eBay Product Manager Interview Guide

The first part of the process is a phone call with a recruiter. This is a pretty unstructured and relaxed conversation about your conduct and previous experiences. The recruiter wants to make sure you're qualified for the role. The call will last no more than 30 minutes.

• Your qualifications and eligibility for the role
• Your professional conduct
• Your past experience

• This is more of a casual and light interaction with the recruiter. They will most likely describe the interview process to you and provide you with the necessary information. Try to get as much as you can out of it.
• Research the company and its market presence.

• Tell me something about yourself that is missing in your resume but is worth mentioning.
• Did you do any research on eBay before applying? Tell me one factor that distinguishes eBay from other companies.
• What do you believe is the primary job of a Product Manager?
• What method do you use to prioritize tasks?
• How would a colleague describe you?

Following the initial interview, a telephonic interview takes place. This interview will be with a hiring manager and will focus on your experience and product management knowledge. This stage determines if you meet the standards for a final on-site interview. Here are a few things to remember:

• A variety of situational and behavioral queries are likely.
• The interview will last 45-60 minutes.
• Some technical and analytical questions may be posed as well.

• Whether you are adequately prepared to handle the workload.
• Your analytical abilities.
• Your time management and problem-solving abilities.
• Your capability of coming up with creative ideas.
• How well you work with cross-functional teams.

• Researching the interviewer is one of the most subtle things to do before an interview. Talk to people at the company about the company's culture and atmosphere. Make your way through the company by establishing connections with the people.
• Ask probing questions. Avoid the standard 'how's the environment?' and 'product team' queries. Make an attempt to convey that you are really interested in learning about the company's internal functioning.
• You may be given some hypothetical problems for which you must devise creative and on-the-spot answers. Make sure to rehearse some situational questions ahead of time and look into some of the issues eBay has faced in the past so you can come up with effective solutions.

• How would you modify your favorite eBay product?
• Is there something at your previous company that you were not a fan of?
• How much do you value your work? When asked for it, do you give your all?
• How would you allocate resources if you had two critical tasks to do but couldn't perform both?
• What changes would you make to our product?
• According to you, what has made X product successful?
• How would you describe a well-designed product?

Following the interview with the hiring manager, you will have a phone interview with a senior product manager. This interview is very important since it determines whether or not you are qualified for the onsite interview. This will be largely focused on product management topics as well as some machine learning algorithm questions. The interview will stretch for about 45 minutes.

• Your product knowledge
• Your success rate
• Your previous achievements 

• This interview will concentrate on the primary skill of product management. The senior PM is looking to evaluate how well you work and how you can contribute to the organization. Therefore, try to give your best.
• To refresh your knowledge, practice several technical, analytical, and product and estimating questions ahead of time.

• Describe the process of creating a product from start to conclusion.
• Do you use any tool to organize your product backlog?
• How would you go about finding out how many red automobiles there are in China?
• Do you have any particular strategy to deal with tough stakeholders?
• Describe a situation in which you had to say no to an idea or project.
• What is a product that you use on a daily basis, why do you use it, and how would you improve it?
• If you want to create a popular android messaging app, you must predict how much network bandwidth will be consumed in a year. What steps would you take to work this out?

The process concludes with an onsite interview, which involves multiple interview sessions with the team, a case study, and presentations. You should expect to be questioned on both technological and behavioral problems. There will be department heads, recruiters, and senior product managers who may be your future colleagues. Depending on the interviewers, these interview rounds can last anywhere from 30-45 minutes. Throughout the interview, you will be asked situational questions and will be assessed on your technical skills and previous job experiences. PM fundamentals such as product knowledge, analytical ability, and strategy questions will be asked, plus a bunch of technical questions.

Please note that, due to the ongoing pandemic, it is possible that your onsite interview takes place virtually via zoom.

• Your comprehension of the organization.
• Your success rate and track record.
• Decision-making and analytical skills.
• Estimation and marketing skills.
• Behavior and attitude towards others.

• The onsite process is streamlined and includes a campus tour as well as the opportunity to meet all of the team members with whom you may work. Interact with the other participants to make the most of the opportunity.
• This stage assesses your plan's influence, working out, leadership, scope, and technical depth. Make sure you have mastered all of your skills before you begin.
• This interview will seek to gather insights about your personality as well as how you might fit into the organization and career. So, keep your views ahead of the topic and stay engaged. Participate in answering questions descriptively and expressing your ideas.

• If you were a product manager at Uber, what changes would you consider making?
• Do you think that Twitter has something that needs to be improved?
• What do you think about the new Pinterest feature ‘idea pins’?
• Have you ever been in a situation where you had two great ideas but had to go with one?
• Calculate how many iPads are possibly sold in the United States each year?
• Tell me about a time when you struggled in your career.
• What do you think about product managers interacting with engineers?
• What aspect of product management do you not find very amusing?
• Tell me about your role in your previous team, your colleagues, and your place in the team.
• Tell me about a time you influenced someone to alter or modify their product.
• What is the best strategy to collaborate with executives?
• How would you react if you were an interviewer and a candidate mentioned a metric you were unfamiliar with?
• How would you calculate the size of the prime video market?
• How can you cut eBay’s operating cost by a third?
• How did you keep communication from going down in such a remote location?