Amazon Product Manager Interview Questions
Massive tech companies like Amazon have tons of products that require several product managers working together. Everything from Amazon Prime, Amazon Web Services , and Kindle require multiple product managers. You can check out Amazon product manager interview questions submitted by employees on Glassdoor to get an idea. The following list is a summation of all the Amazon product manager interview questions, including various phone and site interview questions. It can be hard to nail your dream job at Amazon down, but you can prepare for it effectively. If youre interested in learning the skill to excel in an Amazon product manager position, check out our certification courses below. Its best to decode and conquer each type of question before going for your interview.
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How Does The Amazon Tpm Interview Process Work
The Amazon TPM interview process is typically divided into the following stages.
Recruiter Phone Screen
First off, you will have a conversation with an Amazon recruiter over the phone. You can expect Amazon TPM phone interview questions addressing your area of expertise and professional background. These questions are mainly behavioral, like âhow would you handle a situation where â¦,â and the likes.
TPM Phone Screen
In this round, you can expect technical questions that test your ability to work as a TPM at Amazon. Recruiters check your technical eligibility for the post and decide if you should proceed with the on-site interviews through this screening.
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Writing Exercise
In several cases, you may also need to write an essay of one or two pages as a part of your preparation for on-site interviews. It can be on topics such as the most innovative project you have worked on or a time where you were able to simplify the lives of customers.
This tests your written communication skills.
On-site Interview
Once you clear the phone screen rounds, youâll face 4-6 on-site interviews at one of Amazonâs premises. It includes both one-on-one interviews and panel discussions with the team or division you are applying for.
You will speak to product managers, TPMs, software developers, software development managers, and the likes throughout the course of these interviews.
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What Are Your Two Main Product Management Principles
Hiring managers may ask this question to learn the philosophies you follow and the product manager training you’ve had. Your answer can show what values you hold for quality, leadership and production.
Example:”In my opinion, the two most important principles in product management are utility and reliability. When mentoring my teams, I like to stress that if a consumer needs a product and they find something they can use for a long time into the future, then we’ve done our job right.”
How Do You Know If A Product Has An Exceptional Design
This question tests your technical and product manager’s content knowledge. Interviewers are looking to understand what you know about the design process and quality assurance of a product. To answer, consider using an example of an actual product you’ve designed or worked on that had an excellent design and explain your criteria for determining if a product is good.
Example:”Last month, my team finished a design for a new handheld vacuum cleaner. The product was innovative, especially for pet owners, because it could clean furniture the same way a large vacuum cleans the floor. The design was also reliable, with the prototype working as promised in nine of 10 tests. According to the focus group tests, it was also easy to use and convenient to store, even for people in apartments and other small spaces.”
Related:How To Become a Product Manager
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Advanced Product Manager Interview Questions
Examples of Product Manager interview questions that some of the top tech companies ask candidates include:
| Think of a product you used today. What did you like about using it? What would you change? |
| Think of a product you hate to use. How would you improve it? |
| Please give an example of a tech trend to watch. |
| Give us your view on leadership. What makes a strong leader? |
| Think back to a time when you had a difficult problem to solve. How did you tackle it? |
| Have you ever made an unpopular decision on the job? What happened? |
| What innovation are you most proud of? |
| Think back to an example of a professional failure. What did you learn? |
| Explain your approach for improving X product? |
| Explain your approach to design X product for Y people? |
| Think of a real-world example of a competitive move a company has made recently. Give us your opinion on the move. |
| Define the concept of protocol. |
| What is typical page load time distribution on desktop, and how does it compare to mobile? |
| Choose any digital app or product. What would you do to improve it? |
| Whats your approach to optimizing the production process on a production chain? |
| Whats your approach to motivating users to return to use an app every single day? |
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The Bar Raisers Interview
Finally, no Amazon product manager interview is complete without participation from a Bar-raiser.
