Strategy question
Imagine you are the CEO of Waymo. What is your 5-year strategy to reach profitability?
- Strategy
- Hard
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 long-horizon business strategy for a capital-intensive, pre-profit technology company: can you name a realistic path to unit economics and scale rather than only a vision statement.
How to approach it
- Clarify Waymo's position: a leader in autonomous ride-hailing but still in a limited number of cities with substantial ongoing capital costs, so profitability needs both cost reduction and revenue scale.
- Identify the cost-side lever: reduce per-vehicle hardware and operating cost through iteration and manufacturing scale, and reduce manual safety operations as autonomy matures.
- Identify the revenue-side lever: expand geographic coverage methodically to markets with the best margin potential, dense urban areas with high ride volume per vehicle, over rapid unprofitable expansion.
- Identify a diversification lever: license the self-driving technology or partner on autonomous freight as revenue beyond ride-hailing, spreading fixed R&D costs.
- Sequence the plan: years one and two prove unit economics in select markets, years three to five scale geographic expansion and licensing.
- Define success as positive contribution margin per ride in initial markets by a stated year, then company-wide profitability as scale compounds.
What a strong answer includes
- Names both cost-side and revenue-side levers explicitly, rather than a vision-only answer with no economic mechanism.
- Proposes realistic, staged sequencing, prove unit economics first, then scale, rather than a fantastical rapid rollout.
- Adds a genuine diversification lever, technology licensing, showing the driving technology has value beyond Waymo's own service.
- Picks contribution margin per ride as an early milestone metric, the correct focus before claiming broader profitability.
Common mistakes
- Giving a vision-only answer ('expand everywhere, become the dominant robotaxi company') with no concrete economic mechanism for reaching profitability.
- Ignoring the substantial ongoing capital and operating costs unique to autonomous vehicle technology.
- No staged milestone or sequencing, presenting profitability as a single distant endpoint with no interim proof points.
Likely follow-up questions
- Which city would you prioritize for proving unit economics first, and why?
- How would you decide between owning the full ride-hailing service versus licensing the technology to partners?
- What would make you slow down geographic expansion despite competitive pressure to grow faster?
More strategy questions
- Google Keep is a free product to save, share notes etc. How would you make it a subscription product & monetize it?Google · Strategy · Hard
- With an unlimited network bandwidth what would you build?Google · Strategy · Hard
- Strategize and implement omni-channel initiatives to improve customer LTV for Walmart.Shopify · Strategy · Hard
- Should Google launch a TV service?Google · Strategy · Hard
- Your company has been able to digitize smell, how will you launch this new service?Google · Strategy · Hard
- What should Airbnb's strategy be during the COVID-19 pandemic?Google · Strategy · Hard
More questions from Google
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 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop