Product design question
Which apps do you use on your cellphone on a daily basis and why?
- Microsoft
- Product design
- 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
Ability to articulate genuine product taste and reasoning about what makes an app valuable in daily use.
How to approach it
- Name a small set of specific apps you actually use daily, avoiding a generic list of famous apps.
- For each, explain the specific job it does in your routine, like a habit tracker or a specific messaging app for a particular group.
- Explain why each app wins your daily attention over alternatives, citing a concrete feature or experience quality.
- Note any friction or annoyance with one of them, showing honest, critical product thinking rather than blind praise.
- Tie the answer back to what it reveals about your product taste and standards for good design.
What a strong answer includes
- Names specific, less obvious apps or specific ways of using a common app, showing genuine reflection rather than a rehearsed list.
- Explains the 'job to be done' for each app clearly, e.g. 'I use X specifically for quick voice notes to my team.'
- Includes at least one honest critique, showing the candidate thinks critically about product quality, not just uses things passively.
- Connects the discussion back to what good product design means to them personally.
Common mistakes
- Listing only famous apps with no specific reasoning about daily use.
- Giving purely positive, uncritical praise with no genuine product insight.
Likely follow-up questions
- What's one app you stopped using and why?
- What would you change about your favorite app?
More product design questions
- How would you improve Outlook for the use case when people get overwhelmed by number of emails received after returning from a vacation?Microsoft · Product design · Medium
- How would you improve Microsoft Teams?Microsoft · Product design · Easy
- Design a loyalty program for a search engine that's competing with Google & Bing.Google · Product design · Hard
- How would you improve Microsoft OneNote?Microsoft · Product design · Easy
- How would you improve the MS Teams search functionality as a Search PM at Microsoft Teams?Microsoft · Product design · Medium
- How would you design a car sharing platform like Uber for disabled people?Lyft · Product design · Hard
More questions from Microsoft
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