Engineering and operations

Laboratory Automation interview questions

Automating laboratory methods and controlling operational variability.

6 questions, each with a worked answer

What can make a liquid-handling workflow unreliable? Fundamentals Concept
How would you validate an automated sample-preparation workflow? Intermediate Practical
How can you quantify liquid-handler accuracy and precision? Fundamentals Scenario
Why is barcode traceability crucial in automated sample preparation? Intermediate Concept
How would you evaluate carryover across a robot workflow? Intermediate Scenario
What acceptance tests are needed after robot software updates? Advanced Concept

About Laboratory Automation

Laboratory automation uses robots, liquid handlers and software to run lab work with less manual effort and less variability. It ranges from a single automated pipetting step to fully integrated workcells that run around the clock. Success depends on method transfer, scheduling, error handling and capturing data reliably.

Automation amplifies a good method and a bad one alike, so the method has to be sound first.

Fundamentals: 2
Intermediate: 3
Advanced: 1

What these questions test

Program laboratory automation: Translate lab methods into robust automation steps with fail-safe behavior.

References

Job roles. Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. abpi.org.uk/careers/job-roles.
iso.org/cms/live/live/en/sites/isoorg/contents/data/standard/07/69/76952.html.
iso.org/standard/76959.html.
a2la.org/iso-23783-and-automated-liquid-handling-systems.
docs.opentrons.com/python-api/liquid-classes/using.
docs.opentrons.com/python-api/liquid-class-definitions.

Practice material written by TheBench.Bio and checked against the references above, reviewed October 23, 2026. Written to practise with, not collected from real interviews.