Technical Product Manager Interview Questions (and How to Crack Them)

“Strong PM-Ts address this early by driving explicit tradeoff discussions and clearly defining constraints, failure modes, and success metrics. Teams align before execution, not after something breaks." — Rupesh (PM-T and Senior Customer Solutions Manager at AWS)

Example answer to: “Explain to my grandfather how the internet works.”

Clarify

To reduce the scope of the explanation, you can start with something like: 

“The internet is composed of many complex elements. I could talk about network connections, blockchain technology, specific web services, etc. But the most fundamental feature of the internet is probably that websites can be accessed by typing a URL in a browser, so this is what I suggest we focus on.”

Explain step by step

Take some time to write out your thoughts, then walk the interviewer through the steps, like this:

1. The Client browser uses the URL (e.g., example.com) to find the website’s IP address, which is either stored in local memory or found with a DNS lookup. Here’s a metaphor to help explain: a DNS resolver is like a big phone book matching URLs and IP addresses. If you wanted to call “John Smith” on the phone, first you would need to find his number in the phone book.
2. Next, the browser uses the IP address and queries the internet for the website’s data. This is like if you dialed John Smith’s number, then the phone company would make a connection between your phone lines.
3. Then the website’s Server sends appropriate data (e.g., an index.html file) back across the internet. To continue the metaphor, when John Smith answers and says hello, his voice is translated into an electronic signal that’s passed through the phone lines.
4. Finally, the website’s data reaches the browser, which then displays a visual interpretation of that data. This is like your phone’s speaker turning the electronic signal into John Smith’s voice again.

Conclude and discuss

After going over the above, you could conclude by saying something like:

“So, typing a URL into the address bar of a browser works a lot like making a phone call. Information is transferred back and forth between two connection points, and the transferred information needs to be interpreted by the receiver.”

Example answer to: “Tell me about some hardware you used recently. How would you improve it?”

Clarify

Start with a follow-up question to help guide your answer. It may go something like: 

"Sure, is it okay to use an example from outside work? [Interviewer answers] Great, okay. Well, recently, I used a smart home security camera system that had both positive aspects and areas for improvement.”

Explain step-by-step

Walk the interviewer through your improvement points in a clear and structured manner. For example:

“There were three main areas where I would have wanted to improve the product.

1. Integration: The system could be enhanced by integrating with other smart home devices like smart locks and motion sensors. This would create a more automated and comprehensive security ecosystem.
2. Mobile app UI: Improving the mobile app's user interface with better navigation and user-friendliness would enhance the overall user experience.
3. Night vision upgrade: Upgrading the night vision technology would significantly improve the camera's performance during nighttime surveillance.”

Conclude and discuss

Wrap it up with a clear ender and reiterate your reasoning.

“So, to conclude, these improvements would have given the product a differential in the market against competitors. I feel this would give customers greater satisfaction with the product."

Example answer to: “Why do you want to work at Amazon?”

“I want to work at Amazon for three reasons.

First, I admire Amazon’s customer obsession leadership principle. This is something I've experienced first-hand when dealing with Amazon’s customer support, and it's also a principle I've been pushing at my current company. I was able to spearhead an initiative to update our support ticket system based on customer feedback, which decreased complaints by 20%.

Second, one of my co-workers used to be a Senior Product Manager at Amazon in Seattle. He has really great things to say about the company and often talks about how much he learned about product management there. I would love to be immersed in that environment.

Third, I've spent the last five years of my career in the streaming space, producing videos on my own as a hobby and working for a content production startup. I greatly admire the Amazon Video product and how it is positioned in the market, and I’d be excited to bring my experience to the Amazon Video team.”

Example answer to: “How does Uber work?”

Ahead of your interview, you should be ready to give an overview of the step-by-step process that occurs when a customer requests a ride. 

