Product design question
Design the next version of the scheduled rides product to allow drivers to accept scheduled ride requests in advance.
Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.
Start a mock interview on this question · Mock interview from a job description
What this question tests
Tests two-sided marketplace product design: balancing driver incentives against rider reliability when redesigning a scheduled-ride feature.
How to approach it
- Clarify the current problem: drivers cannot commit to a scheduled ride far in advance because they cannot predict their availability or earnings for that slot.
- Identify both sides: riders need reliability for pre-planned trips (airport, early meetings), drivers need confidence a scheduled ride will be worth accepting.
- Propose the mechanism: let drivers browse and claim upcoming scheduled rides in a set window before pickup, with a guaranteed minimum fare shown upfront.
- Add a matching safeguard: auto-assign unclaimed rides shortly before pickup using the normal dispatch algorithm, so riders are never left without a driver.
- Add incentives: a small bonus for accepting rides claimed well in advance, since drivers take on schedule risk by committing early.
- Define success: percentage of scheduled rides claimed by a driver more than an hour ahead, and rider cancellation or no-show rate for scheduled trips.
What a strong answer includes
- Balances both sides of the marketplace explicitly, driver earning certainty and rider reliability, instead of designing only for one side.
- Proposes a concrete safeguard, auto-assignment near pickup time, so unclaimed rides do not leave riders stranded.
- Adds an early-acceptance bonus, recognizing drivers take on real schedule risk by committing far in advance.
- Chooses advance-claim rate as a measurable proxy for whether the new mechanism is actually working better than the status quo.
Common mistakes
- Designing a driver-facing feature without a fallback for rides that go unclaimed.
- Ignoring the incentive structure needed to get drivers to commit early in the first place.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you set the guaranteed fare so it is fair to drivers without overpaying relative to demand?
- How would you handle a driver who claims a ride and then cannot fulfill it?
More product design questions
- How would you improve the Uber app?Lyft · Product design · Easy
- Design an app for making someone a better cook.Lyft · Product design · Medium
- How would you design at ETA system for Lyft drivers?Lyft · Product design · Medium
- Design Lyft for kids.Google · Product design · Hard
- How would you design a bicycle renting app for tourists?Google · Product design · Medium
- Design a referral system for a grocery app.Google · Product design · Medium
More questions from these companies
Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 4: Discovery and strategy for AI products
- Chapter 7: AI UX and human oversight: design for a system that is wrong sometimes
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop