How do you handle criticism?
Listen without getting defensive, ask questions to understand it, separate the point from the tone, act on what is valid and follow up to show the change. Give a real example.
Explain it simply
Every fresher's code, reports and presentations will be criticised in the first year. Managers want someone who treats feedback as information, not insult.
The steps are simple: listen fully, ask for examples if it is unclear, thank the person, fix it, and show the improvement. It is fine to say criticism stung at first; what matters is what you did next.
Example
Situation: During his internship, Siddharth's first pull request got 23 review comments from a senior developer.
Task: Respond well and improve.
Action: He admits he felt bad at first. Then he read each comment, grouped them into naming, error handling and duplicate code, asked the senior about two he did not understand, and fixed them all. He made a personal checklist from those comments and used it before every later PR.
Result: His next PR had four comments, and the senior started giving him bigger tasks.
What to say in the interview
"I listen first, ask questions to understand it, and act on what's valid. For example, my first code review had 23 comments; I fixed them, made a checklist, and the next one had four."
Common mistakes
- Saying you never get criticised.
- Getting defensive in the story.
- Accepting criticism with no real change afterwards.