Technical Manager Interview Questions
When hiring a technical manager, an employer will look for candidates with the management skills and industry knowledge needed to oversee company projects that require members to have large amounts of technical knowledge, usually in the form of programming and software development. Some of the interview questions you may be asked will target your management experience and philosophy, while others will focus on your understanding of the technical processes you will be working with in the project.
Top Technical Manager Interview Questions & How To Answer
Here are three top technical manager machine operator interview questions and tips on how to answer them:
Question No. 1: Have you ever dealt with staff members who were resistant to new technology or technological processes? How did you handle the situation?
How to answer: A technical manager often introduces and rolls out new technology products and processes to an organisation's staff members, so it is important to know how to do this in a positive way. When answering this question, try to think about a specific situation in which you dealt with resistant staff and how you interacted with those individuals in a positive way. As you describe the situation, use the STAR method: situation, task, action, result. This question allows you to describe your problem-solving and communication skills.
Question No. 2: Describe your process for researching and implementing new technology.
How to answer: When answering a question about your process, consider a specific situation in which you researched and/or implemented a new technology in a previous role. Describe the steps you took and why you took each step, as well as the outcome of your research and rollout processes.
Question No. 3: How did the last company you worked for benefit from your technical expertise?
How to answer: Answering a question about your technical expertise allows you to elaborate on your technical skills and strengths and how they benefitted those around you in your previous role. Describe specific situations that highlight the importance of your work, such as new technologies that you implemented or rolled out that led to significant improvements or positive results.
* Given an array of numbers. Create another array that contains * the product of all the members in the array except the current * element. For example, if you have an array of 3 elements such as: * * A[0] = 2 * A[1] = 4 * A[2] = 6 * * Then the resulting array will be * B[0] = 24 * B[1] = 12 * B[2] = 8 *
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public class GoogleInterviewQuestion { public int[] computeProds(int[] intArray) { int product = 1; int[] prods = new int[intArray.length]; for (int i = 0; i < intArray.length; i++) { product *= intArray[i]; } for (int i = 0; i < intArray.length; i++) { prods[i] = product / intArray[i]; } return prods; } public static void main (int argc, String argv[]) { GoogleInterviewQuestion giq = new GoogleInterviewQuestion(); int array[] = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}; int prods[] = giq.computeProds(array); } Less
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More than division by 0, it will fail if any element of original array is 0. All elements of resultant array will be 0? While one element dosent need to be 0. Less
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Or even better: def ComputeProds(arr): return [reduce(lambda x,y: x*y, set(arr).difference([c])) for c in arr] Less
you have one giant cube made of 1000 small cubes(arranged them in 10x10x10) if you put the giant cube into the bucket that filled with water, then how many of small cubes are actually get wet?
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488. 1000 - (8*8*8) = 488
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correct answer is 488 : 2*[10*10 + 8*10 + 8*8] = 488 This accounts for including of cubes with sides viible on 2 or three flat surfaces and eliminates the repeats.. Less
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Top and bottom faces: 10 * 10 * 2 = 200 The blocks along vertical edges = 4 * (10 - 2) = 32; -2 as the top of the line and the bottom of the line are already counted amongst the top and bottom faces. 4 inner faces = 4 * 8 * 8 = 256; 8 as these aren't yet counted amongst the top and bottom faces or the vertical edges. Total = 200 + 32 + 256 = 488. Less
What is the hardest thing in moving a team to Agile?
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It's the people. Getting them to understand the Agile concept, then utilize it. Some developers never get "Fluid Requirements". They want final requirements and that's it. Less
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1. Communication. Frequent communication from the developers to ensure problems are raised and solved 2. Team needs to learn how to ship products with low-pri bugs Less
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- New team (everyone is still forming, norming, storming) so hard to estimate and collaborate - Distributed team members (works best if teams are collocated) - Strong, individual performers. Agile is about team work. - Not having a product owner - etc. Less
Estimate the number of spark plugs in the state of California.
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In fact the number is much larger than that. The average number of sparks per vehicle (in CA) is probably closer to 5.5. Four-cylinder vehicles are the norm in Europe, but in the US is common to see a higher percentage of V6 and V8 engines. For every gas (not diesel, as noted previously) vehicle in CA, working or not, you could estimate ~5.5 sparks. In addition, you have to account for all stored (i.e. not necessarily installed in vehicles) sparks. So if there are, say, 20k car shops in CA and each of them holds 100 sparks in stock, that's another 2M sparks. How about motorbikes? Probably 2.5 sparks on average? Any spark factories in CA? Finished product would count too. How many unsold/retired vehicles? I'd say the final number is well north of 100M. Less
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Cars, lawn mowers, edgers, and many other engines. Only going by cars is a huge underestimate. Less
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This is a fermi question. assuming there is one sparkplug per vehicle, and the number of sparkplugs used in other machinary pales in comparision to the number of vehicles in california, then you just need to get the ball park figure for the number of vehicles.. here's my shot at it.. CA population is roughly 40 million. I would estimate roughly 1 car per family.. so lets say about 15-20 million cars in CA (taking into account children). so ball park figure of 20 million. lets add 10 million more for commercial vehicles, motorcycles,trailers etc.. . I would estimate a total of 30 million spark plugs in the state of California. Less
what was most innovative technical work you have done
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We have developed Virtual Music Instruments for A.R Rahman. These are musical bands worn to hand and these generate midi tones and sent over Air (two variants Bluetooth, UWB). A third variant is again demonstrated by A.R.Rahman in many concerts, with technology based on camera. All of these variants are used by A.R Rahman in various concerts. Less
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We have developed Virtual Music Instruments for A.R Rahman. These are musical bands worn to hand and these generate midi tones and sent over Air (two variants Bluetooth, UWB). A third variant is again demonstrated by A.R.Rahman in many concerts, with technology based on camera. All of these variants are used by A.R Rahman in various concerts. Less
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We have developed Virtual Music Instruments for A.R Rahman. These are musical bands worn to hand and these generate midi tones and sent over Air (two variants Bluetooth, UWB). A third variant is again demonstrated by A.R.Rahman in many concerts, with technology based on camera. All of these variants are used by A.R Rahman in various concerts. Less
How would you explain story points to a team who's new to Agile/Scrum?
