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

Top-performing team members are incredibly important, but can sometimes be a taxing resource on any team. Your job as a manager is to make sure your top performers’ skills are utilized to the fullest and that they're catered to according to their needs and abilities. They're usually highly ambitious and always up for a challenge, so you need to keep them engaged and maximize their possible contributions to the team.



# What the interviewer is looking for
- Whether you give top performers more time and attention or not.
- Whether your top performers are scaling themselves adequately and you're simultaneously able to groom others or not.
- Whether or not you involve them in the decision-making process for their work.
- Whether or not you work on gaining their confidence, lay a clear growth path for them, and reassure them that there's an opportunity for growth.
- Whether you give them direct feedback and appreciation or not.
- Whether you make sure to include stimulating challenges for them when you’re making goals for the next cycle or not.


# What a good answer looks like

“In my experience, top performers need to be handled differently than the rest of the team. They tend to be restless for growth and are always looking for new challenges. It’s important to have an open and transparent channel of communication with them so that they know you’re lining up opportunities for them to thrive. Otherwise, their interest might start to dwindle.

I worked with a top-performing engineering tech lead who was way smarter than I was as an engineer. In five years, they got to a point in their career that normally takes people fifteen years to reach. They were an incredible team player and a brilliant engineer. On top of that, they were really great with people. Others looked up to them, and they would find good opportunities for others. In fact, they wouldn’t want to implement every idea themselves---they’d get others in on it too. This way, they would get the credit, but others would have a chance to grow as well.

I worked with them for a year, and their next level was pretty clear. However, they felt conflicted about it. They wanted to try the management path but didn’t know if that would make things harder. So I connected them to mentors and shared my own experiences with them, explaining the differences between the management path and the IC path. In the end, they chose to try out management. My managers and I were of the opinion that since they were such a strong engineer, they were better off sticking to the IC path. But we decided to let them make their own decision. We figured out what areas they would support in the team and charted out a path for them.




Let's learn how to manage top performers.

Introduction

The EM Interview Loop

Management Interview Patterns and Strategies

People Management Questions

Project and Cross-functional Management

Behavioral Questions

How Do You Manage Top Performers?