Project Leader Interview Questions for any job interview.

Dear Readers. Please use the comment section to discuss the answers.

• Describe in brief about the workshops and training have you undergone for project planning.
• Suppose a new project has arrived where new set of technical skills are required. How do you ensure that you as well as all the other team members have the required technical skills to deliver and execute the project?
• In your opinion who is the right person to lead projects?
• Describe about the various activities you do as a project leader when the project is in the initial phase.
• Describe in detail how you handle disruptive and non-productive team members?
• Can you tell us the main difference between a project plan and a project schedule? Why both are important part of a project
• Tell us about your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a project leader.
• What are the important documents that you need to maintain as a project leader ?
• Explain how do you track the activities of the team in your project? How often you communicate to the team about the activities?
• How do you prepare the status report of your project?
• Explain the scenarios that had let you to revise your project plan? Where do you store the plan revision frequency document?
• Explain how you assign tasks and delegate work to your team members?
• Mention some of the project management tools you have used in your project. How did they help ?
• What are the main qualities and attributes to be possessed by a good project leader ?
• There are some projects which  enterprise wide implications. How would you go about handling such a project. Explain what methodologies you adopted as a project leader.
• If any of the team member comes to you with their personal problems, how do you handle it?
• Explain with an example how do you choose the appropriate life cycle for a particular project?
• How often do you communicate with the project manager about the progress of the project?
• Have you ever used Microsoft Project in your project? 
• Tell us about the budget for the largest project that you have managed till date?
• How do you keep the team members informed about the current status, goals and milestones of the project?
• How do you deal with a team member who is least interested in work ?
• What do you think are the qualifications and experiences that are required to be an effective project leader?
• What learning is very important for a project leader ?
• Describe about the induction processes a project leader must plan for a new team member?
• Tell us some of the steps that you have taken as a project leader to reduce the stress and tension among team members.
• What is project schedule and what do you include in it ?
• Explain how you identify the risks associated with your project. How do you document it?
• What is Software Project Management Plan (SPMP)? How do you create it ?
• After coming to office, how do you plan the activities for the day ?
• How do you calculate the effort estimate for your project? Do you document the estimation procedure ?
• What is the document yo need to maintain  for your project activities, your schedules and goals and milestones?
• When and how the senior management review the progress of your project?
• If you are to find a new project leader what will be the most important qualities you will look for? 
• How often do you review the work that is done by a team member ?

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Largest Collection of Project Manager Interview Question and Answers.

Project Manager Interview Topics, Tutorials and FAQs

• Project Manager Interview on Management Ability
• Project Manager Interview on Project Management and Workplace politics
• Project Manager Interview on Software Development Life Cycles
• Project Manager Interview on Planning
• Project Manager Interview on Roles and Responsibilities
• Project Manager Interview on Metrics Followed in Project Management

Project Manager Interview Questions

• Project Manager Interview Questions : Part 2
• Project Manager Interview Questions : Part 1

Project Manager Interview Questions Answers

• Project Manager Interview Questions : Part 2
• Project Manager Interview Questions Answers
• Project Manager Interview Questions Answers for IT Professionals
• IT/Software Project Manager Interview Questions Answers

Project Manager Interview Questions in Companies

• Google Product Manager Interview Questions Answers
• Microsoft Project Manager Interview Question Answers  

Project Manager Interview Questions Answers Collection

• Latest Project Manager Interview Question Answers
• IT Project Manager Job Interview Questions and Answers
• Project Coordinator Interview Question Answers
• Project Leader Interview Questions
• IT Project Manager Interview Questions

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Management Ability Project Manager Interview Questions.

Lets say that there is a business crisis in your company. How sort of skills will you use to guide others in such a crisis?
Answer : The question is intended to find out the how the manager can work in tough situations. Job seeker should be able to show that they can supervise and give direction while acting under trying circumstances.

Describe in brief what will you do when you found yourself in a compromising situation?
Answer : Job Applicant should answer in such a way that will show his ability to a make good and fast decisions. In such a situation, he should not be a victim and should work towards doing what is right for the organization. You should be honest without sounding naive

When it comes to your work, what are the steps that you would take to organize and prioritize your daily tasks?
Answer : This is a important question meant to find out the focus of the employee to organize and prioritize. Tell them that you are quite good at this because of which you were always able to complete projects on time.

Tell us how do you decide which tasks should take priority?
Answer : Tell the interviewer that you  always appear focused when deciding what needs to be completed first and that having common sense in decision making is sufficient. Mention that you always try to deliver the things that are time critical and is in immediate requirement by the customer.

Was there ever an instance in your organization when a customer asked you to “bend the rules”?
Answer :  Another tricky question. You need to demonstrate your ethical and professional standards when you answer this question . Mention that you always keep in mind the interests of the organization, its high values and had made them understand that the interests of the organization are more important than the customer’s interests. Hence, you will never bend the rules because it is highly unethical on the part of the employee.

There is a proposal put forward by the whole team which you think is unethical, how do you react?
Answer : This question is intended to find out how firm you are in your decision and if you can compromise values. You should be able to express your views in a professional and persuasive manner. Tell them that you will never bend under pressure and will be able to stand up firm for what you believe is right and just.

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Project Management and Workplace politics. 

In any workplace environment, politic is very much present. We all have faced workplace politics in in one form or the other. The ways of handling politics may differ from person to person and many have followed different guidelines while leading projects, There are many other things we can do handle workplace politics and general issues in Project management.

Some of the ways to handle workplace politics are;

1.  Its always advisable to keep notes or follow up with a written summary for all the corridor or coffee table discussions.

2. Refrain from gossiping. If you happen to come across a situation when a team member complaints about another employee, just listen but don't give your views. It helps the other person to vent out   and more often it is sufficient to resolve the conflicting issues.

3. One important quality of managers is that they should talk less and listen more. When it comes to advice and suggestions, think twice and then advice. When you speak less and listen more it actually leads to improvement of the amount of actual communication.

4. You need to have a cross cultural understanding of human behavior. If you are working with a client from Saudi Arabia, he will be different from the USA client is many ways. Nowadays its very important since teams are global and spread across different countries. People in different countries think, work and communicate in a different manner and hence it is good to get some understanding of the people. You can lean culture of different countries by reading books and in the internet, but the best way is to get movies from different countries. Its probably the fastest and easiest way. You can also learn a foreign language if the situation arises.

5. Keep proof and evidences ready. Very essential as at some point in the future it may come in handy. 

6. Refrain from talking about your political ideologies and views, religion or religious matters or any other sensitive topics, because people may have very different opinions and views. It may create negativity 

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System Development Life Cycle Questions in a Project Manager Interview.

