DoorDash Technical Program Manager Interview Guide

DoorDash TPMs work with engineering teams to solve stuff. Solve messy situations, solve technical problems, solve stalled programs, basically solve everyone else’s problems. 

Sophia Vicent, VP of Engineering at DoorDash wrote about building a world-class TPM team on the official blog: “A great TPM ensures this technical solution is built within the context of the bigger picture…By holding this broad picture, TPMs can actively ensure that all the pieces of the puzzle actually build a holistic solution once they come together, and there are no gaps or overlaps between teams and parts of the solution.” An ex-DoorDash employee on Blind discussed the work TPMs do at DoorDash. 

TL;DR the interview loop for a DoorDash TPM looks like this:

Step 1: Recruiter screen

Step 2: Hiring manager interview

Step 3: Technical/cross-functional interview

Step 4: Panel loop

• 4.1 Program execution and behavioral
• 4.2 Technical and domain depth
• 4.3 Cross-functional leadership and prioritization
• 4.4 Final senior-leader round

Tony Xu, CEO & founder of DoorDash appeared on the ‘Series A episode with Keith Rabois’ and said they look for ‘six attributes of excellence’:

1. People who love operating at the lowest level of detail. 
2. People who have a very strong bias for action, recognizing that it’s impossible to analyze your way to the answer. 
3. People who are able to hold two opposing ideas at the same time and care more about what's the right answer, as opposed to who gets credit for it. 
4. People who are strong recruiters, because it’s always about the team and it takes a team to build something meaningful. 
5. People who care about getting 1% better every day. 
6. People who inspire followership. Tony Xu believes that leadership is far less about how many direct reports you have, and more about how many people would like to follow you.

Interviewers at DoorDash evaluate heavily on storytelling. Throughout the interview process, we suggest you take extra time while answering and explain your technical reasoning and the human problems that went into every decision of yours.

The first screen is a standard call with the recruiter who’s checking if your experience is relevant to what the team is working on. They could also ask a few behavioral questions to judge culture fit.

DoorDash recruiters have asked TPM candidates these questions:

• Why DoorDash?
• Tell me about yourself.
• Walk me through your work.

We suggest you prepare a 90-second intro which covers what you currently do, the technical domains you’ve worked in, touch upon one program you’ve worked on (context + result + relevance), and finally talk about why DoorDash and why this team is what you’re looking for next in your career. If possible, tie your background to something specified in the JD. And, if you’re a junior candidate, also discuss your educational background, otherwise skip or just state it matter-of-factly before moving to your work.

If you’re switching from a different industry you can connect common factors rather simply like “I did this, you (DoorDash) are doing this.” Try to match 50-60% of your work with the req, and you can then present the gap as a reason for why you want the job: “I have a ton of experience in last-mile logistics but I haven’t worked directly with robotics delivery and I can do it at DoorDash”.

The HM call will be 30 mins long where you’ll be asked to share your experiences and the HM will share the basic expectations for the role.

For some of the questions below, there might be no right answer. The HM is basically trying to see if you’re genuinely excited about the possibility of joining DoorDash and have done a little bit of homework about the company.

These questions have been asked by DoorDash TPM interviewers:

• Do you have an example when you failed?
• Tell me about a time when you were handed a vague goal with no clear requirements. How did you turn that into a successful execution?
• Do you have an example when you delighted your partners and stakeholders?
• Let’s say we are going to pivot into developing AI based robotic taxis. What do you feel about it? Do you think we can achieve it?
• Can you tell me about a project you took from idea to completion?

We suggest you come in with a narrative prepared around one or two of your biggest programs. You should have a crisp 30-second summary as well as a longer story if asked. We sometimes see junior candidates default to using ‘We’; be sure to use ‘I’ to show exactly what you did and why. And only use ‘we’ when it is a collective task.

Before your panel loop, you will have a technical interview featuring cross-functional questions as well. 

For TPM positions, DoorDash doesn’t expect engineering chops but you should be able to understand and review what DoorDash engineers are working on. It’s also important you show that you’re flexible and agile as speed is an expectation for almost everything at DoorDash.

Please note: Some recent DoorDash TPM candidates have also reported a SQL test here. In that case, this round could be AI-assisted but make sure to confirm details and expectations with your recruiter beforehand.

You should expect some wildcard questions as well. DoorDash interviewers want to see if you can handle problems outside of your domain or experience, so the expectation for these won’t be getting it 100% right but showing enough competency for them to trust you could slot in anywhere in the company. 