Clarify

“Sure, obviously Uber has various products, UberEats, UberFreight, etc, but if it’s okay with you, I’ll just focus on the ride-hailing part of Uber?”

Explain step-by-step

“For step 1: Users open the Uber mobile app and enter their destination. The app uses GPS to identify the user's location automatically or allows manual input. Users can see the available ride options, estimated fares, and the approximate arrival time of nearby drivers.

Step 2: Once a ride request is confirmed, the app sends the request to nearby Uber drivers. The drivers have the option to accept or decline the ride based on their availability and proximity to the user. The user is notified when a driver accepts the request.

Step 3: Users can track the driver's real-time location on the app as they approach the pickup point. The app provides details such as the driver's name, vehicle model, and license plate number for easy identification.

Step 4: During the trip, the app displays the estimated time of arrival and updates the fare in real-time based on factors like distance traveled and time spent in transit.

Step 5: After reaching the destination, the fare is automatically charged to the user's registered payment method (credit card, PayPal, or other payment options). Users have the option to rate their ride experience and provide feedback about the driver and overall service quality.

Step 6: Uber takes a commission from the fare, and the rest goes to the driver. Drivers' earnings may vary based on factors such as the time of day, surge pricing (during peak demand), and distance traveled.”

Conclude and discuss

“So, that’s obviously quite a basic overview of what happens when a ride request is made. Would you like me to go into more detail on any particular part of that process?”

Example answer to: “Tell me about a time you led a team.”

Situation

"I spent three years working at a small start-up, and after an initial period of rapid growth, revenue dropped off, and we started losing money.”

Problem

“I was leading a team of five, and understandably, people were extremely worried about their jobs. I also had pressure from the CEO to implement cost-cutting and revenue-generating measures that would help us get back to break-even as soon as possible.”

Solution

“My primary focus was on keeping the team motivated and productive, even in the face of uncertainty. My first action was to schedule a meeting to specifically discuss the situation and provide an honest and transparent overview of what was happening.

I acknowledged the challenges that the company was facing, but that our team was essential to the company's success. I said that if they had any questions, they could always ask me. We also came up with a list of team actions we could take that would reduce costs, and over the next 6 months, I arranged bi-weekly updates with the CEO to show how we were progressing.”

Impact

“Through these actions, my team played a major part in getting the company back on track, and I made sure this was visible to the CEO. There were no lay-offs in our area, and morale and productivity stayed strong.”

Lessons

“It was a difficult experience to go through, but I learned that when you’re managing a team, constant communication is vital in a crisis. People always have doubts and hypothetical scenarios you hadn't even thought of, and it’s really useful to provide a space where you can listen to them, show empathy, and give them a more accurate picture of what’s going on, even if that picture is incomplete.”

Example answer to: “Explain the concept of Big-O notation.”

"Big-O notation is a way to measure how fast a computer program or algorithm gets slower as the amount of data it handles increases. It helps us understand how efficient our program is and how it performs with larger tasks.

I think of it as a scale that shows if our program can handle big tasks smoothly or if it will start to slow down a lot as the workload gets bigger. The lower the number in Big-O notation, the better and faster our program will be with larger tasks.

As a product manager, it's important to consider the Big-O notation when choosing algorithms, to make sure our product can handle bigger challenges effectively."

Example answer to: “Tell me about a time you tackled a technical problem.”

Situation

"At my previous company, we shipped a hardware product to customers all around the world.”

Problem

“However, the product had a latent bug, and we were getting a high return rate and customer complaints.”

Solution

“First, I worked with the customer support team to understand what was happening and recognize that we needed to scale the problem and put significant resources into solving it. I then pulled in members from the engineering team, and we performed a root cause analysis, enabling us to identify the cause as a faulty chip in the hardware, made by an external manufacturer.

We made them aware of this, and they were able to correct this fault, but of course, we still needed to fix the thousands of units that had already been shipped.

