Google Product Manager interview questions

Expect a very long interview process. I started interviewing in early october through a internal refferal. I did a phone interview with a current PM, who seemed a bit bored the entire time. He asked me questions about my resume and past projects. The design questions were pretty simple, for example "Design Google Radio." I found out about a flyout maybe 3 weeks later, then flew out in early November. The flyout was nice, if a bit long. I had 5 interviews of the course of the day, and they told me that the sixth had been canceled. The first two were product interviews, where I would talk about what I was passionate about, and then they would suggest a product based on that. It was fairly free form, so I don't think this method of interviewing leads to re-used questions. I had basic estimation question (How much does it cost to run Youtube for a day), and then lunch. Lunch was actually pretty bizzare, it was just talking with a Product Manager who had just graduated from the APM program. I think the point of this interview was to let me cool my heels and to see what I was like socially. He told me that less than half of his APM class was still working at Google, and seemed pretty jaded about working there. He seemed to think that the company culture had changed a lot, that politics was the only way to move up, and that getting on the right project was the only way to advance in the company. I had a really basic technical interview after lunch, then I was told I was done for the day. About two weeks later I was later contacted and told that while I excelled in all of my interviews, I wasn't quite what they were looking for. They said that they had only postive feedback, and asked me to interview for another position.

Interviewing at Google was quite a strange experience. A friend of mine who works as a software engineer forwarded my resume to the recruiting team. Regarding my background: I have 10+ years of experience, worked for a while in consulting, then as an IT director and founded a couple of startups so it seemed like a good fit. I also have a MS in physics from my home country and a MS in applied mathematics from Stanford. I was contacted the day after my friend submitted my resume. After a couple of emails exchanged with the recruiter, I was scheduled for a phone interview with the PM. The interviewer was a junior PM who had been with Google for a few months. Interestingly enough, I wasn't asked anything regarding my background, only a couple of textbook questions: "why does Starbucks expand the way they do having multiple stores next to each other?" and "how would you design a new computer keyboard?". The interviewer then proceeded to talk about Google for 15 minutes mostly about his own experience as a PM. Overall the call lasted about 45 minutes. I received an email a few hours after my interview letting me know that I would move on to the next round. After a week of radio silence, I sent an email inquiring about the status of my application and was told that they were swamped figuring out the interview schedule but would get back to me as soon as possible. The next day I received another email letting me know that I actually wouldn't move on to the next round but a couple of other teams were interested in my resume: a "stealth" project and the gTech team (sales support) as a Partner Technical Manager for Google shopping. I was then interviewed by a second recruiter for the PTM position who asked me very basic questions. "Do you have experience working with cross-functional teams?", "Can you code?", etc... I moved on to the next round with a second PTM recruiter who again asked me basic questions: "what motivates you to join this position?", "do you have experience working with partners?", etc... After the call I was told they would send my resume for the next rounds which consisted of 2 hangouts, followed by 3 on-site interviews. Again after a week I sent another email to the recruiter inquiring about the status of my application. I was told that basically I wouldn't move on to the next round but yet another team was interested in interviewing with me. I was given a self-assessment form to fill out: I had to give myself a grade from 1 to 5 on various topics ranging from coding, to management, to linux proficiency etc... I sent back the form but told them that at this point I had been interviewing for over a month and that I had other offers (I had already declined 2 offers to keep interviewing with them) and I needed an offer from them within a week. They told me they understood but couldn't accommodate me and that was the end of the recruiting process. Lesson learned: - Google recruiters are fast. They will work hard to find you a team that is a good fit for you. Be nice to them and they will go out of their way to send your resume to other recruiters if they cannot find you something. - You initial rounds of interview will be with junior employees (recruiters, PMs, etc...) even if you are an experienced candidate. Questions will be basic and may be unrelated to your areas of expertise but it's a way for them to weed out candidates. - The recruitment process varies from one team to the next and is specific to a particular project. For instance type of questions, number of phone/hangout/on-site interviews, etc... - The recruitment process is opaque; you will not get feedback on your interview performance and they will cancel interviews if they found a better candidate for the position even if you did well.