Top 10 Questions Asked During Product Manager Interviews

These days, product manager interviews are about much more than what can be found on your resume. Of course, work experience and educational background are important, but what many companies find most important is the ability to think quickly, problem-solve, and strategize. And that leads to specific types of product manager interview questions.  

Preparing for Your Product Manager Interview

Many people believe that they can walk into any interview and absolutely nail it – they think that their credentials and experience will speak for themselves! However, in today’s competitive job market, it’s absolutely crucial to prepare yourself for a PM interview by studying some of the most commonly asked PM interview questions. 

Your ability to confidently answer PM interview questions is what will help you stand out from the crowd that is likely filled with other well-qualified individuals. Scenario-driven product manager interview questions are intended to spark discussions. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and test out your very best ideas. Make yourself absolutely unforgettable in the best way possible!

Most Commonly Asked PM Interview Questions Answered and Explained 

We’re going to go over the top 10 PM interview questions that have been commonly asked by giants like Google, Netflix, and Facebook. We will explain the significance of each question and give you the best answers from our community members. 

Listen along via Youtube if you prefer:

Here we go! The top 10 questions asked during product manager interviews.

1. What is your favorite product and why?

Significance: Product knowledge

How our community answered: Explain what you like about the product and what problem it solves. There is usually a follow up question: “How would you improve it?”. Answer this by highlighting a user pain point you’ve noticed in using the product and suggest a way to address the pain point. 

Read full answers on our site.

2. How would you improve Facebook Messenger? 

Significance: Ability to  discover problems and innovate to solve them 

How our community answered: First, clarify the scope, metrics, and overarching goal. Then, identify user groups, user journeys, and pain points. Detail 3-5 solutions and their impact on user engagement. Finally, discuss the metrics that you will use to determine success. 

3. Calculate the number of queries answered by Google per second.

Significance: Ability to estimate impact and size quickly 

How our community answered: using a series of best guess assumptions and formulas, determine the number of potential Google users around the world. Segment users by frequency of daily usage  (aggressive, active, passive), calculate the prevalence of each user group in the Google user population. Finally, do the math backwards and calculate the average searches per second

Read full answers on our site.

4. How would you design a bicycle renting app for tourists?

Significance: Ability to design and build a product from scratch

How our community answered: Clarify what the app will be offering, identify user groups and tourist needs, then lay out the features of the app that will meet those needs. 

Read full answers on our site.

5. What should Airbnb’s strategy be during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Significance: Ability to problem solve and develop a product strategy

How our community answered: Identify the specific problem COVID-19 poses. Suggest solutions such as long-term (quarantine) stays, online experiences, virtual tours, child-care for frontline workers.

Read full answers on our site.

6. How would you measure the success of Gmail?

Significance: Analytical abilities

How our community answered: Describe the product, identify user groups, define success, navigate through the user journey, determine metrics for each phase of user journey (at least 10 metrics total), evaluate metrics.

Read full answers on our site.

7. How many dentists are there in New York?

Significance: Ability to estimate market size quickly 

How our community answered: Create a simple high-level equation that helps you calculate the number of dentists in New York. Continue breaking down each unknown to simpler equations until you reach a point where you can replace the unknowns with reasonable guesses and assumptions (e.g. population of NY, number of dentist visits per person per year). Then, do the math to calculate the original number.

Read full answers on our site.

8. Design a product for event gathering.

Significance: Ability to innovate, organize, and think on your feet.

How our community answered: Determine users and stakeholders, pain points and user needs, solutions, and evaluate the features of your proposed product. 

9. How do you work with the Engineering team?

Significance: Ability to influence others

How our community answered: Communicate what and why you want to develop a product with data and metrics. Address engineering concerns and questions on an ongoing basis. 

10. Tell me about a time you failed.

Significance: Ability to overcome, learn, and adapt

How our community answered: This question will be unique to your own experiences. Here are some things to keep in mind when answering this question using the STAR method:

• Outline the scenario
• Describe your actions
• Describe the results of your actions
• Explain what you learned and how you will apply your learnings to future scenarios.

Study these questions and develop your own answers and you should be in great shape the next time you’re applying for product manager positions! For even more product manager interview practice, check out our website! There are over 2500+ questions and answers from our community for you to learn from.

Need some extra help preparing for product management interviews? We offer PM Interview Coaching as well as a PM Interview Prep Course! With Product Management Exercises, you’ll never have to walk into a PM interview feeling unprepared again.