I asked the engineering team to prioritize finding a solution. They carried out some ideation sessions and eventually, with lots of trial and error, they were able to come up with a software solution that would mask the hardware problem for those units already shipped so that consumers wouldn’t notice.”

Impact

“As we were able to find and fix the bug relatively early, a hugely negative impact on the company was avoided, and the cost was relatively low.”

Lessons

"It served as a reminder that, no matter how much Q&A you do, something can always go wrong. It’s really important to take notice of small signals from the customer support team to spot a problem before it becomes a big, unsolvable one. 

It’s a key part of my job to have relationships with these different teams. My relationship with the engineering team is especially important, so I can work quickly and effectively with them during a crisis.”

More technical product manager interview questions

• Explain recursion to my grandmother.
• Explain what cookies are to my grandfather.
• Explain what APIs are to a non-technical person.
• Explain the concept of "protocol" to a 4-year-old child.
• Explain the difference between HTTP and HTTPS.
• Explain what happens when executing mergesort.
• Explain the difference between C++ and Java.
• Explain how a DNS works.
• There is a latent bug in hardware already shipped. What do you do?
• How does Google Calendar work?
• What technologies would you use to build a live stream video service?
• When are Bayesian methods more appropriate than "artificial Intelligence" techniques for predictive analytics?
• How would you most efficiently store large images in a database?
• How would you get authentication to work across domains?
• How did you optimally query the database to get faster results?

3-step answer method for technical explanation questions

1. Clarify: Many candidates skip this step and jump straight into answering the question. This is a big red flag for interviewers. Before starting to answer, make sure you understand exactly what the interviewer wants you to explain by asking clarification questions. In addition, if the topic you were asked about is extremely vast, you will need to narrow down and focus your explanation on the most important aspect of the topic.
2. Explain step-by-step: Next, you should explain the technical concept step-by-step. When possible, use a metaphor to communicate your understanding of how it works. In this step, it’s ok to ask your interviewer for some time to structure your thoughts before delivering your answer.
3. Conclude and discuss: Finally, you should provide a summary of your explanation. At this point, the interviewer will most likely critique your explanation, which is perfectly normal. They might continue to ask for further details to assess the depth of your understanding. Some interviewers will also keep on asking questions until they reach a technical area that you don’t master. If you don’t know something, you should therefore admit it.

Example answer

Step 1: Clarify

The internet is a complex system with many features, and we can’t realistically explain how all of it works in an interview. It’s therefore a good idea to clarify with the interviewer what specific features of the internet we should focus on.

To reduce the scope of our explanation, we might say something like, “The internet is composed of many complex elements. I could talk about network connections, blockchain technology, specific web services, etc. But the most fundamental feature of the internet is probably that websites can be accessed by typing a URL in a browser, so this is what I suggest we focus on. Is that what you have in mind, too?”

Step 2: Explain step-by-step

Let’s imagine the interviewer agrees that we should explain what happens when someone types a URL into the address bar of a web browser.

At this point, we would ask for a few seconds to gather our thoughts and list the high-level steps of what happens when a user queries a website. Once you’ve laid out your thoughts, you can start walking the interviewer through the different steps.

Here’s how you might do that.

"When a user queries a website, there are four systems involved:

1. The device on which the user is typing the website’s URL (this is often called the ‘Client’)
2. The DNS resolver, which is going to help us find the IP address of the website based on its URL
3. The Server, from which we need to get the website data that needs to be displayed
4. The internet, which manages communications (e.g, queries, data, etc.) between the Client and the website’s Server

Here is what happens step-by-step:

1. The Client browser uses the URL (e.g., example.com) to find the website’s IP address, which is either stored in local memory or found with a DNS lookup. Let’s use a metaphor for a second. A DNS resolver is like a big phone book, matching URLs and IP addresses. If you wanted to call “John Smith” on the phone first, you would need to find his number in the phone book.
2. Next, the browser uses the IP address and queries the internet for the website’s data. This is like if you dialed John Smith’s number, the phone company would make a connection between your phone lines.
3. Then the website’s Server sends appropriate data (e.g., an index.html file) back across the internet. In our metaphor, when John Smith answers and says hello, his voice is translated into an electronic signal that’s passed through the phone lines.
4. Finally, the website’s data reaches the browser, which then displays a visual interpretation of that data. This is like your phone’s speaker turning the electronic signal into John Smith’s voice again."