Explain in detail the different software development life cycles which you have used in projects.
Answer :  This is one of the most important questions for someone appearing for a Project Manager's interview. Its good to prepare for it before hand so that you remember all the models and their pros and cons. You may even be asked about the type of model you followed in your project.

SDLC (System Development Life Cycle) is a comprehensive process of developing software and information systems through multiple process and systems from investigation and analysis of initial business requirements , design of the software, coding, deployment and implementation, support and maintenance. In olden days, when softwares were not so complex even a COBOL programmer used to do everything right from analyzing, testing and implementing the software systems. But now a days the systems and softwares have become complex, that a huge team is required for every task and different set of people like architects and designers, business analyst, programmers, testing professionals, and even end users. As such for management, a number of SDLC models have been created so that processes can be defined at each stage of the project.

Some of the most popular models are cited below.  

Water Fall Model

One of the oldest model model used in Software and IT industry.  Still widely popular and in use. Its a design process having sequence of stages; and output of one stage becomes input for the other step.

• Requirements Gathering : This is the first and the most essential stage of software engineering where the end user and other stakeholders requirements are gathered and documented. In this model, most of the requirements are gathered before the project begins. The system and software requirements are captured in a product requirements document.
• System Design : The requirements gathered from the first stage are analyzed and a detail design is created. The detail requirements, screen layout, business processes, logic and rules, process diagram, pseudo code, database schema and other documentations are prepared. The overall architecture is also defined in this stage
• Coding : 30-40% of the time is spend on coding. One of the most critical part, coding is done to implement the actual requirements based on the design documents 
• Integration and Testing: - All pieces of software that are created are brought together and tested. Bugs and errors are itentified and are removed in this phase. 
• Acceptance, Installation and Deployment: - This is final stage of the software engineering process where software developed is put in production environment and delivered to business
• Support and Maintenance: - This is the last phase which runs forever till the software is not replaced by an entirely new one. Change in code, correction, modifications, addition of new features etc are done in this phase which comes in the form of Change Request (CR) to the maintenance team. Require maintenance and deployment activities for new releases are very common.

Though waterfall model is very preferred choice in creating software systems, yet it is limited to software which are of low risk in performance requirements, but high risk in budget and schedule predictability and control. One of the main drawback of waterfall is that it it doesn't allow much of reflection or revision, it assumes that all requirements are clear and fixed and can be gathered in advance, which unfortunately is not the case as requirement grows and changes through various stages of the project.

Spiral Model 

Spiral Model tried to address some of the drawback of waterfall model, by providing emphasis to go back and forth to the earlier stages of the process as the project progresses. Going back and reiterate earlier stages for a number of times helps to overcome the rigid nature of waterfall model. Viewed from a higher level, this model is nothing but a series of short waterfall cycles, each producing an early prototype representing a part of entire project. This is done by creating Proof of Concept (POC) at the early stage of the software development life cycle. 

Incremental Build Model 

This is another software development process where we divide products into builds,  where the product is designed, tested and implemented incrementally. This model combines some of the elements of waterfall model in a incremental manner. After each build regression testing is carried out, and as such errors can be easily found out and fixed. Also, since it is easier to debug and test, it results in quicker delivery in much lesser costs. However, it is not at all suitable for complex software designs.

Rapid Prototyping Model

One of the most commonly used software development process, this model is also called as Rapid Application Development. Int the initial stage emphasis is given on creating a prototype that looks and acts like the desired product which enables to understand the customer requirements at a very early stage of development, thus leading to faster development. Once customer/business approves the prototype,  the actual software development process starts from scratch. Since the prototype doesn't hold the actual logic, sometimes the prototype moves ahead to become the final product not meeting the actual requirements and this can be considered bad from design point of view. As also the cost is high as there are lot of efforts to build the prototype.

Build and Fix Model 

The build and fix model also known as "Ad-hoc" model is the most way free-lancers work. The software is build without any specifications or formal design. The idea is to write some code and keep modifying it until the customer is satisfied with it. It is very good approach for small portfolio, personal websites or desktop software, but for even mid-size software it can be considered very dangerous and risky. As such, in IT and software industry, developers are asked to stay away from this model.

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Software Project Management Interview Questions on Planning

Describe in detail how your organization assign roles and responsibilities for the employees?
Answer :  Having worked in different companies, I have got the opportunity to taste many different flavors. There are some companies where resources are considered just bodies and they are put into work where they have little or no experience, as also training are not provided to fit into it. As such, it hampers productivity. In others I have seen where proper weight is given to resources for some specific knowledge and care is taken so that the employees perform to their potential. Having the right resources for the tasks is very important for any project success. Without it, it will lead to disastrous results.

What are the different documents that are used in your organization to define project goals, milestones and scope?
Answer : It greatly differs from company to company. However, it mainly depends upon the nature and scope of the project. In companies that I worked for the documents followed are Project Requirements Documents or Business Requirement Documents (BRD) or Project Definition documents (PDD) or Vision Document. They are known by different names but content is almost the same detailing the business solution and process the documentation of customer needs, expectations and requirements. In most companies they are stored in a centralized location so that a unique copy is available to the people working in the project.

Tell us the ways by which we can we encourage planning in a project?
Answer : Planning right at the onset of a project is very important. I really think to encourage planning we should be influencing management so that they takes the requisite preparation not only of the various stages of the project but also the potential problems that may arise.

In your current company, how much time and effort is spent on up-front planning? How can up-front planning be encouraged?
Answer : It usually depends upon the kind of projects. Not much time is devoted to upfront planning for a project because there are too many unknowns variables and since if we do not know beforehand we cannot plan. Up-front planning should be encouraged in small and less complex projects.

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Google Product Manager Interview Questions Answers.

The questions provided below are the ones that interviewers have faced in a Google interview before. They are aware of these questions, and as such there is very less possibility that these questions will be asked again. However, these questions will definitely help you to get an overview about the interview process and the type of questions.

How many buses does the local transportation corporation own?
Answer: Try to estimate what the local population of the town. Come up with an approximate number , say 100,000. Second thing is to get the percentage of people who would use local transportation, lets say that percentage is around 75%. Next is to find all the possible routes, how many major routes the buses may take (routes to say from city A to city B/downtown/mall/universities/schools/colleges). Also, have to remember that most buses runs to and fro. Finally you need to take into account how many you can fit into a single bus, this way you can estimate how many buses a local transportation corporation could own.

How would you handle a resource who is just not doing the work, doesn’t get along with anyone, and is generally not much interested in his/her work?
Answer: This question is asked to find out the individuals management and leadership style. Try to cite an instance when you faced a similar situation and how you handled it effectively. At the same time, you should also keep in mind that company policies are not violated in addressing the issue.

