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    Facebook Product Manager Interview Questions

    Interviews at Facebook

    105 Interview Reviews

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    Helpful (20)  

    Product Manager Interview

    Anonymous Interview Candidate
    No Offer
    Positive Experience
    Average Interview

    Application

    I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at Facebook.

    Interview

    Got a referral through an employee and got a screen with a recruiter. After a conversation, was invited for the first onsite as a local hire. Recruiter prepared me for structure, which tests for product sense and execution.

    The day of, I got 2 pairs of interviewers back to back, with 1 shadowing each main interviewer. Some questions below. I was surprised by the amount of behavioral questions that I minimized preparation for, focusing on case questions. One of the interviewers seemed to have a preset notion of an answer he wanted to hear and was stunned that I actually asked structured questions. I got nervous from lack of feedback and sort of botched my answer. So I wound up doing well on one but needing some more prep for the other interview.

    The good part is that you can study up and try again.

    Interview Questions

    • How would you use groups to promote an event?   7 Answers
    • What's a project you're proud of?   1 Answer

    Other Interview Reviews for Facebook

    1. Helpful (21)  

      Product Manager Interview

      Anonymous Interview Candidate in Menlo Park, CA
      Declined Offer
      Difficult Interview

      Application

      I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Facebook (Menlo Park, CA).

      Interview

      Incredibly exhausting single-day set of product interviews (with six people) starting at 9am and ending around 5pm. Extremely smart people and I really enjoyed the conversations. They give product managers a lot of responsibility.

      Interview Questions

      • Run of the mill questions about engineering and wireframing. Had to talk about projecting the future.   1 Answer

    2. Helpful (325)  

      Product Manager Interview

      Anonymous Employee in Menlo Park, CA
      Accepted Offer
      Positive Experience
      Difficult Interview

      Application

      I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Facebook (Menlo Park, CA) in February 2015.

      Interview

      I interviewed with Facebook in Feb'15. I first had a brief screening with a recruiter, followed by two phone interviews, each 45 minutes long and then an onsite with 3 back to back interviews each 45 min long.

      I had applied to FB directly and got a call from the recruiter. The recruiter was super helpful throughout each step of the process. In the initial call, he asked me basic questions about my previous job and why I wanted to join Facebook.

      Phone Interviews:
      As many have already mentioned, FB PM interviews fall into 3 categories: 1. Product Design (PD), 2. Product Sense (PS) and 3. Leadership&Drive (LD) interviews.

      My first phone interview was PD interview where the interviewer stated by asking which feature I was most proud of. Then he followed up with how would you improve that feature. Then he asked me how would I design FB for blind people. Lastly, he invited me to ask few questions of him.

      My second phone interview was PS. Here FB is trying to get a sense of how good you are at understanding metrics and making tradeoffs amongst different metrics. My first question was if you are the PM for FB Pages, then how would you decide what goals and roadmap to have 1 year out. Then the interviewer asked me how would I do it for 50 years out. He also asked me to go into some detail of why I chose the metrics that I chose and how would I improve them (roadmap part). Next, he asked me the following question: Let us say you are sitting with a mobile analyst whom you can ask any question. You are looking at DAU data across the world and notice that there has been a jump of 5% compared to yesterday in Indonesia. What would you ask the analyst? Lastly, I was given 15 min to ask questions.
      This interview lasted almost 70 min though it was supposed to be for 45 min.

      Both interviewers guided me / gave me hints when I got stuck or asked relevant questions for solving the problems given to me.

      After the phone interview, recruiter called up after 3-4 days to let me know that I have moved to onsite round. He also gave me feedback on what I did well on and what needed improvement to succeed in next round. This was super helpful as I focused my energies on addressing the areas for improvement.

      Onsite Interview:
      I had 3 onsite interviews, each 45 min long, starting at 10am. In each of the interviews, there was a shadow interviewer too, so in all, I met 6 people during the interviews. Shadow interviewers decision/vote does not count in the hiring process, I was told.

      First was PD, followed by LD and lastly PS.
      PD: What app FB should build next? How would you improve a FB app of your choice. I had a really good discussion with PM on all the questions.

