As an interviewee, one needs to do many preparations for an interview. The interviewee should research all the questions that are frequently asked and arm themselves with the best answers for such questions. Questions asked during interviews usually touch on several issues such as the compatibility of the interviewee to the company, project management experience, leadership skills, project management technical skills and tools used in project management.
We have compiled top 100 questions that might be asked in an interview to test various aspects of project management skills, with tips and a sample answer for each of them.
Top 8 Mostly Asked Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers
1. Please Describe Yourself and Your Background Briefly
2. Why Are You Interested In This Role?
3. Why Do You Want to Work With Us?
4. Tell me What You Know About This Company?
5. Why Did You Leave Your Last Job?
8. Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years?
8 Project Manager Interview Questions & Answers on Leadership
9. How Do You Motivate A Team?
11. How Do You Handle Insubordination, Team Infighting, And/or Poor Team Communication?
12. How Would You Describe Your Communication And Leadership Style?
13. Describe Your Management Style
14. Explain How You Would Achieve Consensus While Keeping the Project On Track
15. Describe How You Recently Managed A Diverse Project Team Towards A Common Goal
16. When Was The Last Time You Didn’t Delegate?
The 9 Most Common Project Manager Interview Questions & Answers
17. What Do You Think Are Your Greatest Strengths?
19. What Are The Three Words That Describe You Best?
20. How Would Those You Have Worked With Previously Describe You?
21. What Motivates You To Do Your Best On The Job?
22. Tell Us Something About Your Hobbies
23. What Do You Spend The Most Time Doing Each Day?
24. What Challenges Are You Looking For In This Position?
25. For How Long Do You Expect To Stay With Our Organization
8 Project Manager Interview Questions on Managing Project Schedule
26. How Do You Go About Planning A Schedule For A Project?
27. Tell Me How You Schedule Projects And Establish Timelines.
28. What Are The Ways A Project Time Schedule Can Be Compressed?
29. How Do You Evaluate Whether Or Not The Team Is On Track?
30. How Do You Handle Missing A Deadline?
31. How Do You Ensure Your Team Stays On Track To Meet Project Deadlines?
32. When Every Task Is Urgent, How Do You Determine What To Prioritize?
33. What Is The Difference Between Effort Variance And Schedule Variance?
8 Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers on Conflict Management and Handling Stakeholders
34. How Do You Handle Office Politics?
36. How Do You Deal With Rude Clients?
37. Have You Ever Had A Conflict With Your Boss? How Was It Resolved?
38. How Are You When You’re Working Under Pressure?
39. How Will You Gain And Keep The Support Of Your Project Sponsors?
41. How Do You Determine The Communication Needs Of Stakeholders?
16 Competency-Based Project Manager Interview Questions & Answers
42. What Are Some Of The Projects That You Handled In The Previous Job?
43. Tell Me About The Projects You Have Managed
44. What Was The Most Challenging Aspect Of Your Last Project?
45. What Was Your Most Successful Project?
46. What Is The Largest Number Of Projects You Have Handled At The Same Time?
47. Tell Me About A Full Project Life Cycle That You Managed And What Was Included In This Project
49. What Creative Problem-Solving Techniques Have You Used Before?
50. How Do You Turn Around A Project That Isn’t Going As Planned?
51. What Was Your Greatest Success As A Project Manager?
52. What Was Your Biggest Failure As A Project Manager?
53. What Do You Consider The Most Difficult Aspect Of Project Management?
55. Have You Worked On A Project That Failed? Tell Me What Happened?
57. What Was Your Most Important Contribution To Your Last Team?
16 Most Difficult Interview Questions for Project Managers
58. What’s Your Approach To Managing A Project?
59. What Projects Do You Not Want To Work On?
60. What Kinds Of Projects Interest You The Most? Why?
61. What Is Your Preference For Providing Status Updates?
62. If You Had To Rate Project Management As A Career, From 1-10, How Would You Rate It?
63. How Do You Manage To Keep Your Documentation Up To Date Throughout A Project?
64. How Do You Define A Milestone?
65. Do You Prefer Working On A Single Project Or Multiple Projects At The Same Time?
66. Do You Prefer To Work Independently Or On A Team?
68. How Do You Deal With Gold Plating In Your Project?
69. Describe How You Deliver and Present Results
70. What Do You Think Are The Main Causes Of Project Failure?
71. How Do You Handle Scope Creep?
72. What Type Of Contingency Planning Do You Do?
73. What Are The Types Of Risks You May Encounter In A Project?
Top 14 Senior Project Manager Interview Questions and Answers
74. How Do You Start A Project?
75. How Would You Close A Project?
76. What’s Your School Of Thought On Project Management? Are You An Agile Person?
77. What Do You Understand By Project Life Cycle?
78. What Are the Project Management Methodologies You Most Familiar With?
79. How Do You Handle Change Request?
80. How Do You Monitor And Manage Risks When Working On A Project?
81. What Do You Think Is The Difference Between Projects, Programs, And A Portfolio?
82. What Do You Understand By A Project Charter?
83. What Do You Understand By Plan Baselines?
84. What Is Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) And How Does It Affect The Work Estimates Of Tasks/Activities?
85. What is EVM (Earned Value Management)?
86. What Is Meant By Quality Standards In Software Projects?
87. What Is The Triple Constraint Triangle In Project Management?
13 Technical Project Manager Interview Questions & Answers
88. Which Project Management Software And Tools Do You Prefer Using, And Why?
89. Do You Have Any Certifications That Are Relevant To This Position?
90. What Specific Training Have You Had That Would Be Relevant To This Project Manager Job?
91. What Are The Most Important Qualities Of A Project Manager?
92. Do You Have Budget Management Experience?
93. If You Were To Pick One Skill For A Project Manager To Have, What Would It Be And Why?
94. What Have You Done To Improve Your Knowledge In The Last Year?
95. How Would You Rate Your Project Management Skills?
97. How Do You Allocate Resources?
98. Do You Have Outsourced Personnel Or Supplier Management Experience?
99. Do You Have An International Project Team Management Experience?
100. What Is The Best Way To Set Up And Manage An Interdepartmental Team?