Just give us a rough estimate of how many bottles of shampoo are produced in the world a year?
Answer: The interviewer is not looking for near specific numbers but instead trying to find out how you go about calculating it. So, an approximate figure is fine.

• Approximate 30 million = Population of Canada
• Approximate 6 billion = Population of the whole world
• Around 23% of the world’s population are living in 3rd world countries.
• Considering the world's population of bald to be around 2% who don't use use shampoo.
• 25% of 30 million don’t use shampoo, use soap, are bald, or cannot afford to purchase shampoo (third world) (-7.5 million) gives us a figure of 22.5 million.
• Consider a bottle of Shampoo lasts approx 2 months, which gives us 6 bottles/year per person.
• 22.5million multiplied by 6 gives a figure of 133.1 million bottles in the whole of Canada
• 6 billion – 25% = 4.5 billion.
• 4.5 billion multiplied by 6 gives 27.0 billion bottle per year.

If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands?
Answer : Calculate mathematically - 7.5 degrees ( 30 degrees between ‘3′ and ‘4′, 30/4 = 7.5 degrees)

If the probability of observing a car in 30 minutes on a highway is 0.95, what is the probability of observing a car in 10 minutes (assuming constant default probability)?
Answer : P(30min) = 0.95 ; Pbar(30min) = 0.05; Pbar(10min)=(1/3)^(0.05)=0.368 ; P(10min)=1-Pbar(10min) = 0.6312 = 63.12%

Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It is very hard to find a certain shirt. As such, what can you do to organize your shirts for easy retrieval?
Answer :  By this relatively simple question the interviewer is trying to find the organizational skills of a manager and in case of  a software engineer – grouping (hash tables). Say that you would have the closet organized by installing shelving units and compartmentalize some sections visually. Then you have a section for shirts you would wear outside and another section for shirts which you would wear at home, and another for laundry. Also in each section, you can organize the shirts by color from white to black which is a very great way to organize thereby helping in easy retrieval.

Explain the concept of a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.
Answer : You can answer this question in different ways. Try to cite an example instead talking and explaining in technical terms. Say that dictionary is like a database. In dictionary, you have words and what the word means and how they are organized. Another example is of a filling cabinet where your parents have where each hanging folder contains different information. For instance, one folder has your progress reports, another has my birth certificate, another has some childhood pictures of yours and and so on.

Why do you think a good user interface (GUI) very important for the company?
Answer : A good graphical user interface (GUI) encourages the visitor to stay longer on the page, explore other pages of the website, click on advertisement, and also helps in retrieving and access information in a easy manner. Many top companies have build their identities on a good user interface and many users associate them with it. Most companies have a separate UI team who comes up with the most user friendly GUI for end users.

Give us an estimate how many golf balls can fit in a school bus? 
Answer : You need to provide some rough calculation. 

• Calculate the size of bus (approx in feet 8 length 6 width 20 depth) = 960 square feet 
• Convert to Square Inches multiplied by 1728 = 1,658,880; 
• Golf ball is of dimension 2.5 cubic inches (4/3* pi*0.85 inches radius) ;
•  Divide it by 2.5 ie 1,658,880/2.5=663,552 ;
•  Considering the bus seats and other things, we can round down to say 500,000.

What are three things Google should know before releasing a product in a certain country? 
Answer : Culture, Language and Social System are the three main things that should be considered before releasing a product in a different country.

Give us an idea how would you design Google Maps.
Answer : Since this question is for a Product Manager, presumably the interviewer is not looking for a technical but rather for a marketing answer.

Can you tell us what is Google’s primary source of income/revenue? 

Answer : The primary source of revenue for Google is Advertising which accounts for 96% of its revenue. It is the biggest online advertiser in the world. A whopping 42 billion dollars in 2012 came from Adwords. Apart from that there are TV Advertisements, Android Applications, Youtube Services, but it pales when compared to their advertising revenue.

Some tricky and intelligent questions asked in a Google Interview

• Tell us some of the effective ways by which you would you boost the GMail subscription base?
• Write an algorithm to sort a million integers? Also calculate the time complexity.
• Can you tell us some ways by which you would re-position Google’s offerings to counteract competitive threats from Microsoft?
• If you are thrown into an empty glass blender where the blades will start moving in 60 seconds, what will you do?
• If you are given to wash all the windows in Seattle, how much should you charge?
• Tell us how would you find out if a machine’s stack grows up or down in memory?
• You have to get from point A to point B. You don’t know whether you can get there or not. What approach would you take?
• There’s a latency problem in South Africa. Tell us the steps how you will go about diagnosing it.
• Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco in case of an emergency.
• What do you think are three long term challenges facing Google as a company?
• What do you know about Google’s product and technology?
• Describe a situation when you faced a critical technical problem and tell us how you solved it.
• Design a simple search engine? What do you think are the main features of a search engine ?
• Name about the latest technology articles you have read about recently. Can you tell us your own creative execution for an advertisement for that product.
• Lets say that if you are hired as a Product Manager for Google’s Adwords Program, how do you plan to market it?
• In an AdWords or AdSense product seminar, you are asked to speak to the audience. What will be your main focus and what will you speak?
• Who are the main Google’s competitors, and how does Google compete with them?
• What is the most creative way of marketing Google’s brand name and product. How it is different from other companies?
• Lets say that you are the product marketing manager for Gmail, how do you plan to market it so as to achieve a target of 100 million customers in just 6 months?
• Just give us a rough estimation of how much money you think Google makes daily from Gmail advertisements?
• Now a tricky question. A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost all his fortune. What happened?
• Calculate how many piano tuners are there in the entire world?
• Imagine yourself as a parking lot attendant. Now in a lot that has one open spot, and you want to move the cars from their original positions into a new arrangement. Create a program that will print out instructions on how to move the cars most efficiently between the positions.
• What would you do to improve inefficient airports?
• What is the Google product do you like the most and what features you would include to improve it?
• Give us an estimate of the marginal cost of a one GB space in Gmail?
• Can you name three non-Google websites that you visit often and like. What are the main things you like about the user interface / design. 
• Tell us how would you determine if someone has won a game of tic-tac-toe on a board of any size.
• Estimate the number of students who are PHD students, college seniors, attend four-year schools, and graduate with a job in the United States every year. Explain mathematically
• If you were given the land prices in the San Francisco Bay Area, what would you pick, the mean or the median price and why?
• Estimate the revenue of various free web services from Google and competitors.
• Tell us about your favorite Google product. What do you like most and what are the changes you want it it?
• Tell us how will you make Google win in specific country/zone?
• What is the website that you visit the most and what steps would you take as PM for that website?
• With age, it becomes difficult to remember what you read, especially after working in industry for so many years. Can you tell us how you will address this.
• Just give us an estimate of how many vacuum cleaners are made annually in USA?
• How many resumes does Google receive each year for the role of Software Engineers?
• Design an elevator for a building. Can you write the elevator scheduling algorithm here.

