Product design question
How would you improve the Uber app?
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 basic product sense: identifying a real user pain point in a familiar app and proposing a focused, testable improvement rather than a laundry list.
How to approach it
- Confirm scope: improving the rider experience, the driver experience, or both; default to riders unless told otherwise.
- Segment riders: commuters, airport trips, nightlife/weekend riders, and infrequent users, since pain points differ.
- Pick one concrete pain point to focus on, e.g., price unpredictability (surge shock) or wait-time uncertainty at pickup.
- Propose one specific solution, e.g., a fare-lock option for repeat routes, or clearer ETA-to-driver-arrival confidence intervals.
- State the trade-off: fare-lock could reduce Uber's surge revenue upside, so weigh retention gains against yield loss.
- Define a success metric: repeat ride rate for the segment, or reduction in cart abandonment at the price-confirmation screen.
What a strong answer includes
- Narrows to one segment and one pain point instead of listing five shallow ideas across the whole app.
- Names a specific, buildable feature (e.g., fare-lock for saved routes) instead of vague ideas like 'make it more delightful.'
- Explicitly weighs the business trade-off (surge revenue vs trust) rather than assuming the improvement is free.
- Proposes a measurable success metric tied to the target segment, not just 'more usage.'
Common mistakes
- Listing many surface-level ideas (dark mode, better icons) with no prioritization or user insight.
- Ignoring Uber's two-sided marketplace and only thinking about riders, missing driver-side implications.
- No success metric, or a metric too vague to falsify (e.g., 'user happiness').
Likely follow-up questions
- How would this affect driver supply or earnings?
- How would you A/B test the fare-lock idea?
- Which rider segment would benefit most, and which might be hurt?
More product design questions
- 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
- Give an example of a badly designed product.Adobe · Product design · Easy
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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