Step 3: Conclude and discuss

We would conclude by saying something like, “So, typing a URL into the address bar of a browser works a lot like making a phone call. Information is transferred back and forth between two connection points. Also, the transferred information needs to be interpreted by the receiver.”

Let’s imagine the interviewer is looking for more detail and says, “That’s an interesting explanation, but you glossed over DNS lookup, which is a really important factor of the process you described. Can you explain more about that?”

Once again, here we could ask for some time to list what happens step-by-step when a DNS resolver tries turning a URL into an IP address. Let’s assume we know a lot about how DNS resolvers work. Below is the information we would walk the interviewer through.

There are four major types of servers involved in DNS resolution:

1. The Resolving name server receives the URL from the Client and is expected to send back an IP address. To find that IP address, the Resolving name server communicates with three other servers: Root servers, Top Level Domain (TLD) servers, and Authoritative name servers.
2. Authoritative name servers provide the IP address of specific websites (e.g., www.example.com). However, there are many Authoritative name servers, and the Resolving name server does not know which one to contact to find the IP address.
3. A TLD server can point to the Authoritative name server of any website that ends with the particular domain extension it’s responsible for. As an example, a ‘.com’ TLD server stores the location of the Authoritative name server for all websites that end with ‘.com’. However, the Resolving name server does not know the location of the TLD server it needs to contact when it begins searching for the IP address.
4. A Root server provides the location of TLD servers. The Resolving name server always knows where to find the Root servers. So, contacting a Root server is the Resolving name server’s first step when searching for the IP address it’s trying to find.

 Here is how the resolution works step-by-step:

1. The Resolving name server queries a Root server, which points to the appropriate TLD server. Let’s use our phone book metaphor again. When calling John Smith, we would start our search for his number in the phonebook by deciding between the yellow pages for business numbers versus white pages for personal numbers. This is what the Root name server does for us.
2. The Resolving name server then queries the appropriate TLD server, which points to the Authoritative name server. This would be like using the category and alphabetical sorting of the phonebook to find the specific page that lists all the “Smiths.”
3. The Resolving name server then queries the appropriate Authoritative name server, which will provide the website’s IP address. There could be a lot of “John Smiths” listed in the phonebook, so you would use street addresses to determine the exact phone number for the specific John Smith you’re trying to call.

The interviewer interrupts and asks, “Another important element related to DNS is caching — can you explain how that works?”

At this point, let’s assume we don’t know anything about caching, so we would say something like, “That’s really interesting, but I’m not sure how caching works in DNS processes. I would need to look into it a bit more to give an accurate answer.”

System design answer framework

• Step 1: Ask clarification questions
  • Understand the goal of the system (e.g., sell ebooks)
  • Establish the scope of the exercise (e.g., end-to-end experience, or just API?)
  • Gather scale and performance requirements (e.g., 500 transactions per second)
  • Mention any assumptions you're making out loud
• Step 2: Design at a high level 
  • Specify one or two metrics
  • Lay out the high-level components (e.g., front-end, web servers, database)
• Step 3: Drill down on your design
  • Drill down and design each component (e.g., front-end first)
  • Start with the components you're most comfortable with (e.g,. front-end if you're a front-end engineer)
  • Work with your interviewer to provide the right level of detail
• Step 4: Bring it all together
  • Refer back to the requirements to make sure your approach meets them
  • Discuss any tradeoffs in the decisions you've made
  • Summarize how the system would work end-to-end