Describe the initial columns for a new Kanban board and their purpose
Tests whether you understand Kanban as a flow visualization tool. A strong answer names Backlog, To Do, In Progress, and Done, explaining each as a handoff or state change. Red flag: adding too many columns upfront or conflating the board with Scrum.
Describe a framework to strategically manage tech debt during product discovery
This tests strategic debt tradeoffs under speed pressure. A strong answer classifies debt by interest, caps MVP debt with guardrails, and reserves fixed sprint capacity for repayment. Red flag: vilifying debt or deferring cleanup without triggers.
How would you measure a launched feature's success and impact?
This tests if you link code to business outcomes via agile metrics. A strong answer covers value, quality, satisfaction; names metrics like velocity or cycle time; and uses reports to track progress. Red flag: defining success purely by uptime or bug counts.
How do you differentiate an MVP from a throwaway prototype architecturally?
WHAT IT TESTS: MVA discipline separating disposable prototypes from supportable MVPs. ANSWER OUTLINE: Distinguish by user commitment; define bounded contexts with stable interfaces; favor reversible decisions and day-one observability.
How would you implement an A/B test for a redesigned dashboard?
Tests experiment rigor: randomize stable user buckets, pick one primary metric and guardrails like latency, pre-calculate sample size and runtime with a minimum detectable effect, and validate via backend logging.
What user story details reveal the customer problem?
This tests if you see stories as problem placeholders, not specs. A strong answer asks for user role, action, 'so that' value, and confirmation criteria while demanding conversation. Red flag: listing technical tasks without mentioning the customer problem.
Propose a multi-sprint strategy to fix an inverted test pyramid
WHAT IT TESTS: Refactoring under delivery pressure. ANSWER OUTLINE: Audit E2E for redundancy; scaffold unit/integration tests; migrate per sprint, keep critical E2E; gate on fast feedback. RED FLAG: Big-bang rewrites or deleting all E2E without a safety net.
How does trunk-based development with toggles enable frequent, low-risk releases?
Tests decoupling deployment from release via TBD. Strong answers cover daily small trunk merges with toggles hiding unfinished work, plus the cultural leap from GitFlow's isolated branches to continuous integration and toggle hygiene.
What is the Strangler Fig pattern and its use in legacy modernization?
Tests incremental modernization over big-bang rewrites. A strong answer covers the botanical metaphor, building new components alongside legacy, routing traffic, extracting seams, and four activities. Red flag: a long rewrite delivering no value until launch.
Describe essential CI/CD stages for a containerized app and critical quality gates
This tests your ability to design a commit-to-prod pipeline with quality controls. A strong answer covers: build and unit tests, vulnerability scanning, staging deployment with integration tests, and production rollout with rollback.
Explain the Test Pyramid and how it guides testing strategy
WHAT IT TESTS: Your grasp of test cost, speed, and brittleness by layer. ANSWER OUTLINE: Favor fast unit tests, a middle service layer, and few UI tests as second defense. RED FLAG: Treating it as a fixed ratio or saying all end-to-end tests need a.
What root causes and retrospective fixes address chronic sprint overcommitment?
Tests systemic diagnosis over blaming the team. Check capacity math, refinement quality, psychological safety, and stakeholder pressure; propose velocity-guided planning, capacity recalculation, and better refinement.
How would you break a large epic into sprint-ready user stories?
This tests decomposing scope into vertical, shippable slices. A strong answer maps user journeys, slices end-to-end functionality, applies INVEST, and sequences by risk and value. Red flag: horizontal layers like database, API, then UI.
How should a Scrum Master resolve local optimizations hurting cross-team integration?
Tests if you see cross-team friction as a Scrum Master impediment needing global optimization. Answer: map the bottleneck, convene leaders to align on company goals, and broker a sustainable workflow. Red flag: blaming other teams or escalating without data.
What is Definition of Ready and why must the PO uphold it?
Tests grasp of backlog refinement as a team agreement. Strong answers define ready as value, scope, and acceptance criteria; explain it stops mid-sprint churn; and cite dependencies mapped and designs attached.
How would you implement a software Andon Cord equivalent?
This tests translating Lean stop-the-line into CI/CD culture. Trigger: compile, test, or integration failures. Impact: halt pipeline, block merges, and swarm to fix immediately with collective ownership. Red flag: blaming committers or deferring fixes.
When is an A/B test not feasible, and what is DiD?
This tests your grasp of causal inference when randomization isn't possible. Explain a scenario like a state-level launch, introduce Difference-in-Differences (DiD), and state its core parallel trends assumption.
Calculate Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) with SQL
This tests your ability to translate a business metric into a robust SQL query, handling time-series logic. A good answer filters for active subscriptions, sums the price, and correctly amortizes annual plans. A red flag is using incorrect date filtering.
What is a p-value, and what does 0.03 practically mean?
This tests your ability to translate stats into business decisions. A great answer defines p-value, compares 0.03 to the standard 0.05 threshold to reject the null hypothesis, and recommends shipping.
How do you handle timezones for a global daily sales report?
This tests your ability to translate ambiguous business needs (a "day") into a robust data model. First, clarify the business definition of a day. Then, store all event times in UTC and convert to the target timezone at query time for reporting.