Bar-raisers are a group of select Amazon interviewers tasked with maintaining a company-wide quality bar for talent. For PMs, it’s expected that one of the five interviews will be with a Bar-raiser who intentionally will have little context on the actual Amazon product manager role or specific needs of the hiring manager. Amazon structures it this way to ensure the Bar-raiser is primarily concerned with candidate quality and not any acute team needs or demands .
Often, the Bar-raiser will be the toughest interview a candidate will face. Candidates can expect to be tested on the more nuanced leadership principles:
- Are Right, A Lot
- Insist on the Highest Standards
One common way bar raisers like to test the first principle is by asking something akin to “Tell me about a time you had to make a decision without data.” This question illuminates a candidate’s judgment, product intuition and how they default to decision making when they don’t have any data in front of them to guide them.
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New To The Pm Interview
If you’re new, you might feel more comfortable shadowing someone who’s doing a mock interview. The PM interview community is very friendly, so ask if you can listen and observe.Some folks want privacy, so that’s okay too. In that case, simply get a copy of . It’ll introduce you to question types & provide frameworks on how to answer each one. And reading the sample answers will give you the over-the-shoulder glance of how an interview response might unfold. You can read those sample answers anywhere, anytime. No permission necessary.
Wrapping Up And Next Steps
Many people want to break into technical program management. The role of a TPM is one that will continue to grow in demand as the need for cross-team and cross-functional collaboration increases. Landing a TPM role will require experience and preparation, but were here to help! If you want to get started preparing for your TPM interview, I highly recommend checking out Hacking the TPM Interview.
This course was written by an experienced TPM who has worked with multiple FAANG companies. Youll learn about what it takes to pass the difficult TPM interview, as well as get some practical advice on how to thrive in the role.
Happy learning!
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What Aspects Of Product Management Do You Find Exciting
At first, this may sound like a super-generic and overused question.
But believe me, its very important.
This is the chance to gauge what product management really means for the candidate.
Recruiters will use this question to judge the priorities of the potential TPM. To be specific, theyll want to see if the candidate is passionate about:
- Creative/Out-of-thinking
- Working with different teams
- Pushing their mental limits to achieve something great
I think we can all agree that everything I mentioned above is what makes product management beautiful.
If the candidate lists the wrong reasons, such as decent pay or the chance to boss people around, the interviewer could mark it down as a red flag.
If you’re looking for technical interview questions more in-depth, we have a Technical Product Manager Certification that goes over these questions and more.
What Is It About Our Product That Excites You
Keep in mind that the interviewer might choose to ask this question right in the beginning .
Solid preparation is the mark of a strong candidate.
If they dont know the product theyd be working on, its going to look bad.
In case theyre not aware of the project theyre being interviewed for, they should at least do some research about their potential employer.
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Amazon Senior Product Manager Interview Questions
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- Sveti Andra v Slovenskih Gori
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I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon
Interview
Overblown, intense and sometimes irrelevant. On the positive side, they really try to give you a lot of information to help you succeed. Recruiting is helpful and there is a lot of information you can consume about the process. Heres the big however in this: I do believe some interviewers work well within this process, but there are sooo many that focus on the process and forget the actual point of interviewing and hiring.
Additional Technical Product Manager Interview Questions
| How do you define market opportunity in a business plan? |
| To build your product roadmap, what inputs do you use? |
| What is a product you cant live without? How would you improve it? |
| Please explain how you managed the roadmap for a product in the past. |
| Define machine learning. |
| Have you attained a product management certification? |
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Nailing Your Amazon Product Manager Interview Using The Star Framework
If you want to nail your Amazon product manager interview, your best bet would be to use the STAR framework. This technique helps you give your interviewers elaborate answers, which will provide them with more than enough details to know that youre the right person for them. The STAR framework consists of four steps:
Name Some People Or Products Who Influence Your Approach To Product Design Management
This question can help interviewers learn more about your training and inspiration in product design management. Consider making a written or mental list of your inspiration before the interview to reference, especially if you have multiple influencers.
