Google Product Manager Interview Guide

Table of content

Google's Background

“Let me Google that” has become a common phrase in many of people’s lives. Do you have any questions? Google will tell you the answer. Need any recommendations? Google will help you make a decision. Need directions to your destination? Google will tell you the best route to take.

Google is a staple in the world we live in and is an implicit part of our daily lives. Consequently, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is the largest internet company in the world. Google is also the most used product in the world with over 4.3 billion users. Let’s take a look at how the company became this big.

Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in their dorm rooms. They built a new search engine algorithm that used links to determine the importance of web pages. The algorithm proved successful and the company started receiving investments and funding which was used to grow the search engine’s user base. Page and Brin didn’t want the hassle of maintaining the business, hence they wanted to sell Google early on. Ironically they were rejected multiple times, even by Yahoo.

Instead, in 2001 they hired Eric Schmidt, a proven tech company CEO, as the CEO of Google. From there, Google kicked into overdrive and launched innovative improvements to the search engine on a consistent basis such as Google AdSense, Google Images, Google Scholar, Google Maps, Google Analytics, and Google Translate. They also introduced Gmail which was the start of what is now known as Google Workspace, a collection of business and collaboration tools. In addition to these new launches, Google made one of the most iconic acquisitions in history by acquiring YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion.

As Google grew tremendously, the company acknowledged that they had to restructure. In 2015, the holding company Alphabet was created to move Google and Google’s subsidiaries to Alphabet; this allowed Google to narrow its scope. With this change also came the current CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai. Today, Google continues to enhance its search engine and create new innovative features for their users.

Product Management at Google

To maintain Alphabet’s status as the largest internet company and Google’s reputation as the most used product in the world, product-related roles such as PMs are some of the most important jobs at the company. As such, PM culture at Google is exceptional and there are many roles for any stage you are at in your career.

The PM role at Google is similar to that of startups as opposed to other tech companies of a similar size. To begin, a technical/engineering background is desired for this role. PMs work closely with engineering, hence it is beneficial to speak their language. Google PMs also have a large impact over strategy and key decision-making surrounding the team they are working on. Essentially, they are the CEOs of their business unit. This requires being involved in the conceptualization of an idea all the way to the launch.

The primary way of generating new ideas for Google products is by staying on top of the market they are working in. This involves market research, competitor research, and talking to customers. They need to be aware of everything in their space to generate valuable ideas.

Once the potential idea has been carefully conceptualized by the PM, they will pitch the idea to executives and, if approved, they will start creating its product strategy. This strategy includes product vision, product requirements such as resources, and other required details. The PM will then outline the product roadmap which provides timelines on what needs to be done from design, all the way to launch. From there, they will collaborate with different teams to execute on the strategy. This includes ensuring the product design, engineering, sales, marketing, and finance teams are all working towards achieving the product vision and goals. Once testing is complete and feedback is provided by actual users, improvements are made and the go-to-market strategy that the PM and the marketing team developed is executed upon.

The cycle never stops. As a Google PM, you’re responsible for gathering feedback once the product or feature is in the market. You must analyze trends using data, and improve upon the product or feature if necessary. If the improvement to the product or feature is substantial, you will need to go through Google’s product life cycle again from the start.

Career Ladder

The PM career ladder at Google is structured with numerous levels to work your way up. The career ladder starts at the Associate Product Manager (APM) internship and program; these are labelled as APM1 and APM2 at Google. The APM internship is a 12-week summer internship for students typically entering their last year of college or university. Upon graduating, Google will likely want the intern to join the APM program which is a 2-year program. Both the internship and the program are focused on building Google’s next generation of product leaders as they work in various product teams alongside Google PMs.

Following the APM program you will likely be recruited into a product team as a PM. This role is called PM1, or also known internally as Level 4 (L4 for short). From there, you can work your way up as a PM which has two more levels, PM2 and PM3, also known as L5 and L6.

On the higher end of the ladder, you can become a Senior PM or Group PM, which is L7. After many years of experience you can become a Director, Senior Director, and VP, which are L8, L9, and L10 respectively.

Why be a Product Manager at Google?

Google is known for having a strong product management culture. Project initiation comes from ideas people at various levels in the company bring and less from executives in the company. Product teams set the mission, vision and strategy for their product, pitch new ideas, and prioritize amongst them. This means PMs at Google are given a lot of autonomy with decision making. They are the true leaders of their product(s).

