PM Interview Practice Questions

Welcome! Here’s some practice questions for a Product Management interview.

Many of these questions come from personal experience and that of friends, but several of the best ones are inspired by the gold standard Product Management Interview book “Decode and Conquer by Lewis C. Lin”. As I mentioned in my latest course, I highly recommend both his book and website. Find it here on Amazon.

 

Basic and Behavioral Questions:

  • Tell me about yourself.

  • Tell me about a product you like and use frequently. Why do you like it?

  • Is consensus always a good thing?

  • What's your approach to hiring?

  • Looking back, what would you do differently in your life?

  • Tell me about a time when you had to build or motivate a team.

  • Give me an example of your creativity.

  • Tell me about a time when you influenced a team.

  • Tell me about the most boring job you have ever had.

  • Which do you like first, the good news or the bad news?

  • How do you feel about reporting to a younger person?

  • Tell me about a time when you disagreed with someone.

  • Who has the ultimate accountability for shipping a product?

  • Tell me about a difficult failure you experienced.

  • How long would you expect to work for us if hired?

  • Tell me about a time you had to deal with a teammate who was underperforming

  • Tell me about a mistake you made. What happened, and what did you learn from it?

  • What's the difference between management and leadership?

  • How do you get a team to commit to a schedule?

  • What is the difference between confidence and over-confidence?

  • What do you like to do in your spare time?

  • How much salary do you expect?

  • Aren't you overqualified for this position?

  • Tell me something about our company.

  • What are your strengths?

  • Could you have done better in your last job?

  • Tell me about a time when you had to make a tough decision.

  • Why are you leaving your job?

  • Why should I hire you from the outside when I could promote someone from within?

  • How could you have improved your career progress?

  • What makes you angry?

  • Where do you see yourself in five years?

  • Have you considered starting your own business?

  • Would you lie for the company?

  • What changes would you make if you came on board?

  • Why are not you earning more money at this stage of your career?

  • What types of people have you found it difficult to work with?

  • How do you prioritize a list of product features?

  • Do you manage people from different functions differently? If so, how?

  • If I called up your teammates, how do you think they would describe you?

  • Tell me about a time you had to use emotional intelligence to lead.

  • What is the difference between hard work and smart work?

  • On a scale of one to ten, rate me as an interviewer.

  • What motivates you to do good job?

  • What are your goals?

  • What would somebody do to lose your confidence?

  • What are your career options right now?

  • How do you feel about working nights and weekends?

  • Why should we hire you?

  • Why do you want to work here?

PM-Specific Challenge Questions:

  • How many people can travel on a Boeing 747 airplane?

  • An aspiring Amazon product manager proposes to Jeff Bezos that Amazon should sell groceries from neighborhood markets. What are the pros and cons of this idea?

  • Design an alarm clock for the blind

  • If you were Google's CEO, would you be concerned about Microsoft?

  • If you were CEO of Yahoo!, what would your strategy be?

  • How many iPhones are sold in the US each year?

  • How does LinkedIn make money, and what are the biggest threats?

  • You have a choice between selling a new oven or an oven mitt. Which one do you choose and why?

  • You are the product manager for Google+. What killer feature would you build?

  • Google Maps is launching a new version for schools, how would you design this?

  • Should Amazon launch a smartphone?

  • Estimate McDonald's revenue.

  • How much money do people spend on haircut every year in the US?

  • Re-design a garage door opener.

  • Google shut down a location sharing service called Google Latitude on August 2013. How would you redesign and re-launch a location-sharing app?

  • How would you design an oven for a person in a wheelchair

  • How would you improve Google Maps?

  • How many basketballs are purchased every year?

  • Amazon has ads on its website for products you can buy on other websites. Why do you think is the strategy here? Is it a good idea?

  • How will you improve LinkedIn's home page?

  • Describe the strategy behind Google entering the cell phone market

  • Write an algorithm that detects meeting conflicts.

  • How would you design a blogging application?

  • You are the CEO of the Yellow Cab taxi service. How do you respond to Uber?

  • Select a product you use everyday and discuss its weaknesses.

  • If you were responsible for Microsoft phones, what would you do?

  • How would you price the Kindle Fire HD?

  • You're Larry Page. The head of corporate development tells you that Quora is in play, and both Microsoft and Facebook are bidding for it. Should Google participate in the discussions? Why?

  • How many people are currently online in France?

  • If you were Amazon, would you launch the service in India? Why or why not? How would you do this?

  • How many elevators do you need for a 50-story building?

  • Imagine you were considering launching a new social network service. What would your strategy be?

  • Estimate how much it costs to run Flickr for a 20 GB user.

  • Imagine you were considering launching two services which have similar revenues and costs. How would you decide which one to pursue?

  • Which Google product or service don't make sense to you? Why?

  • What do you think LinkedIn can do on the iPhone that is truly groundbreaking?

  • There's a server bottleneck. How would you solve it?

  • Assume you are the new product manager in our Amazon Prime business and are in charge of feature development. What data would you look at to develop new features? What new features would they be?

  • How much does the US spend on dog food each year?

  • How long would it take to empty a hot tub using only a drinking straw?

  • The billboard industry is under monetized. How can Google create a new product or offering to address this?

  • How many queries per second does Gmail get?

  • How would you design a bookcase for children?

  • How would you improve the LinkedIn mobile app?

  • How would you improve Google's Chrome browser?

  • How would you improve LinkedIn's signup process?

  • Assuming that you are selected, what will be your strategy for next 60 days?

  • Amazon launched display advertisements on its web page, and it was a highly controversial decision within the company. Pick either the pro or con side of the argument and explain your position for or against including ads on the site.

  • How much tennis balls fit in a 2 bedrooms apartment?

  • How much does a schoolbus weigh?

  • Explain recursion.

  • How many windows are in new york?

  • Suggest a killer feature to improve LinkedIn? And what metrics would you track to determine success?

  • How many schools are in the US?

  • What feature would you build to improve Google+? And what metrics would you track to determine success?

  • Tell me about a product that was designed poorly.

  • How does Google make money, and what are the biggest threats?

  • Choose a company that you believe provides a world-class customer experience. What do they do well?

  • How much money does facebook make in ads every year?

  • What would you do the next 2 years if you were CEO of the company?

  • Assume you are the new product manager in our Amazon Prime business and are deciding pricing. The vice president would like to lower the price from $79.99 per year to $69.99 per year. What metrics will you look at to evaluate success of a product?

  • How would you improve image search?

  • How many police officers are in the US?

  • How would you reduce Gmail's storage size?

  • How would you improve Microsoft PowerPoint?

  • How many pairs of eyeglasses are sold every year in the US?

  • Facebook bought Instagram for about $2B, even though Instagram was making no money. Why do you think Facebook did this?

  • Google launched a new program: Google Trusted Stores. Why is Google Trusted Stores strategically important for the company?

  • Brainstorm as many algorithms as possible for recommending Twitter followers.

  • Start a new category, division, or international market for Amazon. Which one did you choose and why?

  • Now tell me why display advertising is a bad decision.

  • How do you like LinkedIn's endorse feature?

  • You're part of the Google Search web spam team. How would you detect duplicate websites?

  • Explain object-oriented programming to your grandmother.

  • How would you improve restaurant search?

  • Design a new iPad app for Google Spreadsheet.

  • Design an elevator control system.