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Product Manager Interviews

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Product Manager Interview Questions

Often considered the "CEO" of their product area, product managers oversee the strategy, production, and implementation of a particular product. Because product management teams include members from different backgrounds such as engineering, design, and data design, product managers must have strong communication skills and excel in cross-functional work environments. Expect to answer questions about your management abilities, prioritization skills, and experience working in product. Though not required, technical backgrounds are advantageous particularly when applying for roles at tech companies.

Top Product Manager Interview Questions & How to Answer

Question 1

Question #1: What are your preferred management frameworks?

How to answer
How to answer: Describe which management frameworks you prefer to use when managing teams and products and explain why you like them. Outline any limitations of the frameworks and how you overcome them. If possible, research what frameworks the company currently uses and discuss how your own methodology can work within those frameworks.
Question 2

Question #2: How do you prioritize between the different needs of your users?

How to answer
How to answer: Product managers need to make tough decisions that balance the needs of different users while keeping in mind the resources of the team and the general cost-benefit analysis for the company. Explain the process you use to make those decisions, including what research you do. Outline how you communicate your decisions to internal and external stakeholders, how you manage expectations, and how you deal with any negative reactions.
Question 3

Question #3: What is your strategy for onboarding yourself to a new product?

How to answer
How to answer: A product manager is expected to know everything about a product, such as how clients use it, the business model, and the roadmap for further development. Outline who you plan to talk with to learn about the product and its users, how those conversations will happen, and what you hope to learn. This is a good opportunity to show your enthusiasm for the future of the product and its possibilities and any research you have already done.

52,927 product manager interview questions shared by candidates

Every single interviewer asked a puzzle question. The most complex was: You're standing in a boat in a reservoir of water that is filled to the brim. There is a brick sitting on the bottom of the boat. If you pick up the brick and throw it into the reservoir, will the water overflow?
avatar

Product Manager

Interviewed at Meta

3.6★
Sep 12, 2012

Every single interviewer asked a puzzle question. The most complex was: You're standing in a boat in a reservoir of water that is filled to the brim. There is a brick sitting on the bottom of the boat. If you pick up the brick and throw it into the reservoir, will the water overflow?

You have a ladder of N steps (rungs). You can go up the ladder by taking either 1 step or two steps at a time, in any combination. How many different routes are there (combinations of 1 steps or 2 steps) to make it up the ladder?
avatar

Product Manager

Interviewed at Google

4.4★
Dec 3, 2014

You have a ladder of N steps (rungs). You can go up the ladder by taking either 1 step or two steps at a time, in any combination. How many different routes are there (combinations of 1 steps or 2 steps) to make it up the ladder?

How would I design the elevators for a new 40 story office building that had an average of 100 people per floor to most efficiently fill and empty the building given a standard 9-5 workday and traffic conditions in my city? The answer needed to be completely detailed, including expected passengers per car, time per stop, average floors stops per trip at various hours, etc.
avatar

Senior Product Manager

Interviewed at Google

4.4★
Jul 13, 2012

How would I design the elevators for a new 40 story office building that had an average of 100 people per floor to most efficiently fill and empty the building given a standard 9-5 workday and traffic conditions in my city? The answer needed to be completely detailed, including expected passengers per car, time per stop, average floors stops per trip at various hours, etc.

You are the PM of the "share" feature(which people use to share on feed, as a private message etc.). How would you measure success of this feature? What metrics would you use and why? Out of the ones you have mentioned, which is the most important and why? Followup questions: 1) Your team has implemented a change in the "share" and released it for A/B testing, where you realized that there is increase of 20% usage of the feature. would you decide to release it? 2) You have recently released the new feature, and you were informed by all local sites (Facebook sites in each country) that the usage has indeed increased by 20%, but the overall global data shows only 5% increase. How is this possible?
avatar

Product Manager

Interviewed at Meta

3.6★
Feb 13, 2020

You are the PM of the "share" feature(which people use to share on feed, as a private message etc.). How would you measure success of this feature? What metrics would you use and why? Out of the ones you have mentioned, which is the most important and why? Followup questions: 1) Your team has implemented a change in the "share" and released it for A/B testing, where you realized that there is increase of 20% usage of the feature. would you decide to release it? 2) You have recently released the new feature, and you were informed by all local sites (Facebook sites in each country) that the usage has indeed increased by 20%, but the overall global data shows only 5% increase. How is this possible?

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