Product design question

Design a residential apartment complex for Google.

Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.

What this question tests

Tests unconventional product design applied to physical real estate, requiring a clear rationale for why Google specifically would build this.

Clarify why Google: likely to house employees near a campus, addressing high-cost housing markets like the Bay Area that hurt recruiting and retention.
Segment on Google employees, prioritizing early-career hires and those relocating, who are most burdened by local housing costs.
Identify the pain point: long commutes and high rent near major campuses push talent away or increase attrition risk.
Design the complex with below-market employee housing, on-site amenities tied to work-life balance, and proximity or shuttle access to campus.
Define success as employee retention and satisfaction among residents, and reduction in average commute time for that population.

States a clear, business-relevant rationale, talent retention and cost-of-living pressure, instead of treating this as an arbitrary real estate exercise.
Grounds the idea in real precedent, Google and other tech companies' actual housing investments near their campuses.
Ties success metrics to the real underlying business problem, retention, not just occupancy rate.

Designing generic luxury apartments without tying the project back to a real business rationale for Google.
Ignoring retention and cost-of-living as the actual underlying problem this product would solve.

How would you decide pricing to balance affordability with avoiding a perceived pay cut via reduced compensation?
How would you handle this if an employee leaves Google while still living there?