DoorDash interviewers can start with one primary question and then ask a lot of follow-ups. So an example would be:

Can you design an alert system that notifies drivers when their pickup is ready?

Follow-ups could be:

• What do you think the objective is?
• What are the functional requirements? Also give non-functional requirements.
• How would you prevent double-booking? 
• Can you draw the components involved in this product on the whiteboard?

You could also be asked something about your own work experience:

• Can you walk me through a program you’ve led from the start?

The followups could be:

• How many teams were involved for this? Did you have to alter your management strategy for them?
• How did you manage the stakeholders?
• What was your biggest cause of friction?
• Why do you think this program was important for the company?

Sometimes candidates stray from the path interviewers are expecting, so we suggest you discuss the assumptions you’re making and follow up with something like “This is what I’m thinking the main requirements are because of XYZ. Does that work well with what you wanted? Is there anything else you’d want?”.

The DoorDash TPM panel will likely be 3 to 6 rounds. We’ve collected the various types of questions you could be asked into three rough buckets along with the expectations interviewers have from you.

DoorDash interviewers will ask questions to see if you can plan and execute multiple related initiatives across the organization at one time. 

Expect a mix of hypothetical scenarios and ‘tell me a time’ questions focused on your past programs. Interviewers will also ask about how you make sure different teams work together to achieve a shared strategic goal. Expect to be asked about operational details and resource management as well.

How do you identify risks? Can you communicate with people to sort priorities and find out what’s happening across the company? Can you come up with a plan based on the goal and available resources? Once you do, how do you execute? As the program progresses, how do you keep everyone on track and understand what’s going on?

These questions have been reported by DoorDash TPM candidates:

• Tell me about a project you worked on in your previous role that was challenging and how you accomplished it.
• Was there a time where you made a mistake in managing a project?
• Tell me about a time you failed?
• Give me an example where your project was changed suddenly.
• You have been given your colleague’s work because he left the company and they were going to hire somebody else. But that is going to take three more months. How do you manage now?

Since agility and speed are highly valued at DoorDash, one of our TPM coaches says you shouldn’t talk in terms of processes: 

This round will be another technical domain-depth round and you could also be asked a few system design questions. For both, the most common format is for DoorDash interviewers to ask one or two questions. The rest of the time goes into follow-up questions based on your plan for the given scenario.

So the main prompt could be “tell me a zero-to-one technical hardware program which you led in your career”. And the follow-ups might be:

• What are the single points of failure in this?
• What happens if [X] becomes [Y] tomorrow? What will you change?
• What is the most expensive component here?
• Can you replace it with something cheaper?

Prepfully’s DoorDash coaches say they’ll try to find gaps in your reasoning and increase the scope of the original question to see how you handle the request.

One of our senior coaches has excellent advice, use appropriate jargon you can back up, and use it as bait so your interviewers ask the question and you know the answer. And if you can defend and discuss those terms you’re setting yourself up for an easy layup.

TPM work is by nature cross-functional and oriented around forming partnerships and making sure all the different parts of a company are firing at the right time.

Some questions DoorDash TPMs have been asked are:

• How would you prioritize these tasks?
• How have you influenced others to do their best for a business outcome?
• Can you tell me about a time where you had to mediate a challenging cross-functional effort or had to partner with a colleague holding differing opinions?
• Tell me about a time when you got an urgent escalation from another team mid-execution and how did you handle that situation?

Conflict questions are quite commonly asked at DoorDash and if you’re interviewing for Labs or a physical product or hardware you will be asked about how you manage suppliers and vendors. If you’ve worked with hardware teams be sure to have a supplier story that involved some conflict or point of contention.

You could also have a final senior round, the focus will be on your long-term goals and ability to set strategy. Interviewers could explicitly focus on the ‘six DoorDash attributes’ we referred to at the beginning of this guide.

These are some questions DoorDash TPMs could be asked:

• How would you think about prioritization if we can't fix everything?
• How do you balance between long-term and short-term bets?
• What was your best day in the office?
• Your boss's boss asked you to do something else suddenly. How would you react to that? What would you do?
• What do you think has been your biggest failure?

Total comp for DoorDash TPMs ranges from $281K (base $175K) to $500K (base $283K) according to data from Levels.fyi. Standard RSUs vest on a decreasing scale starting from 40% in year 1, 30% in year 2, 20% in year 3, 10% in year 4. Alternatively they can also vest on an equal 25% split across four years.