Pass the interview. Lesson: Types and frequencies of PM interview questions. In this lesson, you will learn how to determine what type of question your interviewer asks you and how to proportionally allocate your study time to preparing for different interview types. The questions I'll train you on are real ones that big tech companies ask their PM candidates. Of course, for those of you who would like a PM experience in a startup company, this format may still be helpful as many startup companies draw interview questions and experiences from big companies, because, hey, your interviewer may have come from one. There are several reasons for this including, these questions allow me to give you the best coaching, having interviewed candidates at both Google and Amazon as well as startup companies. Big tech interviewing sets the practices for other organizations, as they acquire talent from those companies to lead their product management activity, and big tech companies offer a large number of PM jobs, with each company hiring hundreds of PMs on average per year. Let's study the types of questions big companies ask. For Google's PM interview questions, the question types will often extend from product design, strategy, estimation, behavioral, technical, and data analysis. For example, product design makes up about 32 percent of most Google PM interview questions. An example is, how would you improve Gmail? For strategy, which typically makes up about 18 percent, an example is, how would you solve homelessness in San Francisco? Fifteen percent is roughly estimation, with an example of, what will the market size be for driverless cars in the year 2050? Fourteen percent are behavioral, such as why would you make a good PM at Google? Thirteen percent is roughly technical, such as explain recursion to a seven-year-old. Lastly, about eight percent is data analysis, such as what metrics should Google Nest measure daily? For Amazon's PM interview questions, the most often is behavioral, such as tell me about a time when you stepped in to help a struggling peer and in the process earn trust. Twenty-seven percent is roughly strategy, such as what is the next big market that Amazon is not currently pursuing? About 14 percent is other. So this can be up to the type of product management role that you're looking at, ranging from amazon.com retail to Alexa, to Amazon Web Services, which is where I work, where some of the questions might be more technical in nature. For Microsoft's PM interview questions, the most common will be also behavioral, roughly at around 34 percent, such as tell me something that's not on your resume. Remaining questions may also include design questions, which comprise 21 percent, such as what would you improve about Microsoft Azure's UI? 21 percent may also be technical, such as describe how a depth first search works. Fourteen percent might be strategy oriented, such as how would you position the next generation of Xbox against PlayStation? Lastly, 10 percent is roughly other. Again, may be technical, may be oriented to the specific team or business unit that you're joining. Facebook's PM questions can roughly start with product sense, execution, and leadership and drive, are their three main categories. So starting with product sense, which is typically 45 percent of their interview questions, an example could be how would you build a product to assist people who are required to relocate for work? Another 45 percent can also be categorized under execution or data analysis. Usage of Facebook events dropped by 20 percent. You were the PM responsible. What did you do? The last 10 percent can be categorized as leadership and drive or behavioral. Tell me about a time you made a decision that did not pan out. If we combined all the question types across all four companies, we'd end up with roughly the following categories: behavioral, product design, strategy, execution or data analysis, technical, and estimation. Roughly, their frequency is as follows, from behavioral being the most common to then estimation being the least common. So let's prepare for your PM interviews according to the frequency and the likelihood of each type of question category appearing in your PM interview. For our See One, Do One, Teach One, I'll walk you through the types and examples of questions that Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft, will often ask of their product managers. But what about other companies? What do they ask of their product managers? Pick another company that you'd like to work for and find five questions they ask during their product management interviews. Finding previously asked interview questions is a useful skill to practice. Then, label each of the five interview questions you found based on our types of interview questions. Is each question a behavioral, design, strategy, execution, technical, or estimation question? Type the company name, five questions, and each question type. If a question spans more than one type or seems to fall outside of any of the types, pick the single type you think best represents it and briefly explain why. Doing this helps you think on your feet during an interview and quickly understand the interviewer's intentions. In the event that one of these interview questions truly does not fit in any of our categories, briefly explain the steps you take to answer this question in an organized way. Then, review a classmate's analysis. Were they able to find five questions for their dream company? Do you agree with how your classmate identified each interview question?
