Product manager interview prep (relax, start here)

Whether you're an experienced PM or brand new to the field, product manager interview preparation can be a big challenge. There are a variety of question types you'll need to master, and some questions are more heavily emphasized at certain tech companies compared to others. 

So, what do you do? And where do you start? 

Think of this article as your "table of contents" to the PM interview preparation process. Below, we've mapped out the five high-level steps you'll want to take to get ready. Along the way, we've provided links to other resources that will allow you to do a deep-dive into the topics where you need the most help. 

To begin, here's a quick overview of the steps we'll cover:

1. Get familiar with the PM interview process
2. Learn the question types
3. Practice with example questions
4. Decide where to apply (top companies)
5. Do mock interviews

Note: If you’re looking to save time in your interview preparation and access everything you need in one place, we recommend taking our product manager interview course. The course includes lessons on how to answer all PM question types, examples of high-quality answers, mock interview videos, and more than 300 practice questions.

1. Get familiar with the product manager interview process

The interview process for Product Managers will vary significantly depending on the company, the specific role, your level of seniority, etc.  However, there are some elements that are pretty typical across the board.

So, in this section we've summarized common elements of PM interviews to help you get an overview of what to expect. This is an important first step because it will help you gain a high-level understanding of the steps you need to prepare for, allowing you to be more strategic with how you allocate your prep time.

Note: If you are interviewing for a product leadership position (VP, Director, Group PM), learn more about the process and how to prepare here.

1.1 Overview

The product manager interview process typically takes 4-8 weeks in total, from your initial application to receiving an offer. This does vary and could be as high as 3+ months, but most of the leading companies will finish the full process within a 4-8 week time-frame.

Here are the usual steps that you will face:

• Submitting your initial application
• Resume, cover letter, and referrals
• A phone interview with HR or a recruiter
• 1-2 phone interviews with PMs or the Hiring Manager
• 3-7 onsite interviews at the company's office or headquarters

1.2 What to expect in the interviews

Now let’s cover the above steps in more detail.

Step one is getting the interviews. For that, you’ll need a quality resume and cover letter that are tailored to the role and company to which you're applying. Don't underestimate the importance of customizing your application to the specific company that you're applying to. Leading companies like Google and Amazon heavily emphasize the importance of culture or values fit during their application processes.

If you have yet to apply, you can optimize your documents using our PM resume and PM cover letter guides. In addition, if you have a friend or connection who's already working at your target company, then see if they'd be willing to give you an internal referral. Getting a referral can have a really big impact on your chances of getting an initial interview.

Once you’ve been invited to interview, you’ll first speak with a recruiter or HR rep for a phone screen interview. During this initial conversation, you should expect the recruiter to cover typical resume and behavioral questions. For example, they’ll likely ask you about your past experiences and how you’ve handled specific situations (i.e. “tell me about a time you…”). If you pass this phone screen, then the recruiter will advance you to the next round of interviews. 

Next, you’ll have 1-2 phone (or video conference) interviews that focus more on PM questions. Your interviewer for this call will usually be a current PM within the company or the Hiring Manager for the team you'd be joining. When you get to this stage, you should be prepared to answer common product manager interview questions, but more on those later in this guide.

The final round is the onsite interviews. For this part of the interview process, you'll usually spend a day at the company's headquarters or the office location to which you're applying. You'll have anywhere from 3-7 interviews during your onsites, and depending on the company you may also have an opportunity for more informal conversations. For instance, at Google you'd usually have lunch with a Google PM during your visit.

If all goes well, the onsite interviews are your last step as a candidate, and from there you just have to wait to (hopefully) receive your offer. For extra help, take a look at our list of 15 top PM interview tips.

Now that you have an understanding of the typical PM interview process, let's take a look at the most common question types.

2. Learn the question types

The questions you'll be asked in PM interviews can be boiled down into five broad question types. Below you'll find a break-down of these five question types, showing their frequency of use at the four leading tech companies. 

Note: the below numbers come from a previous analysis we conducted using interview data from Glassdoor.com.

If you're not familiar with these question types, don't worry, we have plenty of examples later in this article that should help to make things more clear. But first, you may know of some other product manager interview questions that you don't see in the image above. For example, estimation, algorithm, or metric change questions. 

We actually consider these other questions to be sub-types of the five question types mentioned above. Here's a detailed break-down:

Using the information above, you should be able to identify the question types that are most relevant for your situation. This will help you to be more strategic with your preparation. 

Now, you're going to have 2 main options for how to proceed:

1. You can do general preparation for PM interviews
2. You can focus on preparing for a specific company

If you want to do general preparation for PM interviews (for example, if you're looking to break into the field, or if you're interviewing with multiple companies), then you can continue on to step 3 below to begin practicing with some example questions.

