Preparing to interview for a job as a quality control associate in the pharmaceutical industry can be intimidating. This is a highly technical job that requires a scientific background and practical laboratory skills and includes good working conditions, competitive pay, and benefits. The average salary for a quality control associate was $38,250 in 2018.

To get the job, you need to prove you know what you’re talking about, and that you’re a good fit for the company. As you prepare for your interview, it can help to review some of the most common questions and refine your answers, so you’ll be ready.

Here are the top 102 questions for quality control associates in the pharmaceutical industry. If you can answer these, you can feel confident that you’ll ace the interview.

Top Quality Control Associate Interview Questions

Personal and Work Experience Questions

During your application process, you will be asked about your education, your work history, and your accomplishments, but interviewers will also be curious about your personality, your working style, and your fit with the company culture. You can prepare by reviewing your work history as well as researching the company you are applying to so you can get a better idea of how you might fit in there.

If you’re confident about where you are in your career, and you can explain why this position is the next step for you, you will do well with these questions.

1. Tell us about yourself.
2. How would your friends describe you?
3. How would your colleagues describe you?
4. What makes you interested in quality control?
5. Why are you the best person for the job?
6. What are your greatest strengths?
7. What is your biggest weakness?
8. How do you stay organized?
9. How do you manage stress in the workplace?
10. What do you do for fun, outside of work?
11. How do you think you would fit into the company culture?
12. What motivates and excites you?
13. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
14. Why are you looking for a new job?
15. Why are you leaving your current job?
16. What do you think will be most rewarding about this role?
17. What do you anticipate will be the biggest challenge for you?
18. What do you think success looks like in quality control?
19. What are your salary expectations?
20. Why do you want to work for this company?
21. What do you like about this industry? What would you change?
22. How do you like to be managed?
23. What makes you unique and sets you apart from other candidates?
24. Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond at work.
25. Tell me about a time you had a conflict at work, and how you resolved it.
26. Have you ever made a mistake at work? How did you deal with that?
27. Have you ever disagreed with your manager? How did you deal with that?

Technical Questions

During the interview, you will be asked to demonstrate your knowledge of key concepts in quality control and prove that you understand how to carry out the tasks you will be required to perform at work.

Even if you feel confident about your knowledge, being able to produce a quick answer in an interview setting can be challenging.

You can practice by answering these technical questions that interviewers use. If you find yourself stumbling, quickly review what you know so that you can prepare a better answer that you can use during the interview.

1. What is “room temperature”?
2. Define “quality control”.
3. Why is quality control important?
4. What is Good Laboratory Practice?
5. Explain the difference between accuracy and precision.
6. What is an “incident”?
7. What is “calibration”?
8. What is “qualification”?
9. What is “deviation”?
10. What is “change control”?
11. What is the difference between corrective action and preventative action?
12. Can you explain the difference between quantitative and qualitative analysis?
13. What is Beer Lamberts Law?
14. What is the average body temperature?
15. What is the Ph of blood?
16. What is the molecular weight of oxygen?
17. What is the difference between humidity and relative humidity?
18. What is Karl Fischer titration?
19. What is an incubator used for?
20. How does Ultraviolet spectroscopy work?
21. How does Infrared spectroscopy work?
22. What is the Ultraviolet spectroscopy range?
23. What is the visible spectroscopy range?
24. How do you do a disintegration test?
25. What is the disintegration time for uncoated tablets?
26. What is the disintegration time for coated tablets?
27. What is the disintegration time for enteric tablets?
28. What is the disintegration time for dispersible tablets?
29. What is the disintegration time for soluble tablets?
30. What is the disintegration time for soft gelatin capsules?
31. What is the disintegration time for hard gelatin capsules?
32. What type of tablet does not require a disintegration test?
33. What is “shelf life”?
34. What is the acceptable limit for uniformity of content in tablets?
35. What are the different capsule sizes?
36. How many milligrams can the smallest capsule size hold?
37. How many milligrams can the largest capsule size hold?
38. What is “friability”?
39. How do you calculate friability?
40. What is the acceptable limit for friability in tablets?
41. What is chromatography?
42. What is “column” in chromatography?
43. What is gas chromatography?
44. In gas chromatography, what gas is used?
45. What are the two types of gas chromatography?
46. What does LCMS stand for?
47. What does UPLC stand for?
48. What does TLC stand for?
49. What does GC stand for?
50. What does HPLC stand for?
51. What is the HPLC principle?
52. What are the detectors in HPLC?
53. What is RT and RRT in HPLC?
54. What are the different types of HPLC pumps?
55. In reverse phase HPLC, what stationary phase is used? Can you provide an example?
56. Explain the difference between a stationary phase and a mobile phase.
57. What are tailing factors?
58. What is a “working standard”?
59. What is a “reference standard”?
60. What is “molarity”?
61. What is “molality”?
62. What is “normality”?
63. What is “system suitability”?
64. Why would you require a dissolution test?
65. How do you perform a dissolution test?
66. What does Q stand for in dissolution?
67. What tablets are used to calibrate the dissolution apparatus?
68. What does “Out of Specification” (OOS) mean?
69. What does “Out of Trend” (OOT) mean?
70. What is a stability study?
71. How many conditions are there in stability?
72. What is “bracketing” in stability testing?
73. What materials are used for stationary and mobile phases in GSC and GLC?
74. What is the limit of detection (LOD)?
75. What is the limit of quantitation (LOQ)?

Finding the Right Quality Control Associate Position

It can sometimes take a while to find the right position as a quality control associate, even if you ace the interview. If you don’t get the job right away, do not get discouraged.

Joining professional organizations, updating LinkedIn, or contacting professional pharmaceutical industry recruiters at Fladger Associates can help you find your dream job sooner.

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