Google give a lot of importance to the IQ , reasoning and analytical skills. As such, a candidate appearing for the interview should be good in writing algorithms and in solving problems mathematically

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Roles and Responsibilities of a Project Manager.

Project Manager is a person responsible for managing the project. As such, there are different roles and responsibilities one needs to fulfill as a part of the job.

1. Accomplish the project goals and objectives within the constraints of the project. He is also responsible for the outcome ie either the success or failure of the project. Hence, he is completely responsible for the project.
2. Involved in early stages of requirement gathering, creating designs, project planning, controlling and implementation and deployment, and finally monitoring of the project. He is also responsible for managing and directing the assigned project resources to meet project objectives and goals.
3. Controls and monitors something called "triple constraints" which is nothing but the project scope, time and cost quality which are considered the main parameters in managing and competing project requirements within time and budget.
4. Responsible for risk identifying, analysis, monitoring activities, and responding to risk. Also responsible for response planning.
5. Responsible for examining the organizational culture within the company and determine whether project management is recognized as a valid role with accountability and authority for managing the project. 
6. Collecting different metrics data such as project baseline, actual values for costs, schedule, work in progress, and work which is completed. He is also responsible for reporting on project progress and other project specific information to higher management and other stakeholders.
7. Responsible to the project stakeholders/business for delivering a project within the scope, schedule, budget, and quality.
8. Reporting structure of a Project Manager changes depends on the organizations. He may sometimes report to a Functional Manager, to a Delivery Manager or to a Program Manager. In small companies the structure may be completely different and he may directly report to the General Manager or the Chief Executive.

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Manager Interview Questions on Metrics Followed in Project Management

Describe in a point wise manner what are the metrics followed in project management?
Answer : Most of the metrics sets deal with a variation of these attributes and are chosen to help project managers gain insight into PPP ie product, process and project. 

• product (size, software quality, rework)
• process (rework, software quality) 
• project (effort, schedule). 

Citing below is a broader classification :-

Project Management Metrics

Milestone metrics

• Number of proved requirements per milestone
• Number of milestones
• Controlling level metrics.

Risk metrics

• Probability of the requirements validity
• Probability of resources availability
• Application risk metrics
• Risk indicators  such as long schedules, excessive paperwork, error-prone modules, excessive time to market, unused or unusable software, unanticipated acceptance criteria, hidden errors, excessive schedule pressure, low quality, cost overruns,  canceled projects, creeping user requirements, inadequate cost estimating

Workflow metrics 

• Traceability metrics
• Walkthrough metrics
• Variance metrics

Management database metrics 

• Data quality metrics
• Visualization level
• Safety and security metrics
• Management data complexity
• Data handling level (performance metrics)

Controlling metrics

• Structure of control elements
• Tool application level
• Size of control elements
• Documentation level

Quality Management Metrics

Customer satisfaction metrics

• Characteristics structure metrics
• Characteristics size metrics
• Empirical evaluation metrics
• Data presentation metrics

Review metrics

• Review dependence metrics
• Number of reviews in the process
• Review structure metrics
• Review level metrics
• Review resources metrics

Productivity metrics

• Performance metrics
• Actual vs. Planned metrics
• Productivity vs. Quality metrics

Efficiency metrics

• Actual vs. Planned metrics
• Resources behavior metrics
• Time behavior metrics
• Quality assurance metrics 

Quality evaluation metrics

• Measurement level
• Error prevention metrics
• Data analysis metrics

Configuration Management Metrics

Change control metrics

• Dependencies of changes
• Size of change
• Change interval metrics
• Revisions metrics

Version control metrics

• Data handling level
• Releases metrics (version architecture)
• Number of versions per customer
• Number of versions
• Version differences metrics

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IT/Software Senior Project Manager Interview Questions

• Tell me about yourself, and your experience as a Project Manager
• What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses? 
• If we have to ask your previous boss how would he describe you ?
• Explain in detail your style of project management?
• What are the reasons for which you want to leave your present employer?
• What are the qualities or special skills that you would you bring to this job?
• Explain how do you handle change request in a maintenance project?
• Tell us about your latest accomplishments as a Project Manager.
• Explain in detail about the different software development life cycles in a software development project?
• What is the difference between Unit testing, Integration testing, Assembly testing and Regression testing? How do you do performance testing ?
• Have you ever handled the responsibilities of your Boss ?
• What's your opinion about the current boss of your organization ?
• Tell us about a situation when there was a major crisis you faced at work and explain how you handled it
• What do you think as a Project Manager is your most important contribution in your current project ?
• Give us five reason why you want to work for us?
• How would your peers, subordinates and your manager describe you as a professional ?
• What is the difference between black box testing and white box testing?
• Tell us how do you react to criticism? 
• Describe in brief about a typical day at your present job.
• Was there a situation that you have to hire employees; and, if so, have they lived up to your and company's expectations?
• Describe in detail how do you perform in a high voltage situation. How do you handle deadline pressure? Explain us with an example.
• Who is a stakeholder? How do you report to different stakeholders ?
• Explain effort variance in Quality Assurance?
• Tell us about a situation when there was conflict or disagreement with your higher-ups and in which you were involved. How was it resolved?
• Explain SDLC process and which approach you found the most effective.
• What do you see yourself doing ten years from now? Have you planned something specific for your professional future ?
• Explain the different phases in a software project?
• Tell us in detail about your management style.
• How flexible you are to work in different projects.
• What is the different tools and software that you have used for project management?
• Explain how you have done code-reviews.
• What is triple constraint triangle in project management?
• Why should we hire you over the other candidates who appeared for the same position?
• What is internal change request (ICR). What tools you have used to manage and track CRs?