In fact, Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, drives this type of culture for the company. In one of his conferences, Pichai commented on this topic saying “A lot of what I do is… I have an outstanding leadership team. It’s learning to let go and really empowering people at all levels of the organisation, and trusting them to do the right thing.” He believes in having leaders, such as PMs, who can guide Google to success and ultimately grow the company.

This strong product culture is also seen through the respect Google has for PMs. Google acknowledges how important PMs are, hence they have the APM internship and program. As mentioned previously, the goals of the internship and program are to gather people from diverse backgrounds and develop in-house PM talent to lead their products and product teams to success. These roles provide mentorship through coaching, trips to Google offices across the world, and a strong community that will support you through your PM journey.

On top of all this, the internship and program has a strong reputation and exposure to the PM role. In fact, the APM program was created in 2002 and was the first APM program to exist. From there, hundreds of APMs joined the company and many APM alumni can be found today driving growth for their product(s).

Salary Expectations

Google has more than 70 offices in 50 countries around the world, and PMs are found across all of them. As such, salary as a PM varies based on location. It is also dependent on your level in the PM career ladder. For instance, L8s make more than L5s.

To give an estimate, in the US, a Google APM1’s base salary is a respectable $127k, where Google Directors can make upwards of $304k. Do note that Google is known for giving substantial amounts of equity. This increases your total compensation as a PM at Google.

The Interview Process

At Google, the APM interviews are slightly different than those of PM interviews. The PM interviews go more depth in each stage whereas the APM interviews have more stages but have less depth to them. Both interviews contain similar question types, so the questions mentioned in Potential Google PM Questions will apply for both.

Do note that the take-home assignment and the final interview stages only apply for the APM interview process.

Phone Screen

The initial phone screen is with a Google recruiter and typically lasts 30-45 minutes. The aim of this call is to check if you meet the requirements for the position and if you are a good fit for the role. The recruiter will ask you about your past experience and why you are a good fit for the specific role you applied for. Expect generic behavioural questions in this stage.

Phone Interview

Following the initial phone screen, you will have a phone interview with a current PM at Google which will last around 45-50 minutes. The goal of this interview is for a seasoned Google PM to determine if you have what it takes to work at Google. If they believe so, you will be invited onsite for further interviews.

The questions asked in this stage are generally lighter than the onsite interview questions. These questions will focus on product design, estimation, and strategy.

Take-home Assignment (APM exclusive)

In the APM interview process, after the phone interview you will be sent a prompt and given a set period of time to provide the answer. The aim is to write 2-5 pages that display your abilities to be a successful PM and leader.

The prompt can be any product related question. Use the questions in the Potential Google PM Questions section as a guide. Write the response to the prompt as if it were any other product question in an interview; outline your approach and call out the assumptions you’ve made.

On-site Interviews

In this stage you will spend a day at a Google office and perform interviews with PMs and possibly some engineers. For the PM interview process, you can expect 5-6 interviews in this stage, whereas the APM interview process can expect 3-5. Each process typically includes a lunch with a Google PM where you are not evaluated. This is the time for you to ask any questions you may have about the process or role.

The range of the onsite interviews cover many aspects of product management. Expect behavioural, design, strategy, estimation, and technical type questions in these interviews. Some interviews may focus on one type of question, where others will ask a broad set of questions that cover many, if not all, of the categories mentioned.

One thing that is certain is that many of the questions asked in this stage will revolve around Google in some way. Whether it be surrounding one of their products, their business, or the markets they serve, the interviewers will want to understand the depth of your ‘Googleyness’. Googleyness will be discussed more in the Preparing for the Interview section.

Final Interview (APM exclusive)

The last interview in the APM interview process will be with an APM program executive or a former Google APM. This interview is conducted to confirm that Google is hiring the right people for the role.

Prepare for this interview like any other onsite interview. Review all types of product related questions.

Potential Google PM Questions

You will be asked a wide range of questions in the Google PM interview process. The questions can be broken down into 5 groups:

Behavioural
Design
Strategy
Estimation
Technical

The amount of questions asked for each type will vary in each interview and is dependent on the product team you applied for. Expect to come across a few questions from each group.

Behavioural Questions

These questions will focus on your ability to build relationships, your past experience, and whether you can accomplish PM related tasks. Most of the questions will relate to Google in one way or another.

