Technical
Technical PM Interview Questions
Technical PM prep for FAANG and platform/dev-tools PM roles: system design lite, SQL, API design, and the tradeoff conversations engineers respect.
System Design & Architecture
Design Questions
- How would you architect a recommendation engine?
- Explain how you'd scale a feature from 1M to 100M users
- Design the backend for a real-time chat application
- How would you approach building a search feature?
- What technical considerations are important for mobile vs web?
- Design the data model for a two-sided marketplace
APIs & Integration
Core Questions
- Explain APIs to a non-technical person
- How would you integrate with a third-party service?
- What's the difference between REST and GraphQL?
- How do you prioritize API development for a new product?
- How do you version an API without breaking clients?
Technical Trade-offs
Core Questions
- How do you balance technical debt vs new features?
- When would you choose to build vs buy a solution?
- Explain the trade-offs between speed and quality
- How do you work with engineering on time estimates?
- What technical constraints matter most for your product?
Data & Performance
Data Questions
- How would you improve page load time?
- What's the difference between SQL and NoSQL databases?
- How do you approach data privacy and security?
- Explain caching to a non-technical stakeholder
- How do you decide what to log vs what to sample?
SQL Questions
- Write a SQL query to find users who logged in more than 7 days last month
- Explain the difference between INNER, LEFT, and OUTER joins
- How do you optimize a slow-running query?
- When would you use a window function vs a subquery?
Mobile & Platform
Core Questions
- What are the key differences between iOS and Android development?
- How do you approach cross-platform development?
- What technical considerations matter for offline functionality?
- How do you decide between native, hybrid, and web app for a new product?
AI/ML Questions
AI Product Sense
- How would you incorporate AI into [product]?
- What are the limitations of machine learning in product development?
- How do you handle AI hallucinations or errors?
- Explain how a recommendation algorithm works
- What ethical considerations matter for AI products?
Related Resources
Master the Technical PM Round
The cohort drills technical PM answers with feedback from ex-FAANG platform and infra PMs.