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Time vs effort.. teams get hung up on time based estimates. And not about the amount of effort it's going to take to accomplish a task/user story. Less
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It’s about demonstrating it to them and comparing the efficacy compare to other frameworks via dissecting a story vertically to the smallest size possible. Less
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I said I would talk to them about t-shirt sizing and try several ways to help them understand that story estimation has little to nothing to do with time, rather effort. I also explained that this was a challenging topic for a new team. Less
Quiz: 4 persons need to cross a bridge where only 2 can cross at a time, having 1 torch. A can cross in 1 min, B in 2 min, C in 5 min and D in 10 min. What combination will make them go fastest across the bridge.
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How would you solve a given issue or problem and why?
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1. Regular review of activities outcome is highly important and key for proper result or outcome evaluation to knowing the level of improvement also the quality which will redirect what next to be put in place within and outside the box 2. Peer Review strategies and collaboration is key to the needed improvement strengthening 3. Timely & accessibility of funds support is also a good driver to health workers moral 4. 0% stock out mechanism is key - which is one of the deterring factors that patients trust and believe 5. Appropriate and timely Social mobilization, advocacy with correct messages and wide spread information is not negotiable. 6. Appropriate data capturing tools with correct management and analysis plus corresponding interpretation and timely use and feedbacks accordingly. 7. Surveillance activities is important to knowing the impact of interventions or strategies used 8. etc 9. Analyst Jimoh Dare - for SPM Benin Republic Malaria & NTD. Full time Less
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In general and most of the time; !. Base Line data information is key for various reviews and its respective outcomes and level of impact 2. Review of its data capturing tools and the various analysis plus the respective interpretations and actions taken for the various results or outcome 3. Study the logical flows of the Problem Solving flow chart Algorithm for the strengthening to get a better and more quality outcome or results. 4. Check or review the various integrated parts for the improvement 5. If found okay, develop the concept paper including all the reviewed data tools for consideration and approval for implementation with the relevant cost implication with date indication and responsible authority if need be. 6. Regular review is key to achieve the set target 7. The main reason for all the above is getting the problem resolved in a s systematic manner within the acceptable period specified by my employer the CHAI Organization for a quality outcome with moderate cost implications. 8. Analyst Jimoh Dare for CHAI SPM Malaria & NTD Benin Republic - Full Time. Less
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In conclusion- 1. Problem or challenges identification is the first step 2. Carry out a Desk review to ensure the correctness of the logical flow using the appropriate problem solving approach by with either "But Why or Fish Borne " strategy in fixing the identified problem or challenges. 3. Share updated why forward with the stakeholders for the needed actions for use in a timely manner. 4. Ensure periodic reviews for impact evaluation of the current status and further way forward. 5. The above processes or stages of activities are needed to achieving the set targeted objectives in the quest of quality improvement or outcome. Less
A vaguest ion that was asked in a very general way, but which the interviewer clearly had specific answers he was looking for: "what are four components that are included in every specification doc". That sounded a lot like a thing you would find at Microsoft and similar large companies where process is more strictly defined. I answered poorly, I think, perhaps because I haven't worked with that kind of spec in a very long time, and not on any projects that worked out well. Smaller orgs/programs/projects (startups and incubators, for example, where the outcome is always in flux, as I am accustomed to working with) can have poor specs, specs that are centered on marketing, planning documents that are made up of wireframes and time-based stage gates. In any case, I choked a bit, and the interview kind of skated around and became more specific as we went along. I don't think that is inappropriate, though, because Amazon does value and expect the ability to deal with ambiguity.
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"what are four components that are included in every specification doc" This question is insane, and I would hate getting an interviewer that asks such a question. Correct answer can be: "1. Title, 2. Author, 3. Requirements, 4. Version". If the title "requirements doc" is not there, maybe it is not a requirement doc. Specific sections are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_requirements_document Less
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The toughest interviewer with the "4 components" question was a dev, in fact. The TPM screen was not so academic, more about challenges and solutions, philosophy, team fit, familiarity with the specific technology and business. That was definitely the screen that didn't go well, although he was wicked smart and wasn't just trying to mess with the candidate or anything. Less
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What do you mean of Sepc ? If you mean a document which will be used for developing a feature of software i.e Use case sepc, user story, backlog item, It should contain at least following components : 1- Who is Actor / Role 2- What action will actor/role will take ? 3- Goal. Why actor do that ? what the software will provide for user. You may add acceptance criteria to the above list. Less
What is the difference between a risk and an issue?
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An issue is an actual problem which is (negatively) impacting your project. A risk is an unknown or potential future event -- can have negative OR POSITIVE impact (yes!) and may or may not occur. Less
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The key difference is an “issue” already has occurred and a “risk” is a potential issue that may or may not happen and can impact the project positively or negatively. We plan in advance and work out mitigation plans for high-impact risks. For all issues at hand, we need to act immediately to resolve them. Less
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This is classic project management professional terminology, which I knew. But since I'm not a PMP I didn't know the precise definitions so I didn't try to bluff it. In the real world the two things are so different that you can't really point out what the differences are. I was left doing a goldfish impression - mouth opening & closing. Less