      PS: I do not remember the details of this interview except that I did not do it so well.

      LD: This was behavioural interview with examples from my previous job. Here they are looking for how self aware you are, what is your leadership style, how do you handle failures and how good are you at accepting mistakes.

      After the interviews were over, another FB PM took me to lunch (while my interviewers met to discuss if they needed a 4th interview). Recruiter had told me that sometimes when they want to dig deeper into anything, they might schedule a 4th interview. The PM who took me to lunch had 4 interviews. Thankfully, I did not have 4th interview.

      All the interviewers were very courteous, down to earth and I had a very pleasant experience.

      Recruiter call me about 5 days later to let me know that I had the offer. He also gave me feedback on what went well and what didnt (PS).

      Focus on following:
      1. Tie everything back to FB's vision.
      2. Always start with goal and user personas, followed by defining needs/pain points and then feature design.
      3. I practiced/'solved' all the questions listed on glassdoor FB PM interviews, which helped me immensely. While almost all questions were new, but the pattern was same. The more you practice the questions the better you become at thinking on your feet during the interview and following the PM thought process without much stumbling.

      Interview Questions

      • How would you build FB for blind people?   8 Answers
      3. Join the Facebook team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. Helpful (23)  

      Product Manager Interview

      Anonymous Interview Candidate in San Francisco, CA
      No Offer
      Positive Experience
      Average Interview

      Application

      I applied through an employee referral. The process took 5 days. I interviewed at Facebook (San Francisco, CA) in April 2015.

      Interview

      I thought the questions asked were fair. I liked how you got 2 interviews and that it wasn't just based on 1 person's assessment. The interviewers were very nice and patient. It wasn't just 1 or 2 questions, I felt like there were many that somehow all related to one another. I was supposed to get 2 different types of interviews, but in all honesty, it felt like they were both the same - the focus is on product, of course, and knowing the data to support your decisions.

      Interview Questions

      • [Product] is in trouble, numbers are down. How would you improve it?   3 Answers

    4. Helpful (6)  

      Product Manager Interview

      Anonymous Employee in Menlo Park, CA
      Accepted Offer
      Positive Experience
      Average Interview

      Application

      I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4+ weeks. I interviewed at Facebook (Menlo Park, CA) in July 2013.

      Interview

      2 phone screens, then an onsite interview consisting of 5 separate interviews. Very quick process, got calls back within a few days and an offer package within a week of interviewing

      Interview Questions

      • How do you prioritize competing features?   1 Answer

    5. Helpful (9)  

      Product Manager Interview

      Anonymous Employee in Menlo Park, CA
      Accepted Offer
      Positive Experience
      Difficult Interview

      Application

      I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Facebook (Menlo Park, CA) in February 2014.

      Interview

      There are several interviews that one has to go through in order to be considered. After passing the recruiter screen, I went through a phone screen where I had a discussion with the hiring manager, who would gauge my fit for the team/company. Once passed, I went on to a full interview where several members of the team would interview me from different perspectives, technical depth, continued cultural fit, and basic PM skillset

      Interview Questions

      • A scenario where a project didn't go according to initial plan, and what you did overcome that change/roadblock.   1 Answer

    6. Helpful (15)  

      Product Manager Interview

      Anonymous Interview Candidate in Menlo Park, CA
      No Offer
      Positive Experience
      Difficult Interview

      Application

      I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Facebook (Menlo Park, CA) in May 2013.

      Interview

      1. Phone screen by Recruiter.

      2. First on-site with 2 PM interviewers.

      3. Second on-site with 3 PM interviewers and a Director of PM

      4. I think this is not usual but I had a follow-on call with a senior PM too.

      Everything about the interview process - from the instructions to sign-in to transitioning from one interviewer to the next - was done very smoothly and professionally, which made a really strong impression.

      However, they rejected me for the PM role and wanted to consider me for other roles. During the transition from one team to another, things started to fall through the cracks.

      Nevertheless, great impression of the company overall.

