The essential guide to technical program manager interviews. Learn from FAANG hiring managers how to confidently demonstrate your skills and get hired.

In this course, you will work through the most common interview questions that are asked in a technical program manager interview. Written by a TPM who has worked at multiple FAANG companies, you will get the inside scoop on what it takes to pass this difficult interview.

Beyond that, you will also get practical advice on the role of a TPM and how to thrive in this role. By the end of this course, you will have the confidence to ace your interview and be well equipped to perform on the job.

Hacking the TPM Interview

## Question ##
You mention on your resume that you moved the number of user sessions by X%. Why did you choose to measure this metric? How did you calculate it? What were your specific contributions in moving this metric? 

## Background ##
Assuming you have some program management experience, it is very likely that your resume mentions (or should mention) that you moved some metric by some percentage or value. It could be revenue generated, dollars saved, time saved, users gained, or something else. Being able to dive deep into these statements is important to show how engaged and hands-on you were in the project. This question is also good practice for thinking through what makes good success metrics and what the various trade-offs and edge cases are involved when doing so. 

## Solution approach ##
We'll breakdown our answer as follows: 

- Provide context into the project that moved this metric and why we chose to measure user sessions.
- Explain how we measured the metric. 
- Detail our specific contributions to the project.

This approach starts high-level, and then it goes into the necessary detail to demonstrate our contributions and domain expertise. 

## Sample answer ##

### Overview ###

I’ll start by providing a summary of the project and why we chose user sessions as our metric. Then, I'll discuss how we measured this metric and how we attributed the metric movement to our particular project. Lastly, I’ll talk about my particular contributions to the project. 

### Project summary ### 

This project was a new end-user facing feature that would surface more relevant content to users designed specifically to increase user engagement (i.e. increased clicks or scrolls) within the app. Our target was to increase engagement from our current user base only and not to gain new users. We chose user sessions because this would most accurately capture the increase in engagement our feature was aiming for.


# Question ##
You mention on your resume that you moved the number of user sessions by X%. Why did you choose to measure this metric? How did you calculate it? What were your specific contributions in moving this metric? 

# Background ##
Assuming you have some program management experience, it is very likely that your resume mentions (or should mention) that you moved some metric by some percentage or value. It could be revenue generated, dollars saved, time saved, users gained, or something else. Being able to dive deep into these statements is important to show how engaged and hands-on you were in the project. This question is also good practice for thinking through what makes good success metrics and what the various trade-offs and edge cases are involved when doing so. 

# Solution approach ##
We'll breakdown our answer as follows: 

- Provide context into the project that moved this metric and why we chose to measure user sessions.
- Explain how we measured the metric. 
- Detail our specific contributions to the project.

This approach starts high-level, and then it goes into the necessary detail to demonstrate our contributions and domain expertise. 

# Sample answer ##

## Overview ###

I’ll start by providing a summary of the project and why we chose user sessions as our metric. Then, I'll discuss how we measured this metric and how we attributed the metric movement to our particular project. Lastly, I’ll talk about my particular contributions to the project. 

## Project summary ### 

This project was a new end-user facing feature that would surface more relevant content to users designed specifically to increase user engagement (i.e. increased clicks or scrolls) within the app. Our target was to increase engagement from our current user base only and not to gain new users. We chose user sessions because this would most accurately capture the increase in engagement our feature was aiming for.


An example interview question about explaining a metric on your resume.


Metrics Sense: Explaining a Metric on Your Resume

An example interview question about explaining a metric on your resume.

What is Technical Program Management?

Interview Prep (a.k.a. Skills Development)

Practical Advice

Career Transitions

Final Thoughts

Metrics Sense: Explaining a Metric on Your Resume

Question

Background

Solution approach