentation error occur during the auditing process? How did you handle it?

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This is important because you'll run into documentation errors. Early in your career or even late, you'll miss something. It's human nature to overlook something, which is why most audits have several layers of auditors or reviewers to find these things. When you miss something or have a documentation error slip through that's found by another layer, it's humbling and sometimes discouraging. Use it as an important learning opportunity.

When you make a documentation error, you need to bounce back. Maybe you provided too much documentation and the external auditors are now digging deeper into a direction that you can't answer. You need to adjust and learn from the mistake.

Example Answer

"Yes. When I was in my first year of auditing, I provided one document that should have been excluded. The external auditors ripped that apart and requested more documentation to follow up. My manager came to me and explained the error and used it as a learning moment for me. I realized that I had provide too much, which was the reason for all the last minute scrambling that we then had to endure."

Entry Level Example

"I've never worked professionally as an auditor, but I learned in school while writing papers that if your asked for certain bullet points and you stray from that, it will affect your grade. Say you have to write a paper on King Tut but you stray to his wife and family and most of your paper is focused on them, your grade will reflect your distracted focus and not the "A" you were expecting."

Experienced Example

"Yes, that's something that happens from time to time to everyone. If you miss a documentation error, it's embarrassing and can open the door to more questions. I was a second round reviewer and missed that some of the documentation provided was from the previous year. I never looked at the year of the date, only the beginning of the date. It was embarrassing, and when my boss reviewed it, we quickly found out that it was missed by two lines of review. We had to go to the client and find the correct documentation. It didn't take long to correct it, but I missed it and should have found it myself."

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Writers for Auditor Answers and Questions

Samantha Hamilton

Samantha H. is an Accountant with a technology firm in Austin Texas. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Accounting and over a year of experience in Auditing she is taking on new challenges in the Accounting world with her firm. She has almost three years of experience in recruiting and loves to help people obtain their dream jobs. With a mix of recruiting and accounting knowledge, we hope she can help you land your dream job.

Ryan Brown

Ryan Brown, is the creator of MockQuestions. He has over ten years experience creating interview questions. His website has helped over 10 million job seekers in their interview preparation.

First written on: 06/05/2013
Last modified on: 01/25/2019

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About Auditor

January 26th, 2019

Auditors are financial experts who specialize in performing internal financial and risk management audits for companies. They may work in the accounting department of a large organization or they may provide auditing services to smaller organizations as an employee with an independent chartered and certified firm. As part of their job, auditors review companies' financial accounts to ensure that they are legal and valid. Depending on their findings, they recommend measures that would help the company save money and minimize risks.
A bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics or a related subject will help you get started in this field as an internal auditor. External auditors are required to qualify as chartered accounts through a recognized accounting body. Experience is a must to be hired by established companies. Doing an internship will help you gain the work experience you need when starting out. Meticulous attention to detail, ability to work to deadlines, a strong aptitude for maths, an interest in financial analysis, and outstanding problem-solving and analytical skills are all essential attributes in this role.
At your interview, be prepared to emphasize your passion for financial analysis and problem-solving. To get the job, your answers must reflect your knowledge, expertise, and interest in performing all auditing-related tasks. The interviewer may give you a mock audit to perform to gauge your competency. Interviews for auditor roles are usually rigorous. You can prepare for your upcoming interview by going to Mock Questions and rehearsing your answers to the questions listed there.