Or, if you'd like to focus your preparation on a specific company, then we'd encourage you to skip down to section 4 of this article, which contains a list of company-specific PM interview guides. This includes guides for Google, Amazon, Facebook, Uber, and more. 

And, if you're not sure exactly what you want to do, then continue on to step 3 below. It never hurts to start thinking about some practice questions!

3. Practice with example questions

In this section, you'll find 30 example questions for each of the five primary PM interview question types we covered previously. This will give you a great jumping-off point, to start learning about the different question types you’ll need to master.

For more detailed guidance on product manager interview questions, including high-quality frameworks, sample answers, and mock interview videos, you can sign up to our product manager interview course.

Let's start with strategy questions: 

3.1 Strategy questions (24%)

Strategy questions can be broken down into product strategy and estimation questions. You can learn a step-by-step process for solving these questions, and find additional practice questions, by visiting the below guides:

• How to answer product strategy questions
• How to answer estimation questions

3.2 Design questions (24%)

Design questions can be broken down into product design, product improvement, and favorite product questions. You can learn a step-by-step process for solving these questions, and find additional practice questions, by visiting the below guides:

• How to answer product design questions
• How to answer product improvement questions
• How to answer favorite product questions

3.3 Technical questions (9%)

You can learn a step-by-step process for solving technical PM interview questions, and find additional practice questions, by visiting the below guide:

• How to answer technical questions

3.4 Analysis questions (12%)

You can learn a step-by-step process for solving PM interview analysis questions (which includes metric definition and metric change questions), and find additional practice questions, by visiting the below guide:

• How to answer analysis questions

3.5 Behavioral questions (31%)

You can learn how to answer behavioral questions in your PM interviews, and find additional practice questions, by visiting the below guide:

• How to answer Facebook behavioral questions (can apply to any company)

4. Decide where to apply (top companies)

Different companies handle the PM interview process differently. For example, Amazon heavily emphasizes their 16 Leadership Principles during their interviews, and Uber uses "jam sessions" (which are kind of like brainstorming sessions) to evaluate their PM candidates. 

As a result, identifying the company that you're most interested in can help you prepare more efficiently and more effectively. That doesn't mean you have to apply to only one company. However, identifying your top choice can help you be more strategic during your preparation. 

Once you have a company in mind, the next step is to familiarize yourself with that company's specific interview steps and points of emphasis. To help with that, we've put together the free company guides below, which go into detail on each company's interview process and how to best prepare for it. 

• Google product manager interview guide
  
• Google APM interview guide
• Facebook product manager interview guide
  
• Facebook RPM interview guide
• Amazon product manager interview guide
• Microsoft product manager interview guide
• LinkedIn product manager interview guide
• Uber product manager interview guide
• Stripe product manager interview guide
• Lyft product manager interview guide
• Apple product manager interview guide
• TikTok product manager interview guide
• Coinbase product manager interview guide

Whether you're targeting a specific company or starting with more general preparation, all PM candidates should do mock interviews as part of their preparation plan. 

5. Do mock interviews

Learning the question types and the specific interview process for your favorite company will go a long way in helping you prepare. But this information is not enough to land you a PM job offer. 

To succeed in your PM interviews, you're also going to need to practice under realistic interview conditions so that you'll be ready to perform when it counts. 

The easiest way to start practicing under simulated interview conditions is to practice interview questions out loud or with peers.

5.1 Practice by yourself or with peers

In our experience, practicing by yourself is a great way to prepare for PM interviews. You can ask and answer questions out loud, to help you get a feel for the different types of PM interview questions. Practicing by yourself will help you perfect your step-by-step approach for each question type. It also gives you time to correct your early mistakes.

You can find free practice questions on articles like this one or on YouTube. Alternatively, if you’re looking for a comprehensive database of PM interview questions as well as high quality answers from ex-FAANG interviewers, then check out our PM interview course.

After you've started to get the hang of some PM interview questions by practicing by yourself, then a great next step is to do mock interviews with friends or peers.

This can be especially helpful if your friend has experience with PM interviews, or is at least familiar with the process.

5.2 Practice with experienced PM ex-interviewers

Finally, you should also try to practice product manager mock interviews with expert ex-interviewers, as they’ll be able to give you much more accurate feedback than friends and peers. 

If you know a Product Manager who can help you, that's fantastic! But for most of us, it's tough to find the right connections to make this happen. And it might also be difficult to practice multiple hours with that person unless you know them really well.

Here's the good news. We've already made the connections for you. We’ve created a coaching service where you can practice 1-on-1 with ex-interviewers from Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other leading tech companies. Learn more and start scheduling sessions today.

Any questions about PM interviews?

If you have any questions about product manager interviews, don't hesitate to ask them below and we will be more than happy to answer them. All questions are good questions, so go ahead!

Keep reading: product manager interview articles