Example:”My first supervisor at my first product design job still influences how I run a team today. She was frequent and clear in her communications and always had the time to schedule individual meetings for members that had questions. She provided only constructive criticism and made the office a welcoming place to visit and a safe place to share new ideas. I try to model my supervisory practices after her.”
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Do You Have Experience With Xyz Methodologies
Developing a new product from scratch whether its a lightweight B2C SaaS or a comprehensive suite for business managers takes time.
But product teams dont have all the time in the world. There are deadlines to meet and competitors to beat.
To keep up with all of those challenges and ensure the products success, people have come up with different methodologies over the years.
The most widely recognized is the agile methodology.
To test the candidates technical know-how and level of hands-on experience, a recruiter might ask if they have ample experience with any of the methodologies.
Phase Two: Interview Scheduled
The second phase involves action items after receiving your interview request from Amazon. Here are the steps youll take in this phase:
First off, you should be reviewing your resume and preparing a personal pitch to highlight your previous experiences using Product Manager terminology. Given Amazons strong emphasis on Leadership Values, you will also have to incorporate those aspects to ensure that your pitch entirely satisfies what the recruiter is looking for.
We have prepared an extensive guide for our members to develop their elevator pitches and figure out how to answer the common behavioral questions. Heres also a video tutorial we created:
Next, youll need to ready for case study questions and potentially take-home assignments. In the past, we have created a couple of guides to help our members to address these questions:
Lastly, you should be familiarizing yourself with relevant technical concepts. While a Product Manager is not required to learn to program, they should know how things work from a technical perspective. Heres a list of a few valuable resources to prepare for technical questions:
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Lets Say You Get A Budget Cut How Would You Tackle Such A Situation
When creating a new product, prioritization matters a lot.
In fact, the ability to prioritize tasks is often included in the required skillsets of TPM job descriptions.
A sudden budget cut can hamper progress and force development teams to cut corners.
However, it can also encourage creative thinking.
To gauge where the candidate stands, the recruiter might pop this question during the interview.
Not only will this help tell about the candidates mindset, but also their ability to deal with executives.
Star Stands For Situation Task Action And Result
We hope you found this blog on Amazon PM interview questions useful. If you wish to build a career as a Product Manager, check out our top Product Management certification courses here.
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What Can You Expect In This Round
This is the most complex of all the rounds in the Amazon technical program manager interview process. Expect questions divided into technical , program management, and behavioral.
Compared to other companies, where you can expect much more twisted questions, clearing Amazonâs interview process can be relatively simple because it tends to follow a pattern. All you need to do is give equal importance to the behavioral questions as to technical and program management questions.
Some resources to help you with your prep:
Amazon Product Manager Interview Guide
Preparing for FAANG product management interviews can seem like a challenging task at first. Especially if you are interviewing for a company like Amazon, you need to be at the top of your game regarding technical competency and knowledge about Amazon’s leadership principles. Resume reviews and can help you land that golden opportunity of interviewing for Amazon. Still, this interview guide will walk you through everything you need to know as you prepare for your dream offer as an Amazon Product Manager!
This Amazon Product Manager interview guide covers the following topics:
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Preparing For Amazon Behavioral Questions
Now, its important to understand that talking about your skills is only one part of the equation. You also need to be ready for Amazon behavioral interview questions.
Amazon adores behavioral interview questions. Usually, its because of the belief that past behavior indicates future success. Plus, it gives them clues about a candidates personality and behavioral traits, as well as how well a person aligns with the companys core leadership principles .
Some of these can be a little tricky, but when handled properly, behavioral interview questions are also chances to shine. Begin by embracing the STAR Method. With that, you can take a boring response and carefully polish it into a captivating answer. Couple that with the Tailoring Method, and you have an approach that focuses on personalization, customizing your responses to the role and company.
In fact we we wanted to let you know that we created an amazing free cheat sheet that will give you word-for-word answers for some of the toughest interview questions you are going to face in your upcoming interview. After all, hiring managers will often ask you more generalized interview questions!
