The ultimate guide to engineering manager interviews. Developed by FAANG engineers, prep faster with proven strategies, real-world questions, and a structured approach. Get interview-ready in hours.

Engineers working as individual contributors may want to switch to management roles in the middle of their careers. A significant part of this transition will involve preparing for the engineering manager (EM) interview. This course is meant for folks preparing for an EM interview, enabling them to systematically cover the often-asked questions and strategies to come up with good answers.
The course begins with education about the EM role and the interview process for this role. It then covers the patterns and strategies to answer typical management questions in a story-like fashion. These involve people management, project and cross-functional management, and behavioral questions.
The course has been prepared by experienced engineering managers and directors for top-tier tech companies with years of experience giving and taking interviews for this role. This course will help you to persuasively present your own management experience during the interview and get your dream offer.

Acing the Engineering Manager Interview

Conflict is an inevitable part of working within a team. It can often be a source of improvement and growth for your team and your project if you know how to handle it in a healthy and nuanced manner. However, jumping in to solve it or picking a side isn't what a good manager would do. It's your responsibility to make sure your employees have the tools to come to a resolution themselves. They should also know that, as team players, they need to commit to whatever conclusion the team comes to, even if it's not what they suggested. 



# What the interviewer is looking for
- How you put an effort to look at both sides and ensure that everyone is heard.
- How you dictate which side you think is right or wrong.
- How you prioritize finding a way to respectfully disagree.
- How you know when to let go.
- How you empower your employees to resolve the conflict themselves. instead of hand-holding them through it.
- How you recognize that conflict can actually be good for the team as long as it's carried out and handled in a healthy manner.

# What a good answer looks like

“I was once in a position where two senior engineers on my team entered a conflict. Engineer A was new to the company and was writing a new stack to replace the current one, and they had eight engineers working under them. Engineer B had been with us for around a decade and had grown this place to where it was. They understood the end goal of Engineer A’s project but disagreed heavily with the execution. They said we shouldn’t be building a parallel stack but should simply be tweaking the one we already had. There was a lot of conflict around design and approach. Since these were senior employees, we expected them to resolve the matter on their own, but it came to a point where we had to get involved. During a 1:1 with me, Engineer A felt comfortable enough to confide that they had begun feeling insecure as they were new to the company, and they were worried the project might get canceled entirely. 

Our manager asked them about their concerns and worries. It turned out that Engineer B actually had a fair point regarding the execution because the new stack was being built for a new kind of media, while the previous kind was important for our customers, and it would actually take years to convert everything onto the new stack. We changed some of the project execution to factor in this concern and gave them feedback on how they could have resolved this themselves."

# Red flags in your answer

Some of the things that should not go in a good answer include:
- Taking a side.
- Labeling right and wrong.
- Letting your bias show and giving in to it.
- Handling the conflict but not taking steps to prevent it from happening again.
- Not putting enough effort into managing your employees’ emotions and consolidating trust.


Let's give an example of a time you had to handle conflict within your team.

Introduction

The EM Interview Loop

Management Interview Patterns and Strategies

People Management Questions

Project and Cross-functional Management

Behavioral Questions

Give an Example of When You Had to Handle Conflict Within the Team