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Project Manager Interview Questions asked in top companies

• Have you encountered a situation in your project where you had a team member who was not meeting his commitments and goals, what steps did you take to handle?
• Tell us what you have learnt from the current project?
• Describe  a situation when you faced a difficult situation. How steps  you took to handle it?
• What do you mean by a project charter? Can you tell us what are the elements in a project charter?
• Explain in detail the steps you had taken for quality management
• Tell us about the methods and process you employed for project estimation.
• What are your specific responsibilities in the current project?
• Explain the bidding process of your last project
• How do you define scope of a project  and what is the output of scope definition process?
• Are you open to work for us as an independent contractor or consultant for our company ?
• Explain the difference between a project and a program.
• Describe in detail about risk management and how will you plan risk response management in your project?
• What are the different kind of interaction you had with other employees in the current project?
• In the current project, what are the things you like and dislike the most as far as management is concerned ?
• Explain how would you start a project? What are the documents you would refer ?
• How would you plan for the role and what would be your specific goals as a consultant in our company ?
• Tell us about a specific time in your project when you faced a difficult project environment to get the job done on time and on budget for your client.
• Explain about the different project selection methods?
• What are the different quality control measures you have taken in your project ?
• Which are the tools that you have used for defining, managing and controlling projects?
• Have you ever encountered such a situation in your project where there is a delay in the early phase. What actions did you take to overcome the delay? 
• Can you provide a professional reference of people from your past consulting services or companies? 
• Describe us about an accomplishment you are particularly proud of and for which you received a lot of appreciation.
• Define milestones and inter dependencies. How do you do resource allocation ? 
• Describe in brief about your soft skills.
• Tell us how many projects you handled in the past? How did you meet the deadlines ? Were they on time and within the stipulated budget? What are the obstacles and hurdles you faced and how steps you took to overcome them?
• What are the most important qualities a IT/Software Project Manager should have  in order for the project to succeed
• Have you ever handled a Support and Maintenance team. What did you learn from it ?

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Service Delivery and Manager Interview Questions

If you are applying for the position of a Service Delivery Manager or Project Manager,  you can expect tough interview questions.

What are the tough interview questions that can be expected for a Project Manager?
Answer : These tough interview questions usually form part of the behavioral interview questions. The interviewers are interested in your technical expertise. However, they are more interested in how you behave under a tight deadline.

Interview questions for Project Manager:

1. How do you ensure that the successful completion of a project that dragged out longer than anticipated?
2. Give one example of an incident that prevents you from completing a task you have been assigned.
3. How do you define a good job in your current position?
4. How did you handle a situation when you worked with someone you did not get along?
5. Describe a time when you successful resolved a conflict with the main client.
6. Tell me the factors that you think have contributed to your success so far.
7. Tell me a time when your actions resulted in a negative effect on your colleagues.
8. How do you communicate bad news to someone?
9. Have you made an unpopular decision in your previous prooject? How did you gain support for an unpopular decision? What methods of communication did you use?
10. Describe a negotiation that fails. What do you think you could have done to avert the failure?
11. What are your strengths in negotiation? How did you employ the strengths?
12. How did you handle a poor work performer? Do you think you could have handled it differently?
13. Describe the management style of the most difficult manager you ever worked for. How did you adapt to his style?
14. Describe the most problematic subordinate in your team. How did you handle him?
15. How did you handle the career transition?
16. How did you acclimate yourself to a new job? How did you acclimate yourself to a country with a different culture?
17. Describe a time when you failed to adapt to a change. How could you have done differently?
18. How did you cope with budget overrun in a project?
19. How did you communicate your expectation of the team members working for you?
20. Describe a time when you had to make a difficult decision under pressure by the management.
21. Describe the characteristics of the most successful team you have ever handled. What is your contribution to the success of the team?
22. How does your personality reflect in the job you choose?
23. Why do you want this interview?
24. Describe a time when you successfully predicted obstacles to a project. What made you so certain that such obstacles could arise?

The interview questions for Project Manager role vary according to the expertise of the interviewers. You are not likely to face very tough questions in the first interview. The interviewers are likely to be junior staff from Human Resource department or the hiring manager.

However, you can expect very tough behavioral and project-specific questions in the second interview. The involvement of the HR Director and the senior management team means the interview questions for Project Manager are very tough.

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Effective Project Management Interview Questions, Project Manager Interview Questions Answers, Project Management Interview Questions. at Job Interview Questions

Leadership Behaviors

 Describe a recent project where you were responsible for managing multiple people or teams. What were some of the key challenges and how did you handle those challenges?

This question demonstrates a result-oriented leadership behavior. Project managers need to demonstrate delivery and a desire to attain the end goal. Staffing project managers who simply point out problems but do not help resolve them will not drive the project to completion. Effective project managers demonstrate how they’ve managed a project, coordinated across multiple teams, overcame obstacles and delivered the project’s goals.

Describe a time when you implemented a new idea without being asked or pursued a new opportunity that could improve the project or company.

Demonstrating courage and a willingness to take action without being asked is a key delivery characteristic of effective project managers. Project sponsors entrust the project’s goals, budget and their own reputations on their project managers. Project sponsors don’t have all the answers and need intelligent and motivated people to solve problems, identify new opportunities and take action without being prompted.

Describe a scenario where you had to balance competing customer demands with project constraints. How did you ensure customer satisfaction while maintaining the goals of the project?

Maintaining a customer focused approach while ensuring the project deliverables are completed on time is a delicate balance. Business partners don’t understand all the technical details required to turn business processes into software solutions. They just want the system to work and accommodate their changing business needs. Effective project managers build rapport with their business partners, seek to understand the underlying needs and proactively address their concerns. It is a difficult balance as project managers commit to delivering the project scope while addressing a business customer’s changing requirements.

Describe a time when you had to balance quality management with a challenged project schedule.

As projects execute and schedule variances occur, there is a tendency to shorten the quality testing cycle to maintain a project end date. In some projects, the end date can be extended, and in other projects the end date must be maintained. 


Effective project managers recognize the importance of quality management in the software development cycle and prioritize the test cases and test cycles that deliver the project’s critical functionality. These project managers successfully commit to a quality mindset and ensure defects are resolved or mitigated.

The project manager should also recognize the challenge of managing the triple constraint and maintain a commitment to quality. Recognizing delays in the schedule early will help project managers adjust testing schedules so the support team isn’t called in from a day off or a holiday.

Describe a time when you had a difficult situation working with a vendor or another peer? What was your approach to resolve the issues while maintaining a positive relationship?

Without a cohesive team, a project manager can not be effective. Projects often depend on vendors and supplier team members to provide services. The nature of the client-vendor relationship emphasizes mutually beneficial goals. However, the vendor doesn’t always prioritize the client’s interests as heavily as their own.


The ability to effectively develop teams across corporate borders is critical to project delivery. Clients will always try to maximize services at a minimal cost while vendors are motivated to increase costs for additional services.

In a challenged project with strained vendor relationships, it becomes even more important to focus on the critical issues to work together and deliver the end goal. The same skill is needed when working with other peers who are not necessarily motivated to help the project team. 


Strong relationships help solve problems and support project delivery. The best project management system, tools and techniques cannot replace the power effective relationships have across multiple teams.

