Google Product Manager Interview Questions & Reviews
Overview |
| |
Salaries |
| |
Reviews |
| |
Interviews |
| |
Photos |
| |
Jobs |
| |
|
Updated Feb 10, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
|
Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 44 ratings 
“Difficult” Interview
|
Interview Experience [?] Based on 44 ratings
|
See who your friends know who've worked at Google and could give you an inside look.
See who your friends know who've worked at Google and could help you prep for an interview.
| 1–10 of 44 Google Interviews | Sort by |
Product Manager at Google
Posted Feb 10, 2012
|
3.0
Average Interview
|
Overall Positive Experience
|
Interviewed and No Offer
|
Interviewed Nov 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took 3 months)
I had an initial phone screen with a product manager from another group. Then I had a series of face to face interviews with other product managers and with an engineering manager. These interviews consisted of real-world Google product manager problems and discussion of how I might attempt to understand those problems and resolve them.
A few weeks later I met with a manager and was asked similar questions about problem solving and another question about a product that I like to use, why I like to use it, and how I would improve it (other interviewers had asked this one too). Finally, again a few weeks later, I met with a Director and the process was repeated.
After the interviews were finished, the information was sent to a hiring committee and my candidacy was voted on.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Product Manager at Google
Posted Feb 9, 2012
|
3.0
Average Interview
|
Overall Positive Experience
|
Interviewed and No Offer
|
Interviewed Jun 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took a day)
got a call from the recruiter, a few days later got a phone screen that lasted about 45 mins.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Product Manager at Google
Posted Dec 22, 2011
|
3.0
Average Interview
|
Overall Neutral Experience
|
Interviewed and No Offer
|
Interviewed Dec 2011 (took 2 weeks)
Applied online for the position and one week later got an email from a recruiter asking for some more background information. Interview was scheduled for next week with a product manager.
Interview consisted of an estimation problem and some behavioral question.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Product Manager at Google
Posted Dec 21, 2011
|
4.0
Difficult Interview
|
Overall Positive Experience
|
Interviewed and No Offer
|
Interviewed Feb 2011 in New York, NY (took 4 weeks)
I had two phone interviews: the first was more product-focused: Let's talk about some Google products you use. What would you improve in them? How exactly would you improve this? Alright, now let's talk about Google Docs. If we wanted to add offline functionality and we wanted to automatically cache some documents, how would you go about deciding which ones?
The second interview also had some more general-purpose thinking questions. Like, if you are on a chessboard and you want to move a piece from the top left to the bottom right corner according to these rules, what is the minimum number of moves that would take?
All in all, a pleasant enough process with a responsive recruiter managing it.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Product Manager at Google
Posted Aug 31, 2011
|
4.0
Difficult Interview
|
Overall Positive Experience
|
Interviewed and No Offer
|
Interviewed Apr 2011 (took 4+ weeks)
Recruiter found my CV online. Total of 7 1:1 interviews: 1 phone interview with recruiter, 1 phone interview with PM, then 4 other PMs on site (1 remote video conf) and 1 eng. director.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Product Manager at Google
Posted Jun 30, 2011 — 2 of 2 people found this helpful
|
4.0
Difficult Interview
|
Overall Neutral Experience
|
Interviewed and No Offer
|
Interviewed Mar 2009 (took 2 days)
Phone screening is fairly aggressive, like making an attempt to demonstrate you're just not worthy of being there. That kind of attitude permeated the on-site interviewing as well. The "test" portion is mostly an effort to show that you could be joining this elite club, but only if you prove your worth. It came off as a bit intimidating and arrogant, but not insufferably so. Try to read through the sample questions on Business Insider and elsewhere on the web to get a sense of the problem-solving type questions you are going to face. While there might not be "wrong answers" to some of the open-ended problems, there is definitely an ability to shine or fizzle when you get the floor.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Product Manager at Google
Posted Jun 26, 2011 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
|
3.0
Average Interview
|
Overall Positive Experience
|
Interviewed and No Offer
|
Interviewed Jun 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took 4+ weeks)
I went through 8 rounds of interviews, 2 over the phone and 6 face-to-face. They always asked me how I would improve or change an existing Google product. I was also asked about hypothetical product ideas that were outside of my field of expertise to see how well I can think on my feet. They also seem to put special emphasis on education.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Product Manager at Google
Posted Jun 25, 2011 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
|
4.0
Difficult Interview
|
Overall Neutral Experience
|
Interviewed and No Offer
|
Interviewed May 2011 in New York, NY (took 5+ weeks)
Name a site you like. Why do you like it. How would you improve it?
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Product Manager at Google
Posted Jun 20, 2011
|
4.0
Difficult Interview
|
Overall Neutral Experience
|
Interviewed and No Offer
|
Interviewed Mar 2010 in London, England (United Kingdom) (took 3 months)
The interviews were by engineers on technical knowledge and basic programming skills (e.g. understanding recursion and iteration), as well as product managers who covered business models, strategy, approach to designing products, and a lot of mental modelling and calculation exercises, to see how a candidate breaks down a problem and figures out a rough answer - in one or two cases a precise numeric value was required, not just a description of the variables that would be used to calculate it.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Product Manager at Google
Posted Jun 11, 2011
|
3.0
Average Interview
|
Overall Positive Experience
|
Interviewed and No Offer
|
Interviewed May 2011 (took 1+ week)
I was contacted by a Google recruiter, and said that Google was interested in my background. He asked me to provide some additional information -- GPA for undergrad and grad school, GRE scores(!), etc. The recruiter communication was smooth, but I don't understand the emphasis on GPA and test scores for someone with over 12 years of work experience. Anyway, I was scheduled for a phone interview with a Google product manager for ten days later.
The phone interview lasted 45-50 minutes, and was very conceptual, other than an initial "tell me about yourself" question). There were several hypothetical questions about products, and some questions about Google's market position and competitors. The interviewer was very methodical and polite, and even though I knew by the end of the interview that I had not satisfactorily answered all his questions, I left with a good feeling about the overall experience, because the questions were thought-provoking and open-ended, and I had fun answering them.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
RSS Feed for Google
Interviews
Embed