Potential behavioural questions may be:

Why Google?
Why this position?
What is your proudest accomplishment as a PM?
Tell me about a time when you demonstrated great leadership skills at work
Tell me about a time when you handled a difficult stakeholder
What has been your biggest failure as a PM?
How do you sell your idea to an executive?
Tell me about a time you missed a deadline. What did you do to fix the problem?

Design Questions

Product design questions come up a lot in the Google interview process – in fact, they are the most asked questions. These questions will require you to design new products or improve existing ones. They will also test your customer empathy and creativity skills.

Potential design questions may be:

What’s a product you love and why? How would you improve it?
How would you improve the YouTube conversion rate for 20-30 year olds?
How would you improve [insert Google product] (Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Drive, etc.)?
How would you improve [insert competitor product] (Facebook, App Store, Netflix, etc.)?
How would you design a computer for deaf people?

Strategy Questions

These questions are geared towards thinking about the wide range of topics PMs need to consider when making decisions for a product and business. These topics include, but are not limited to, competitors, marketing, pricing, time to market, product roadmaps, etc.

Potential strategy questions may be:

Pitch a company that you think Google should acquire?
How would you develop the strategy for YouTube for the next 5 years? What should it be?
You are the CEO of [insert competitor company] (Meta, Netflix, Microsoft, etc.), what new products would you launch? Why?
What should Google do next?

Estimation Questions

These questions test your ability to break down a problem, often including numbers. The interviewer will assess how you approach the question, rather than your actual answer.

Potential estimation questions may be:

How much storage space is required for YouTube videos for the next 5 years?
How long would it take to get a Google street view of your entire city?
Estimate the amount of Google documents created per day?
What will be the market size of driverless cars in 5 years?

Technical Questions

PMs at Google are more technical than PMs at other companies of a similar size and are required to communicate effectively with software engineers. As such, you will need some technical knowledge surrounding the product you will be working on. You will be tested on this knowledge with these questions. Do note that you will not be asked to code.

Potential technical questions may be:

Explain the concept of APIs to a child.
Design a load balancer for Google.com. What data structure would you use?
What do you think is happening on the back-end when you search on Google?
How does Google maps compute ETA?
How does a browser work?

Preparing for the Interview

As seen within the potential questions asked by Google interviewers, successful candidates must dive deep and discuss various products offered by Google. As such, performing research on their products is an important step that cannot be skipped. This can be accomplished by visiting Google’s corporate website and analyzing the products they offer and the range of features within these products. Above all, you must fully understand the product team you’ve applied for. This includes being able to explain the technical aspects of how the product works. Broadly study Google’s array of products, but specifically study the potential product you will be working on in more depth.

Interviewers will also assess your ‘Googleyness.’ Googelyness is the possession of attributes that Google employees live by. More specifically, former Google Head of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, defined Googleyness as “Attributes like enjoying fun (who doesn’t), a certain dose of intellectual humility (it’s hard to learn if you can’t admit that you might be wrong), a strong measure of conscientiousness (we want owners, not employees), comfort with ambiguity (we don’t know how our business will evolve, and navigating Google internally requires dealing with a lot of ambiguity), and evidence that you’ve taken some courageous or interesting paths in your life.” More information about Google’s culture can be found on the Google corporate website. Appearing knowledgeable about the company and what they stand for will make a great impression with your interviewers.

Regarding the APM internship and program specifically, Google provides a number of resources that will help you learn more about the opportunity and prepare for the interview process. Google hosted 3 live sessions on YouTube discussing the APM opportunity and the interview process. The recordings can be found below:

It is recommended to watch all 3 videos before going into the APM interview process.

Lastly, the Google PM interview process is very broad and the interviewers will test you on a range of PM-related topics. You must be comfortable with product fundamentals and answering PM style interview questions. Using a consistent method for answering questions will ensure that you hit all of the key areas an interviewer is looking for. Learn a framework to answer PM questions and practice answering the potential questions mentioned in this guide.

To Conclude

Google is the most used product around the world. As such, PMs at Google are highly respected. If you are interested in helping them build one of their over 250 products, one way to get started is via their APM internship or program. From this route, or joining as a PM directly, there are various avenues to level up as a PM at Google.

Apple’s interview process is very vigorous. After all, PMs at Apple help deliver valuable products to over 1 billion people across the world. It is a very important and rewarding role.

This is a very competitive yet rewarding role. By researching the products that Google offers, ensuring you display Googleyness, practicing product fundamentals and answering PM interview questions, you will be able to perform well in the interview process and have a great shot at getting the position.

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