Assessing Communication Skills

In this set of interview questions, there is not a specific question that addresses the project manager’s communication skill or style. 


The open-ended questions provide the interviewer with enough feedback to determine how well the candidate communicates using verbal and non-verbal communication. 


Communication is 90 percent of a project manager’s job, and interviewers should look for project managers who can logically and clearly respond to the interview questions as well as demonstrate project management theory in practice.

These leadership behavior-based questions are just a few examples that identify a project manager’s drive for results, commitment to customer satisfaction and focus on quality delivery. The next article will provide a set of technical project management assessment questions.

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Collection of Project Manager Interview Questions.

We are presenting some questions that are frequently asked in project manager interviews. 

1. Project Manager Project skills Interview Questions

• Explain in brief how would you proceed on to start a project?
• Describe the most vital and necessary steps for successful project management?
• Explain in brief how do you go about planning for a project?
• Explain a situation when there was a major implementation of a successful project in which you participated actively and how you contributed to its success.
• Consider a scenario. You are designated as a project manager and the team members have already been identified and selected. How will you increase the effectiveness of your project team members, Briefly list out the hat steps that you will you take?
• Explain the terms used in project management - Milestones, Inter dependencies and Resource allocation?
• What is the significance of Project Software that a company uses for project management?
• You are assigned to a specific software project, what steps do you take for its successful completion?
• During the first month of the project, you realize that it will exceed the projected budget of three months allotted for it. What are the steps you will you take to address the potential cost overrun?
• How important are technical skills as far as project manager is concerned , since more and more business managers are hiring manager with “people” skills?
• Can you describe us how many projects you handled in the past, the tight deadlines, the budget? Whats are the obstacles you face and how did you overcome?
• What do you mean by EVM? Explain how will you use it effectively in managing projects?
• What is the difference between a project and a program?
• Explain what are project selection methods with an example?
• Which are the document you would refer for future decisions?
• Define scope of a project?
• What do you mean by a project charter? What are the elements in a project charter?
• Describe about a time in your project when you had very little of say in project management?
• What are the five signs or early symptoms that indicate your project may fail.
• What distinguishes a project from the daily routine operations?
• Explain what is the output of scope definition process?
• Explain quality management in detail?
• What are the learning you would like to carry from your last project?
• Describe about a time in your project in which you participated and your role proved vital in that project.
• Tell us about a situation when you were in a difficult project environment and you have to put some extra effort to get the job done on time and on budget.
• What are the actions that are required for successful executive sponsorship of a successful project?
• Describe the three main constraints on a project?
• Name and elaborate five control components of a project?
• What is the tool that you would use to define, manage and control projects?
• Explain the importance of risk management and risk response?
• What are the metrics that you would use to determine the on-going success of the project?
• Describe the methods you have used for project estimation?
• What do you think is required to be an effective project manager?
• Explain about “project milestone”?
• What are the important things to consider when planning for a project?
• How do you priorities things that you have found to be low priority when planning for your project?
• Consider a scenario, you are appointed the project manager for a team comprising of new employees, freshers and “entry-level” What are the steps you would take to ensure that the project is completed well within deadline?
• What are the methods you used for project estimation?
• What do you mean by a “project float”?

2. Project Manager Leadership Interview Questions

• Can you describe us a situation where there was more than one way to accomplish a given task, but there was strong opposition from some people higher in the management.
• Describe briefly about your career goals? How do you see this job affecting your goals in the long term?
• Describe us with an example of a time when you motivate team members who are not very much interested in the project or bored doing their part?
• Describe about you leadership style while in a new situation. Let us consider that suddenly you are made to work in a diverse environment. What steps would you take to achieve results?
• Describe about a time in your project where your leadership involvement played an important role in teamwork.
• What alternatives did you consider for handling non-productive members of your team?
• Give us an example of where when you handled team members who come to you with their personal problems that affected work?

3. Project Manager Judgment Interview Questions

• Tell me about your verbal and written communication ability. How well do you represent yourself to clients, team members and senior management? 
• Describe how do you deal with stress, pressure arising out of unreasonable demands?
• If your former employee is contacted, what would he say about your abilities related to decision-making?
• Describe us with a specific example of a win-win situation you have negotiated successfully
• Tell us a about a situation where you tried your best to come out of a stressful situation you have been in. Explain how you handled it?
• Explain us about a situation when you had to make a tough decision?

4. Project Manager Experience Interview Questions

• Describe what you did at your work place yesterday.
• What are the new learning and strengths you acquired in your last position? 
• What are your contributions in your last project. Can you describe how those contributions impacted results?

5. Project Manager Competency Interview Questions

• Can you tell us about the special training that you have undergone which you think would be relevant to this job.
• What are some of the things that you would not like to be included in your job?
• Describe what you think it would be like to do this job every day.
• What are the qualities you have which  makes you believe qualifies you for this position?

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IT Project Manager Job Interview Questions.

When are are applying for a Project Manager position specific to IT or Software projects, there are some additional considerations, and some specific qualities the employers may be searching for like certifications and training.

Prospective employers may look for the following criteria.

Qualification of a IT Project Manager

• Project Management Professional (PMP) Certified or Prince 2 certified Project Manager - these two are most important globally-recognized for project managers. For more details you can refer this website. http://www.pmi.org
• Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) is another certification  which recognizes the advanced experience and skill of portfolio managers
• Techno Functional Experience is very much required in IT companies now-a-days.
• Most of the companies expect that the candidate have at least one end to end IT implementation.
• Some minimum years experience coordinating and supporting IT business processes.
• At least a Bachelor’s Degree or higher in Engineering, Technology or related area, but this is not always a required criteria.

Responsibilities and duties of a IT project manager

As an IT project manager you’d have to describe the following action taken within the project lifecycle:

• Defining project requirements, budgeting and plan project schedule based on MS project and/or other managerial tools such as Business Intelligence tools.
• Establishing the appropriate SOW, scope of work, for the project.
• Performing strategic IT analysis for the project.
• Identifying/Assigning resources for project/program implementation based on the project business plan.
• Planning project deliverables, goals and its milestones.
• Preparing RFP, Requests for Proposals, and conducting sub-contractors/vendors selection process.

You can refer to this post for some generic questions HERE

• How did you demonstrate leadership to define requirements for project risk?
• How did you efficiently solve project issues?

Why do think you fit the job of an IT manager? What are your skills?

• Strong awareness of core project management techniques and some practical project management experience.
• Strong organizational, client presentation, and customer service skills.
• Strong project management skills and methodologies such as: prioritization, problem analysis, use of analytics and ability to solve problems effectively.
• Ability to build effective working relationship with peers, team members, customers and higher management.
• Analytical and rational thinking, effective planning, accuracy at various stages and attention to detail.
• Strong and effective verbal communication skills.
• Work and task Prioritization skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively without conflict with the higher management.
• Conceptual and in-depth knowledge of Industry Standards and Process

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IT Project Management Interview Questions and Answers.

