Having given a lot of APM/PM interviews, I saw some patterns emerging and decide to bunch up PM interview questions into various types that emerged. Will update this list as I get more information, goal here is to maintain this post as a wiki. (Sidenote: The book Cracking the PM Interview is decently useful too but is biased towards a select few American companies.)
Here’s a breakdown of the questions I faced:
*Flat resume based
-> “What did you do at X?”
*Resume extenders
-> Here someone tries to see if you can apply product thinking to your previous work
-> “OK So you fought spam at facebook, if you were make a product out of that and sell it, how would you do it? How many different products can you make? Who would your competitors be? …
*Cliched Product questions -> Too common to ignore
-> Which is favourite product and why? What 3 features would you add/remove from it?-> What is your process for conceptualising products? (My ans = Mix of market research, surveys, trying out an MVP, etc.)
-> If you were the PM at X, name 5 features you’d add. OK You can ship only 2 of those, how will you prioritise?
-> OK you’re given a new product to build, how are you going to go about getting it built?
-> Design questions (“Design a watch for blind people”, etc.)
-> You’re adding X feature, please give us a spec, wireframe/mockup, user story, etc.
*Product case questions -> Overlaps a bit with above, but you’ll usually be emailing answers to these
-> We want to increase engagement on the Cleartrip mobile app without hurting conversions, suggest a strategy.
-> Product analysis of X app/site/service-> We’re a flat/roommate discovery service, tell us 3 ways to grow our user base and explain why each will work-> Give me 10 reasons why Whatsapp succeded
***Analytical/Estimation questions
**-> “How many times does the #1 song play on the radio?”
-> “If OlaCabs launches intracity logistics how would you price it?”
*HR bullshit -> Why this company? Why do you want to be a PM? What does product management mean to you, Most challenging thing you did, etc.
3 min read
PM interview questions