Negotiation Skills Quiz: 12 Scenario Questions and Answers

This negotiation skills quiz has 12 scenario questions from everyday situations: a salary talk, a supplier call, a quote for a job, a shared budget. Each has three options and one best answer, with the reasoning underneath, and the five topic groups show where your gaps are.

Pick A, B or C before you read the answer. The questions were written for this article; none is taken from Astra's exam.

Where these scenarios happen

None of the twelve questions needs a boardroom. Moves like these come up at a market stall, on a call with a supplier and across a desk from your manager.

Photos: Alba Calbetó and Abolfazl Pahlavan on Unsplash.

Preparation and BATNA

BATNA stands for best alternative to a negotiated agreement: what you will actually do if this deal falls through. The term comes from Getting to Yes, and most good preparation starts from it.

1. You are selling your car. What is your BATNA?

A dealer has offered you 9,000 in writing, valid for a week. A private buyer is now haggling with you, and you are hoping for 11,000.

• A. Selling the car to the dealer for 9,000
• B. The 11,000 you are hoping to get
• C. The lowest price you would accept from the private buyer

Answer: A. Your BATNA is what you will do if this deal fails: sell to the dealer. The 11,000 is your target. Your walk-away point is worked out from the BATNA: about 9,000, adjusted for things like paperwork or payment risk.

2. Your only job offer is below market. What strengthens your position most?

The company wants an answer by Friday. Another company has invited you to a final interview next week.

• A. Telling the first company you already have another offer
• B. Accepting now, before the company changes its mind and the offer disappears
• C. Asking for a few more days, and asking the second company to speed up

Answer: C. Leverage comes from a real alternative, so build one: a few more days is a reasonable request, and so is asking about the other timeline. A made-up offer collapses if they call your bluff, and accepting at once gives up your best moment to negotiate. Without a second offer, you can still negotiate pay without a competing offer.

3. The buyer's limit is 50,000 and the seller's is 55,000. What follows?

Both figures are honest walk-away points, and so far price is the only thing on the table.

• A. They should meet in the middle, at 52,500
• B. No deal on price alone, unless new terms change what each side can accept
• C. Whoever holds out longer will close the gap, because both sides want a deal

Answer: B. The zone of possible agreement, or ZOPA, lies between the two walk-away points, and here there is none: 52,500 leaves both sides worse off than their alternatives. Changing the terms, such as payment timing or what is included, can make a different number work.

Anchoring and first offers

In a negotiation, the anchor is usually the first number on the table. Studies have repeatedly found that first offers tend to pull the final agreement toward them, so opening well and answering an opening well both matter.

4. The seller says "make me an offer". Should you go first?

You are buying second-hand equipment and have no idea what it is worth.

• A. Yes: the first offer always anchors the deal in your favour
• B. Yes, and make it very low, so the anchor can only help you
• C. Not yet: ask questions and check prices first

Answer: C. Opening first helps when you know the range well enough to anchor ambitiously but credibly. Without that, your number is a guess: too high and you overpay by your own offer, absurdly low and the seller stops taking you seriously. Check a few prices first.

5. A client answers your quote with a fraction of it. What is your best response?

You quoted a normal market rate. The client replies with a figure far below what similar work costs.

• A. Call it out of range, then restate your figure and its basis
• B. Counter with a number close to theirs, so the talks do not stall
• C. Ask about their budget, then cut your quote to fit it

Answer: A. An extreme opening pulls hardest when you treat it as the reference point. Countering near it lets their number set the range, and cutting your quote skips the negotiation. Restating your figure, backed by the scope and market rates, moves the reference back.

Concessions

A concession is anything you give up: a lower price, an earlier date, an extra feature. What you get for each one, and the pattern they make together, matter as much as their size.

6. A client asks for a 10% discount you could afford. What is the strongest reply?

• A. Agree straight away, to build goodwill for the next project
• B. Agree on a condition, such as a twelve-month contract
• C. Refuse on principle, so they do not ask again

Answer: B. A concession given for nothing teaches the other side that asking works. Trade it for something worth having, such as a longer term or faster payment: "If you can sign for twelve months, I can do that." Refusing outright throws away a trade you could afford.

7. You have come down from 100 to 90, then to 85. How do you show you are near your limit?

• A. Another step of 5, to stay consistent
• B. A smaller step, to 83, and smaller again if needed
• C. One big final drop, to 75, to close quickly

Answer: B. The size of each step is a message. Shrinking steps say the room is running out. Equal steps suggest more is coming, so the other side keeps pushing. A big late drop sends the worst signal: it says your earlier numbers were never real limits.