Describe about IT project spending in your project. Is it constant throughout the different stages of the project?
Answer : This question is asked to test how much you know regarding costing of projects. As usual in the initial stage of project, ie the requirement and design phase, the cost and expense is very minimal, because this stage requires a bit of business analysis and architecture. But as the project progresses, cost factor starts to increase.The cost becomes maximum in coding phase because in this phase you require programmers , developers, testers, project leads and a project manager. Finally, when the project is in testing and acceptance phase cost depends from client to client but usually less compared to development stage.

Explain what do you mean by a stakeholder ?
Answer : A stakeholder in an organization is anyone who has something to gain or lose because of the completion or failure of the project or a particular phase of the project.
We should keep in mind that its not only the end customer that may be the stakeholders. Stakeholders also include important people in the project like the Project managers , Project Lead , even the programmers and analysts, testing department etc are also the stake holders of a project.

Can you tell us if risk is constant throughout the project ?
Answer :  In most of the projects, risk is very high at the start of project, but by proper steps like proper POC (Proof of concept) risk is brought in control. A good project manager will always have proper risk mitigation plan during inception of the project. During the progression of the project one by one risk is eliminated and hence bringing down the risk.

Explain in brief about the different project life cycle ? How many phases are there in software project ?
There are five stages of any project initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closeout.These are very general phases and change according to domain.Example when writing a book i will have following mapping’s initiating(contacting publishers,getting

copy right etc.), planning(Table of contents of book ,Number of chapters , tool to use,chapter wise deadlines etc), xecuting(Actually writing the book), controlling(proof reading , language checks , page alignments etc), and closeout(Finally printing and on the
shelf for sale).So this classification is at very broader level , for software development the above figure shows the mapping.

During Software project management interview expected answer is requirement phase, design phase ,coding phase , testing phase and project closure.But you can just impress the answer by giving a general answer and then showing the mapping.

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Software Project Management Interview Questions.

Explain what do you mean by a internal change request?
Answer : When we talk about a internal change request ICR, the first thing to understand is that these requests are normally not billable change request, and as such we do not gain anything financially from the client. For instance, the software architect of your company has listed out an alternative approach in the middle of the project and that the said architecture needs to be adapted. As such, this has nothing to with the client, but since changes were made to the project hence we term this as Internal change request. 

Explain how do you do code reviews within a project? 
Answer : Code review is one of the most vital thing aspect that needs to be followed in a software project. However there is no standard procedure or process that is followed across projects or organizations, it change from person to person and also differs from organization to organization. The usual and the most common procedure adopted is that when a project is started software architect define there architecture, design team prepares the draft design, and the implementation team the coding standards and procedures, etc. As such, when you start a code review, you need to refer  and go through the standards procedures as defined in the project.

Can you tell me what are the Software and Tools you have used for managing your project? 
Answer : Most of the big software companies have come up their own standard software. Project management software are also readily available in the market, which are frequently being tried and tested by the companies. Again, it is something that varies from organization to organization and from project to project. Microsoft project is one of the software that is widely being used by small and mid-size companies.

Explain what is the main difference between SITP and UTP in testing? 
Answer : Unit Test Plan are done at the smallest unit level or in stand alone mode in a project. For instance, let us consider you have a customer and invoicing module in your project. As such, you will do the unit test on Customer and Invoice module independent of each other. Although, later when we want test both customer and invoice as needed and to test the inter dependencies, we integrate them and do the testing which is nothing but the System Integration Test Plan(SITP).

UTP can be done using tools like NUNIT. Unit testing is done normally by developers, mostly its a manual testing process and System testing is done by Testing team in integration mode using different software.

Tell us about a situation when you have people in your team who misses deadlines quite often or do not perform to the expectation of the project. What actions would you take? 
Answer : This question is asked with to find out about your delegation skills. The most suitable answer to this question is that the job of a project manager is managing projects and not attending to individual delivery, as such the work will be delegated to someone else, and the performance will be reported to human resource or upper management.

Dear Readers. Please use the comment section for your valuable feedback and suggestions.

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Here I am listing some of the most frequently asked Project Coordinator Interview Questions.

Here, you can find typical questions with their corresponding suggested answers

Can you give me one skill that from your point of view which you think is the most important for the role of a project coordinator.
The answer to this question is tricky. You may think that there is no one single skill that is all important, but then also name just one.What the interviewer is simply wanting to see is how you think and and how express yourself. As such, be short and precise to the point.

For instance – One very important skill for a project coordinator is multitasking: The ability to juggle many tasks simultaneously is a formidable quality. The second skill you could talk about is Teamwork since a coordinator must be able to cooperate and co-ordinate with many teams simultaneously and ensure coordinated action between them is carried out smoothly.

Can you give me an example of working in a large team with specialists as a project coordinator.
For instance, if you have worked in a product development company, an pertinent example would be showcasing how you work closely with the development team to define achievable goals , solve the conflicts, coordinating resources and minimizing the risks involved.

One of the most important function of a project coordinator is to direct resources and are hence are connected to resource managers as well as procurement department. Their work involves guaranteeing the quality for which they work closely with specialists like quality engineers., managing deadlines and budget limitations that may arise during the course of the project.

Can you describe how you go about planning a project?
The first and the most important task of a coordinator is that he produces feasibility studies for project ideas. The next step is planning project progress: Setting sub targets and tasks, goals , milestones, and so on. The third step is personnel planning , which involved delegating the tasks to the correct employee and distributing responsibilities to the assigned employees in the most effective way possible.

Explain in brief the typical working conditions of a project coordinator?
Try to explain the hectic schedule, the complex tasks associated, the co-ordination involving cross company teams,  many layers of the organization management, the affiliates, stakeholders and customers at once. A typical day of a project coordinator is characterized by uncertainty and surprise, as such, explain the breadth of your field of work which requires adaptability, flexibility and sharp acumen.

Can you please describe your experience with IT and Software projects as a project coordinator.
The question is very specific here you need to describe your experience in least one IT project in a detailed fashion.

List down the points where your role played a part in the project.

For example – How you have directed and monitored the changing requirements, tracked the progress and achieved the completion of short term Software projects with limited resources. You can also explain in detail on how you have ensured that the services and products conformed to quality standards  and how you met your client requirements and specifications.

I will write another post detailing project coordinator roles and responsibilities in IT and Software projects.

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Project Manager Interview Questions asked in Microsoft.

