Technical Program Management - General Interview Tips:
• Please be concise but bit detailed in engaging with your interviewers. Since the interviews are only
an hour max and various areas/skills are assessed from each interviewer, make sure your response
does not go beyond a minute or two.
• For scenario-based questions, elaborate on the following.
o What is the problem?
o How did your team solve it?
o What’s your role in solving the problem?
o What data you used to solve the problem?
o How did you resolve conflicts?
o What was the end result? Did the solution really solve the problem?
• Do not use the same example for each scenario-based question.
• Be ready to demonstrate your leadership experience that includes skills you learned over the years,
the constructive feedback you got from your manager/peers and the learnings from your mistakes.
• How do you measure the success of a program? Provide data points.
What can you expect from the interviewers?
• From Program Managers
o Candidate’s Interpersonal skills, leadership experience, cross-team collaboration &
execution style, behavioral-based questions & answers.
• From Product Managers
o Managing scope partnering with PM, program tracking and oversight experience,
behavioral-based questions & answers.
• From Engineering Managers
o Software system design, technical acumen called out in the resume, behavioral-based
questions & answers.
Interview format from each interviewer:
• Introduction (5 mins max)
• Candidate experience and competency (20 mins max)
• Behavioral/ Scenario based questions (20 mins max)
• Wrap up/ any questions for the interviewer (15 mins)
Interview Panel:
• 2 Program Managers
• 2 Engineering Managers
• 1 or 2 Product Managers
Example Hypothetical and Behavioral questions:
• You just got out of the leadership meeting and you have been assigned a new program, how do you
take it from there?
• Tell me about a time where you were given a feedback from your manager for improvement and
how did you approach it?
• Give an example on how you identified the roadblock for delivering the milestone and how you
resolved it?
• What are the areas you are working on right now to improve yourself as a better TPM?
• Give an example where you have to escalate the timelines for a dependency deliverable and why you
have to do it?
• Is there a time you thought the team you are working with are not listening to your ideas and how
did you handle it?
• Tell me about a time where you thought waterfall approach is better than Agile and why?
• Give an example where you have to use data to justify the decision made, what was the end result?
Did the team agree to the decision?
• Have you compromised the quality of the product? If so, why you have to do it?
• One of the projects you are handling is behind schedule, how did you communicate this delay to the
leaders and what was the feedback from the leadership team?
