Not a Dell recruiter but I've worked closely with a few during a vendor partnership. Here's the inside view on their behavioral interviews that candidates don't usually hear.
Dell has a published list of values: winning together, driving results, innovation, customers, and integrity. In every behavioral interview those values are mapped to the questions. So when they ask "tell me about a time you disagreed with a decision" they're actually scoring you on integrity. When they ask about a cross-functional project, they're scoring winning together.
This isn't unique to Dell, but Dell is more deliberate about it than most. The interviewers I've worked with use structured scorecards.
Common questions that came up repeatedly: Tell me about a time you delivered a project under significant constraints (resources, timeline, unclear requirements). Describe a situation where you had to influence without authority. Give an example of a time you received feedback that was hard to hear. What did you do with it? Tell me about a time a customer or stakeholder pushed back on your solution. How did you handle it? Walk me through a project where you drove continuous improvement.
For senior roles they also ask about scaling teams, mentoring, and making unpopular decisions. If you're interviewing at the senior IC or manager level, have a concrete story about a time a technical decision you made turned out to be wrong and what you learned.
Format: Usually 2-3 behavioral rounds mixed with technical. Each is 45-60 minutes. Sometimes a hiring manager round that's lighter on technical and heavier on "why Dell, why this role."
One honest flag: Dell's behavioral bar is real but the culture has gone through changes post-layoffs in 2023 and 2024. Some interviewers are still calibrated to a larger-company mindset. You may get asked about efficiency and doing more with less. Have a story ready for that.
STAR format works fine here. Be specific. Vague answers fail the scorecard even if they sound good.