      Interview Questions

      • Questions were around:
        * Product operations - What are the "costs" involved in maintaining feature X.
        * Data - what metrics would you use? How would you interpret this graph?
        * Design - Let's redesign Facebook pages for small businesses.
        * Strategy - Why do you think Facebook bought Parse?
        * Big vision idea - What big idea / areas do you think Facebook should invest in?   2 Answers

    7. Helpful (1)  

      Product Manager Interview

      Anonymous Interview Candidate in Seattle, WA
      No Offer
      Negative Experience
      Easy Interview

      Application

      I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Facebook (Seattle, WA) in July 2015.

      Interview

      The last minute the onsite was cancelled, and the HR said the headcount was frozen and they will reopen it after several months. Then after the said time span I ping-ed the HR twice and he didn't response. End of the story. I don't know why they didn't response to my mails now, since I already passed 2 phone interviews and gained onsite entrance.

      Interview Questions

      • Design features, prioritize it.   1 Answer

    8. Helpful (15)  

      Product Manager Interview

      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      No Offer
      Positive Experience
      Difficult Interview

      Application

      I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4+ weeks. I interviewed at Facebook in January 2016.

      Interview

      I was contacted via a recruiter who found me on LinkedIn. I interviewed for a specialized Product Manager role in the Menlo Park office, but since I do not live on the West Coast my interviews were all via videoconference and phone.

      I had 1 screening call with the recruiter, then 3 videoconference interviews: 1 with the hiring manager, 1 product execution interview (2 questions), and 1 product sense interview (2 questions). The interviews were generally pleasant and moved fast (all 45 min each except for the 30 min initial screen). I advanced between each of the 3 videoconference rounds and was given the notification of the advancement by my recruiter in between each -- it usually took 1 week to set up each subsequent interview.

      The screening with the recruiter was a review of my background and the position.

      The interview with the hiring manager was a deeper review of my background, then questions about my strengths and weaknesses as a product lead. Then we spoke about the team I would be joining and the role itself.

      Next was the product execution interview. I especially enjoyed the product execution interview because the interviewer was someone known in the tech space and a very strong interviewer -- he was very helpful in guiding the discussion, and I left thinking that he was someone I would absolutely love to work with. The questions he asked were centered around prioritizing how users are presented with modules and products on the FB app (particularly People You May Know vs an ad, and a new local search product).

      Next was the product sense interview. My final interviewer was weaker as an interviewer -- he did not provide as much guidance during the discussion and seemed more junior than my previous interviewers. He first asked me to pick a product I want to work on at FB and what I would do to improve it. Then, he asked an off-the-cuff question about my current industry during the product sense interview, which I believe to be was what led me not to move forward in the hiring process -- I made the big mistake of taking the question literally and went down the wrong path of providing a high level business strategy from the point of view of the business rather than a product strategy from the point of view of the user.

      After this interview my recruiter infomed me that they would not move forward.

      I was disappointed after getting this far into the interview process to have it end at this point-- I believe I could have advanced to the final round (it was my next step in the process), but it was definitely my mistake for not keeping the scope of my answer from a product standpoint in my last interview.

      Interview Questions

      • What would you do if you were the editor in chief of a magazine?   3 Answers

    9. Helpful (8)  

      Product Manager Interview

      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      No Offer
      Negative Experience
      Easy Interview

      Application

      I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Facebook in March 2016.

      Interview

      Have been recommended twice by former co-workers/current employees. Passed the phone screens 4 times with 4 different HR people only to have the hiring manager not want to do the phone interview with me. I'm 40+ so and it feels like I haven't made it further because the hiring managers are uncomfortable working with people older and/or more experienced than them. I'm in tech, haven't had a boss older than me since I was in my 20s, it doesn't bother me. And, if they met me and didn't want to hire me I could understand that too. Not being able to get an interview is a real problem.

      The HR people were very nice and efficient.

      Interview Questions

      • We discussed a specific product and what I thought of it. They picked the product where I had the most experience and asked about how I would make their product better. Also asked a couple of questions about my personal strengths and weaknesses. They wanted to know about my technical experience and my experience launching products.   Answer Question
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