Technical Program Manager Interview Questions

Ashley C. - "I follow a variation of the RICE framework when prioritizing how I ship product features. I start by looking at: Reach: Because the customer segmentation across our product portfolio is so similar, I tend to hold a lot of weight on product features that will maximize our customer reach with a minimal LOE. Impact: After establishing which customer segments will benefit from the product feature, I determine the urgency and estimated impact on each customer segment based on customer i"See full answer

Hamzeh J. - "Evaluate how much the issue affects the sprint goal and timeline. If it blocks the main goal, it needs to be prioritized. Discuss the issue with the team. Analyze the root cause of the issue. Is it because of unclear requirements or a design flaw? You may need to re-prioritize tasks. If the issue is serious enough to delay or change the sprint goal, communicate the updates to stakeholders and manage their expectations. Keep an eye on the solution’s progress and adjust your plans a"See full answer

dreamingincode - "In the API design, the interviewer is switching between RPC style (operation based endpoints) and REST style (resource oriented). Sticking to one convention and explaining why it is preferred over the other e.g. REST if the twitter domain maps nicely to resources e.g. /tweet or /follower or /user would help to create a more consistent and unified API. It would make it easier for clients to integrate with the API as well."See full answer

Saket S. - "I will divide my answer in 2 parts: Process I use for managing risks in any Project I will explain a real life situation where a Risk occurred and how I managed it Process for Risk Management can be broken down into 3 parts: Risk Identification: Risk identification is a team effort and is an ongoing process that happens throughout the Project. Technical Risks are usually identified during design/build/testing stage. I maintain a Risk register document to capture all the risks identified"See full answer

Chitapuram N. - "Since there is a need for the data to be accurate and consistent without any latency to allocate a spot, can't the data be synchronously synced to replicas after every write as the number of writes are not many per min, instead of read lock phenomena Let me know if i am on a wrong thought here."See full answer

A R. - "I liked the role of a TPM due to the opportunity to contribute to the multiple dimensions of software product development. As a TPM I need to collaborate with multiple teams like Engineering, Product, and other business functions, but I also get the opportunity to contribute to the technical aspects of the program/project. I can use my sharp analytical skills to identify/anticipate problems, and leverage my problem solving skills to unblock the teams. I orchestrate multiple teams effort to del"See full answer

Daniel P. - "Okay, so I understand the question: "how does Google Maps compute estimated time of arrival"... There are a couple scenarios when ETA is calculated: planning a future journey, planning current journey. Can we assume scope to the current journey? The learnings will likely be transferable. User inputs to ETA include origin, destination, and route chosen. Let's assume first that the user has chosen an origin, destination, and a route chosen. We can come back to these assumptions later. The way I'"See full answer

Rajesh V. - "As a PM i received a feedback from my program manager on my style of verbal communication. It is about me speaking faster when i wanted to get away with a topic that i wasn't confident (may be not backed up with data, or still in process of getting detailed insight of a problem etc.). Whereas when I'm confident I tend to speak slowly or more assertively that made people to follow easily. I welcomed that feedback so from then on when I'm not confident in a topic I became more assertive to let pe"See full answer

Surbhi A. - "Authentication verifies "Who you are." Authorization determines "What you can do." Authentication establishes identity, while authorization specifies the actions or resources a user or entity is allowed to access or perform."See full answer

Oriole O. - "Situation : During my time in my previous company, I was leading a program which involved a cross-functional team. The project was to migrate all the legacy servers to Azure and had a tight deadline of 4 months. Each team had distinct goals and responsibilites to be delivered Task : My task was to collaborate with the multi regional team and ensure a smooth delivery within the defined budget and schedule. Action : I believe communication is the key to handle a cross-functional team"See full answer

Ross B. - "I most want to communicate a few principals of conflict resolution that I believe were integral in this situation, which are mutual respect, a results orientation, an unwavering focus on the user. To that end, here’s how I’d like to structure this answer: First, I’ll tell you about the project we were working on, to provide some background for you. Second, I’ll describe the disagreement. Third, I’ll describe how we arrived at a solution, and finally, I’ll discuss how those 3 conflict resolu"See full answer

Adarsh S. - "Thanks for the question! This is one of my favourite topics because it’s at the core of what we do as PMs DAILY: making the complex simple to drive alignment. I’ve got a structured way to approach this, and I’ll use it to explain payment aggregators - like Plaid - and how they enable Open Banking, with a twist about a technical hiccup I’ve seen in practice. Let’s dive in. I start by assessing the audience. Say I’m talking to a marketing manager at Transak - someone sharp but not techni"See full answer

Pramod V. - "Referring to https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/03/23/15-strategies-for-balancing-competing-stakeholder-priorities/?sh=7c82aa68262f Understand the conflicting priorities and align it with the goal/ objectives and the company mission. Start with the Least Common Denominator between the conflicting priorities to come to a commonality and start from there to objectively approach the next imp priority Always keep communication on and be transparent with 'equality' an"See full answer

Kamal .. - "Designing a video streaming system like Netflix or Facebook Video involves addressing multiple aspects, such as scalability, availability, low latency, and high performance. Here's a high-level design: System Requirements Functional Requirements: User Management: User sign-up, login, and profile management. Subscription plans and payment integration (for Netflix-like systems). Content Management: Upload, edit, and delete videos. Categorize content (genres, recommendations). Video Playback: S"See full answer

Vijay P. - "Explained in STAR format one of the project situation where I had originally approved problem with different design which was correct approach that time. But as the project progressed that approach needed revision. Emphasized on facts why original approach was taken with points. Also focused tail end of discussion on learnings out of situation and how you end up deploying better solution from that learning."See full answer

Sankar S. - "We will not always have all the required data to make a decision quickly. We need to work with ambiguity effectively by tying up the available facts with intuition."See full answer

Hans - "Situation: Was given negative feedback about an aspect of my communications. The person said it made them worried because of the brevity and the format of some messages. (Their worry was that a longer negative message was coming) Task(s): Reflected on feedback about my communication style. Acknowledged the point. Assumed best intentions on the part of the person giving the feedback Saw things from the other person's point of view Action(s): In private - Apologised to the person wh"See full answer

Harshita G. - "Is the "idea" I'm trying to sell something new or built off an existing service/product we offer? Interviewer: Let's assume new. Assuming it's a proper sit-down meeting with senior management to go over the proposal, here is what the slide deck would contain. Introduction/Description of the problem I'm trying to solve: Before proposing a solution, it is important to first identify the problem we're trying to solve. This section would contain the description of the problem/pain poi"See full answer

Shiva K. - "Increasing a development team's productivity by 25% requires a multifaceted approach that addresses various aspects of team dynamics, processes, and individual performance. Here's a structured approach to tackle this challenge: Assess Current Productivity Levels: Before implementing any changes, it's crucial to understand the current productivity levels of the team. This can be measured through metrics such as velocity (for Agile teams), time-to-market, defect rates, etc. **Identify Bo"See full answer