Product design question
Imagine you’re a Product Manager at Airbnb. You have been assigned the task of adding a new feature that could be useful to the Airbnb user base. It must include an integration with an external third-party/non-Airbnb API.
- Airbnb
- Product design
- Medium
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What this question tests
Product design requiring genuine integration with an external system, testing whether the candidate can identify a real user need best solved by third-party data.
How to approach it
- Identify a user need Airbnb can't fully solve with its own data alone, e.g. helping guests plan what to do once they arrive at a destination.
- Propose integrating a third-party local-experiences or weather API to surface real-time, location-relevant activity suggestions and packing guidance tied to the listing's location and travel dates.
- Design the touchpoint: a 'Trip prep' card shown after booking, pulling live weather and nearby activity data relevant to the specific stay dates.
- Address the API dependency risk explicitly: define a fallback experience if the third-party API is unavailable or rate-limited, so the core booking flow never breaks.
- Define success as engagement with the trip-prep card and downstream booking of suggested local experiences, if monetized via referral.
What a strong answer includes
- Picks a feature that genuinely requires external data, not something Airbnb could build entirely with first-party data, correctly matching the API-integration requirement.
- Designs a specific touchpoint and timing (post-booking, pre-trip) rather than a vague 'add integrations' answer.
- Explicitly addresses API reliability risk, showing engineering-aware product judgment.
Common mistakes
- Proposing a feature that doesn't actually need a third-party API, missing the explicit requirement in the question.
- No fallback plan if the external API fails, risking the core booking experience.
Likely follow-up questions
- Which third-party API would you pick specifically, and why?
- How would you handle the added latency or reliability risk of depending on an external service?
More product design questions
- How would you design a bicycle renting app for tourists?Google · Product design · Medium
- Design a driverless car pick up service for kids.Google · Product design · Hard
- Give an example of a badly designed product.Adobe · Product design · Easy
- Design a way for people to find apartments.Google · Product design · Easy
- How would you improve Airbnb in 6 months?Airbnb · Product design · Hard
- How would you improve the Airbnb app?Google · Product design · Easy
More questions from Airbnb
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