gitGood.dev

Engineering Manager Interview Prep

A path for engineering-manager loops, which combine a technical-credibility bar with deep people-leadership and judgment rounds. Refreshes the technical breadth and system-design depth an EM is still expected to hold, then goes deep on the people, conflict, and growth behavioral themes that decide manager offers, and adds the prioritization and metrics judgment cases that show up in the manager-as-decision-maker round.

Engineering ManagerSenior~44h5 sections16 items
Section 1 of 5

Technical credibility refresh

EMs are not expected to out-code their team, but they must hold a credible technical conversation and review designs. Refresh the breadth that lets you ask the right questions.

  1. 01MCQSystem Design questions (20 suggested)Multiple choice category
  2. 02MCQDatabases questions (15 suggested)Multiple choice category
Section 2 of 5

System design depth

The architecture round for managers is about judgment and trade-offs, not whiteboard heroics. Walk through a spread of designs so you can probe scope, scaling, and failure modes with your team.

  1. 01DesignDesign a URL Shortener (bit.ly)System Design · Medium
  2. 02DesignDesign a Rate Limiter (API Throttling)System Design · Medium
  3. 03DesignDesign a News Feed (Twitter / Facebook)System Design · Hard
  4. 04DesignDesign a Payments / Checkout System (Stripe-style)System Design · Hard
Section 3 of 5

People leadership

This is the heart of the EM loop. Have specific, honest stories about growing engineers, giving hard feedback, leading through influence, navigating conflict, and building inclusive teams.

  1. 01BehavioralHire and Develop the Best (Amazon Leadership Principle)Behavioral · Amazon LP
  2. 02BehavioralGiving Critical FeedbackBehavioral · General
  3. 03BehavioralLeadership Without AuthorityBehavioral · General
  4. 04BehavioralConflict with a CoworkerBehavioral · General
  5. 05BehavioralDiversity, Inclusion, and AllyshipBehavioral · General
Section 4 of 5

Judgment and prioritization

Managers are decision-makers. The judgment round tests how you prioritize a roadmap, decide whether to build something, and diagnose a metric drop. Work the product cases for structured frameworks.

  1. 01ProductPrioritize a Roadmap with Limited ResourcesProduct Case · Strategy & Prioritization
  2. 02ProductShould We Build This? (Go / No-Go)Product Case · Strategy & Prioritization
  3. 03ProductDaily Active Users Dropped 5% - Diagnose ItProduct Case · Metrics & Analytics
Section 5 of 5

Delivery and incidents

EMs own outcomes and own failures. Bring stories about a missed deadline or incident you led the team through, and how you still delivered under pressure.

  1. 01BehavioralMissed Deadline or Production IncidentBehavioral · General
  2. 02BehavioralDeliver Results (Amazon Leadership Principle)Behavioral · Amazon LP

Browse other learning paths

Three role-targeted paths are live: Backend, SRE / DevOps, and ML Engineer. More are on the way - if you have a role you want covered, let us know.

View all paths →