Airbnb Product Manager Interview: Process, Questions & Tips

Airbnb PM Interview Overview

Airbnb Product Manager interviews blend marketplace thinking with brand and community focus. Expect questions on trust and safety, host and guest experience, and product design that balances both sides of the travel marketplace, plus a strong culture-fit evaluation.

Airbnb PM Hiring Process

1. 1

   Recruiter screen on experience and interest in travel and marketplaces.

2. 2

   Hiring-manager round with product deep dive.

3. 3

   Onsite loop: product sense, analytics, strategy, behavioral and core-values interviews.

4. 4

   Case study or presentation for some roles.

5. 5

   Debrief and offer.

Airbnb PM Interview Rounds

Airbnb Product Sense Questions

1. 1

   Design a driverless car pick up service for kids.

2. 2

   Imagine you’re a Product Manager at Airbnb. You have been assigned the task of adding a new feature that could be useful to the Airbnb user base. It must include an integration with an external third-party/non-Airbnb API.

3. 3

   How would you improve Airbnb in 6 months?

4. 4

   How do you improve the check out experience for Airbnb?

5. 5

   How would you improve a trip organiser app like TripCase or TripIt?

6. 6

   How would you increase the conversion rate of the Airbnb Reservation experience for first timers?

7. 7

   How would you improve the Airbnb Homes product?

Airbnb Execution & Metrics Questions

1. 1

   What A/B tests will you run to increase the booking rate among Airbnb guests?

2. 2

   How do you measure the success of Airbnb online experiences?

3. 3

   How would you measure the satisfaction of hosts on Airbnb?

4. 4

   How would you determine success for the "Things to do" feature in Airbnb?

5. 5

   How would you go about building a marketplace app for finding available parking spots?

Airbnb Strategy Questions

1. 1

   Walk me through how you prioritize your product backlog.

2. 2

   How would you improve the user activation rate of Airbnb? Feel free to assume What you consider to be activation.

3. 3

   For a marketplace, how would you decide whether to have two different apps for buyers & sellers or only a single app?

4. 4

   How will you plan the launch of a travel product after the end of coronavirus?

5. 5

   Can you talk through how you worked with a design team in a previous company to ship a product / feature?

6. 6

   Should Airbnb offer free experiences/tours?

7. 7

   How would you determine how to sell hotels on Airbnb?

Airbnb Behavioral Questions

1. 1

   How do you motivate a team?

2. 2

   How do you work with Marketing?

3. 3

   What would you say as your achievements in your current role?

4. 4

   What would you say as your achievements in your current role?

Airbnb SQL & Analytics Questions

Airbnb expects data-driven PMs. These SQL and analytics concepts come up in interviews and on the job:

1. 1

   Difference between INNER JOIN and LEFT JOIN?

   INNER JOIN: only matching rows. LEFT JOIN: all left table rows + matched right rows.

2. 2

   What does GROUP BY do?

   Groups rows to perform aggregate functions like COUNT, SUM, AVG.

3. 3

   What are window functions?

   Functions that perform calculations without collapsing rows.

4. 4

   Write a query to find all unique job titles from the employees table.

   Use SELECT DISTINCT to retrieve unique values.

5. 5

   Rank employees by salary within each department.

   Use RANK() with PARTITION BY for grouped ranking.

How to Prepare for the Airbnb PM Interview

• Study Airbnb's two-sided marketplace: search ranking, host quality, reviews and trust.

• Prepare product ideas for new travel categories and guest segments.

• Practice metric cases on conversion funnels and supply health.

• Build authentic stories for the core-values interview: it is a real gate.

• Know Airbnb's recent moves: flexible search, categories, long-term stays.

• Practice designing for trust: verification, insurance and safety features.

Airbnb PM Interview FAQs