8. You are at 100, they are at 80, and they propose meeting at 90. Is that fair?

• A. Only if both openings were reasonable
• B. Yes, because a midpoint treats both sides equally
• C. Yes, once a negotiation has already taken a long time

Answer: A. A midpoint is only as fair as the two numbers it sits between. If their 80 was deliberately low, splitting the difference rewards the extreme anchor. Before you agree, check 90 against something outside the haggle: market prices, comparable deals or your own walk-away point.

Tactical listening

Tactical listening means finding out what the other side needs and showing you have heard it. Three tools do most of the work: labels, which name what someone seems to feel; mirrors, which repeat their last few words; and calibrated questions that start with what or how. The psychology of negotiation covers each in depth.

9. Your manager says, "Budgets are tight this year." Which reply is a label?

• A. "Tight this year?"
• B. "Why is there never any money when it's my turn?"
• C. "It sounds like your hands are tied this year."

Answer: C. A label names the feeling or pressure behind what someone said, usually starting with "It sounds like", and invites them to confirm or correct it. A is a mirror, also useful: repeating their last few words draws out more. B is an accusation, which makes them defend the budget.

10. A supplier says your deadline cannot be met. Which question is calibrated?

• A. "Can you meet the deadline or not?"
• B. "Why can't you just put more people on it?"
• C. "What would it take to deliver the first half by then?"

Answer: C. Calibrated questions start with what or how and hand the other side part of the problem to solve. A yes-or-no question invites a flat no, and a why question often sounds like an accusation. C accepts their constraint and asks what is possible inside it.

Conflict styles

The Thomas-Kilmann model, developed by Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann in the 1970s, places five ways of handling conflict on two scales: how far you pursue your own concerns, and how far you pursue the other side's. Competing is high on the first and low on the second, accommodating is the reverse, collaborating is high on both, avoiding is low on both, and compromising sits in the middle.

Each style has a cost when it becomes a habit. Always accommodating teaches counterparts that pressure works and leaves your own needs unsaid. Always competing wears out relationships you will need again. Even avoiding has its place, when the issue is minor or tempers need time to cool, as long as you come back to what matters.

11. You and another team lead share one budget for the year. Which style fits best?

You need it for hiring and they need it for equipment. You will work together for years, and there is time to talk it through.

• A. Collaborating: dig into both needs and look for a plan that meets them
• B. Competing: secure your share before they do
• C. Compromising: split the budget down the middle, so neither of you loses out

Answer: A. When both sides' concerns matter, the relationship is long and there is time, collaborating pays: knowing why each of you needs the money can turn up options a split would miss, such as phasing the hiring. Compromising is the fallback if time runs out.

12. A colleague asks to swap presentation slots. What fits best?

You slightly prefer your slot. They have a family commitment that clashes with their own.

• A. Competing: keep your slot, since you booked it first
• B. Accommodating: agree to the swap
• C. Avoiding: say you will think about it and let it drift

Answer: B. Accommodating fits when the issue matters far more to them than to you, and the relationship matters too. It costs little and builds goodwill. Competing wins a point you do not care about, and avoiding leaves them waiting on something you could settle in one sentence.

What your score means

Give yourself one point for each correct answer.

• 11 or 12: you can pick the right move when the options are laid out. A timed test with unseen questions is the next honest check.
• 8 to 10: solid, with a gap or two. Check which topics your misses came from.
• 5 to 7: you know the vocabulary, but some reasoning is shaky. Reread the explanations and try again in a week.
• 4 or fewer: start with Negotiation Skills 101, which covers BATNA, interests and preparation in one sitting.

How to check yourself properly

An article quiz is a warm-up. It is easier than the real thing in three ways: the options are laid out for you, the answer sits just below each question, and there is no clock.

For a stricter check, in rising order of difficulty:

1. 1The free Negotiation practice test. 10 new questions with answers and explanations, no sign-up. It shows whether the reasoning carries over.
2. 2The level-1 Negotiation exam. 40 questions in 45 minutes, up to 90 seconds each. The pass mark is 70%, and 90% or more earns "with distinction". It is unsupervised: no webcam and no proctor. Two attempts are included, the second available 24 hours after the first, and Astra Trainer subscribers get level 1 included.
3. 3A real negotiation. Pick a small one, such as a bill. Write down your BATNA, your opening, one concession to trade and one calibrated question, then compare what happened with the plan.

A pass earns a certificate with your name, the direction, "Level 1 · Foundation", a number, a QR code and a public verification page, valid for two years and renewable with a short test. It records a passed knowledge exam: not a licence, an accreditation or an official qualification, and not proof of how you perform under pressure. Level 2, which adds a practical task checked by a reviewer, is coming soon.