AI & Technical question
What is programmable advertising?
- EngineMX
- AI & Technical
- Easy
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
Basic knowledge of how automated ad buying and selling works.
How to approach it
- Define it: buying and selling ad inventory through automated auctions rather than manual insertion orders.
- Explain the mechanics: real time bidding, ad exchanges, and demand and supply side platforms.
- Contrast programmatic direct versus open auction.
- Explain why it matters: efficiency, scale, and precise audience targeting for advertisers.
- Note limitations: brand safety risk and the complexity of the ad tech stack.
What a strong answer includes
- Names the core players clearly: DSP for advertisers, SSP for publishers, and an exchange connecting them.
- Explains real time bidding in one sentence: an auction happens in milliseconds as a page loads.
- Mentions a tradeoff, like efficiency gained versus reduced transparency into where ads actually ran.
Common mistakes
- Only defining the term without explaining the auction mechanism.
- Confusing DSP and SSP roles.
- No mention of why advertisers or publishers adopted it.
Likely follow-up questions
- What is the difference between a DSP and an SSP?
- How would you address brand safety concerns in programmatic buying?
More ai & technical questions
- How does TinyURL work?Google · AI & Technical · Easy
- How would you explain cloud computing to your grandmother?Google · AI & Technical · Easy
- What happens when you enter a URL in your browser?Google · AI & Technical · Easy
- Explain PageRank to a five-year-old.Google · AI & Technical · Easy
- What happens when you swipe your credit card?Apple · AI & Technical · Easy
- What are the key elements of media manifest?Twitch · AI & Technical · Easy
More questions from EngineMX
Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 1: Foundations: the model and the decisions it forces on you
- Chapter 8: Evals: define good and make the number defensible
- Chapter 6: Agents and agentic architecture