Even though a candidate may apply for a managerial position, still he/she can expect a lot of aptitude questions in Microsoft.

1. How does Microsoft as a Software company fit into your vision?
2. Tell us what are some of the things that excite and motivate you for working with Microsoft?
3. Tell us about your favorite Microsoft product and its main features? Do you think it is particularly well-designed for end users? 
4. What is your least favorite Microsoft product and why. Can you suggest some features which you feel will help improve the product.
5. Would you like to work in Microsoft product development? What technical skills you think you have that will fit in it?
6. Have you appeared for Microsoft interview before ? If yes, tell us in brief how was your interview experience.
7. Explain in detail along with examples of poorly designed software? 
8. What are some examples of poorly/well-designed software? What makes the software this way and how would you change it?
9. Tell me about a time when you made a decision and later found out that it was incorrect. What did you do to resolve the issue? Were you successful it ?
10. Suppose you are one week away from the product shipping date and discover that there is a bug in your software. What are the measure you would take and were you successful?

These questions are mean for testing the IQ of the candidates. General background knowledge.

1. How will you explain the concept of database to a young child and make him understand.
2. How would you explain the functioning of the Internet to your grandparents
3. Which is your favorite website? Why do you find it interesting, and what improvements you want in the website.
4. You have noticed performance issues in your company website. Will you take steps for it or simply ignore ? 
5. One day, Steve Jobs calls you up and asks you to improve the iPod/iPad. What suggestions would you offer to him?
6. Explain in detail with an example of a great product design? What features would you expect in a great product ?
7. Explain how will you design a coffee maker that will be used by astronauts in space. 
8. How would you design a music system for your car. What are the features you would include? Illustrate with a picture.
9. How would you design a GPS navigation unit for a hiker.What would be the special features you will include?
10. Explain how will you design a remote control for an automatic window-blind system.
11. How would you design an simple alarm clock. Explain the functioning of a clock with an algorithm.
12. What are the important features would you include to design an alarm clock for a blind person. Illustrate with a picture.
13. Design a simple search function and explain how it will perform. Which is the most efficient search function used is searching the websites ?
14. You are asked to develop instant messaging system. What will be the new features you would like to include in it?
15. Design an algorithm for car traffic control. Just take a two way intersection for it.
16. You are asked to design a communication device for Canadian park rangers. How will you proceed and what kind of team you would require to design it?
17. How would you describe what MATLAB to your grandmother who has just basic knowledge of computers?
18. Design an algorithm which will be used for selecting objects in Microsoft Visio.
19. What are steps you take to test a keyboard?
20. Explain how would you test a coffee vending machine?
21. Describe in brief how would you test an elevator? 
22. Design an algorithm for lift-scheduling. 
23. A hypothetical question, if you given the chance to remove any of the 50 states in USA, which state would it be and why would you go for it?
24. Can you tell how many cars are there in the USA, and how many gets stolen in one year?

Some questions related to analytical thinking to help solve problems.

1. There is a bear walking along a path. Now, the bear walks one mile south, then it turns left and walks one mile to the east and then it turns left again and walks one mile north and finally it arrives at its original position from where it started. Can you now tell what is the color of the bear?
2. In your home, you have a closet that is full with shirts. It becomes very hard to find a shirt. So what would you do to organize your shirts in such a way that the retrieval would be fast and easy?
3. You enter a big library. Tell us how would go about finding out to find a book in a library assuming that you don't know how the books are organized.
4. The federal government has a requirement of keeping track of cars whether or not they are speeding. The part to determine this is already able to determine the speed of the vehicle, how would you design the rest of the system. Explain with a diagram.
5. In a Wall Clock, how many times a day do the two hands on a clock overlap themselves. Explain mathematically?
6. You are given 8 balls. Out of which one of them is found to be defective and it weighs less than others. Now, you are provided a balance to measure the balls against each other. In at most 2 weighing, how do you find the the one that is defective?
7. There are 3 baskets. one of them have apples, one has oranges only and the other has mixture of apples and oranges. The labels on their baskets always lie. (i.e. if the label says oranges, you are sure that it doesn't have oranges only,it could be a mixture) The task is to pick one basket and pick only one fruit from it and then correctly label all the three baskets.
8. You've got someone working for you for seven days and a gold bar to pay them. The gold bar is segmented into seven connected pieces. You must give them a piece of gold at the end of every day. If you are only allowed to make two breaks in the gold bar, how do you pay your worker?
9. One train leaves Los Angeles at 15mph heading for New York. Another train leaves from New York at 20mph heading for Los Angeles on the same track. If a bird, flying at 25mph, leaves from Los Angeles at the same time as the train and flies back and forth between the two trains until they collide, how far will the bird have traveled?
10. You have two jars, 50 red marbles and 50 blue marbles. A jar will be picked at random, and then a marble will be picked from the jar. Placing all of the marbles in the jars, how can you maximize the chances of a red marble being picked? What are the exact odds of getting a red marble using your scheme?
11. Imagine you are standing in front of a mirror, facing it. Raise your left hand. Raise your right hand. Look at your reflection. When you raise your left hand your reflection raises what appears to be his right hand. But when you tilt your head up, your reflection does too, and does not appear to tilt his/her head down. Why is it that the mirror appears to reverse left and right, but not up and down?
12. You have 5 jars of pills. Each pill weighs 10 gram, except for contaminated pills contained in one jar, where each pill weighs 9 gm. Given a scale, how could you tell which jar had the contaminated pills in just one measurement? Explain mathematically with a algorithm.
13. Lets say that you had an infinite supply of water and a 5 quart and 3 quart pail, how would you measure exactly 4 quarts using these two?
14. You have a bucket of jelly beans. Some are red, some are blue, and some green. With your eyes closed, pick out 2 of a like color. How many do you have to grab to be sure you have 2 of the same color.
15. Lets take a scenario. There are four ants at four corners of a square of same/unit distance. At the same instant, all of them start running with unit speed towards the person in clockwise direction and will always run towards that target. How long does it take for them to meet and where do they meet?
16. Why do mirrors reverse right and left instead of up and down? Can you explain it with a diagram?
17. Given a rectangular (cuboid for the puritans) cake with a rectangular piece removed (any size or orientation), how would you cut the remainder of the cake into two equal halves with one straight cut of a knife?
18. Which way should the key turn in a car door to unlock it? Why it is designed in such a way ?

In a typical Microsoft Project manager interview they look for different set of skills. Most of the time they look of candidates with good IQ, Strong technical knowledge and those having rational and questioning attitude Apart from that good leadership skills, a positive attitude, a keen interest and passion for technology are another qualities they look for in a candidate. Please use the comment section for answering.

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