Accounting Interview Questions and Answers in Kenya

What to expect before the interview in 2026

The single biggest change from older interview guides is that the interview is often not the first hurdle. Big Four firms and larger employers now run an online aptitude test, covering numerical, verbal and logical reasoning, before any conversation, and some use gamified or personality assessments on top. These aptitude and psychometric tests are now mainstream in Kenyan hiring, not just at the Big Four.

The public sector has moved the same way. KRA runs a computer based test that mixes reasoning and situational judgement with genuine tax knowledge, including iTax, eTIMS, PAYE and VAT. Banks and consulting firms increasingly add recorded video interviews for bulk graduate screening. Prepare for the test as deliberately as the interview, because failing it means the panel never meets you.

Common and behavioural questions

The opening stretch of most interviews is predictable, which means it is winnable with preparation. Answer behavioural questions with a specific situation, the action you took and the result, rather than a general statement about yourself.

Tell me about yourself and your experience as an accountant.

Give a ninety second arc from your qualification to your current focus, ending with why this role fits. Anchor it to the job you are interviewing for, not your whole history. A tailored accountant CV gives you the through line to follow here.

How do you make sure your work is accurate?

Describe your actual checks: reconciling to source documents, reviewing against prior periods, and a second pass before sign off. Name a time a check caught an error before it reached the accounts.

Tell me about a time you found and resolved a financial discrepancy.

A bank reconciliation example works well. State the size of the difference, how you traced it, and what you changed so it did not recur.

Technical questions on IFRS and tax

This is where depth beats memorised definitions, and where Kenyan panels test whether you can apply standards rather than recite them.

What is the accounting equation, and name the main financial statements.

Assets equal liabilities plus equity. The main statements are the statement of financial position, the statement of profit or loss, the statement of cash flows and the statement of changes in equity, each answering a different question about the business.

Why must Kenyan financial statements comply with IFRS?

Kenya has adopted IFRS as the reporting framework, so compliance is what makes statements comparable and auditable, and audits themselves follow the international standards on auditing. Be ready to discuss a standard you have applied in practice.

How do you handle PAYE, VAT and withholding tax on iTax?

Walk through registration, computation and filing on iTax, and mention eTIMS for VAT compliance. Employers, and especially KRA, want to see that you understand the current filing process, not just the theory.

More technical questions to prepare

Beyond the basics, panels for experienced roles probe the areas that commonly trip candidates up. These are standard rather than trick questions, and the way to prepare is to be able to explain each in plain terms with a real example from your work.

What is depreciation, and which methods do you know?

Depreciation spreads the cost of an asset over its useful life. Be ready to explain the straight line and reducing balance methods, when each is used, and which your previous employer applied.

What is the difference between accruals and provisions?

An accrual is a known expense not yet invoiced, while a provision is an estimate set aside for a probable future cost. Panels want to hear that you understand both the timing and the judgement involved.

Explain deferred tax in simple terms.

Deferred tax arises from timing differences between the accounting treatment and the tax treatment of an item. An everyday example, such as depreciation differing from capital allowances, shows genuine understanding rather than memorisation.

What is materiality, and why does it matter in an audit?

Materiality is the threshold above which an error or omission would change a reader’s decision. It matters because it guides where an auditor focuses effort and which misstatements must be corrected.

Audit questions and how firms differ

Audit interviews add questions on materiality, audit risk, and the difference between internal and external audit, and the Big Four in particular put candidates through a group exercise, often a live numerical problem, before manager and partner stages that revisit your CV and motivation.

Tailor your preparation to the employer. The Big Four weight the aptitude test and case work, banks and SACCOs lean on reconciliations, software and IFRS, and KRA combines a panel with its tax knowledge test. Knowing how the major employers hire lets you rehearse the right stage. Have your own questions ready too, about career progression, CPA support and how performance is assessed, because a candidate who asks nothing reads as uninterested.

After the interview

The interview does not end when you leave the room. A short, courteous follow up message thanking the panel and restating your interest keeps you in mind and does no harm. If you were given a timeline, wait for it before chasing.

Candidates often ask how to read the signs. Being asked about your notice period, introduced to other team members, or drawn into a longer conversation about the role are all encouraging, though none is a guarantee. Whatever the outcome, note the questions that caught you out and prepare them for next time, since similar ground comes up across the accounting roles employers advertise.

A few habits cost candidates the offer. Turning up without questions, answering in generalities instead of concrete examples, or failing the aptitude test through lack of practice are the common ones. Rehearse two or three strong stories from your own experience, sit a practice numerical test beforehand, and treat the whole process, from the online test to the partner interview, as a single performance rather than a series of separate hurdles. That preparation is what separates the shortlisted from the hired.