Should an engineering manager candidate do a coding interview?

It depends on how hands-on the role is. If the manager will write production code, include a short technical exercise. If not, a design or architecture discussion tests the technical judgment they will actually use, without testing a skill the job does not need.

Should engineers on the team interview their future manager?

Yes, for one round, with a defined competency such as team health and the same written anchors as everyone else. It shows the candidate what the team is like and gives the team a voice. It should not turn into a popularity veto.

How do we assess a first-time manager?

Look for management behavior in a non-manager job: mentoring, leading a project, running interviews, settling a disagreement. Ask the same questions and accept examples from tech-lead work. The anchors stay the same; the scope of the evidence is smaller.

How many interviews does an engineering manager loop need?

Usually a screen plus four rounds: people, delivery, technical judgment, and stakeholders, with one run by a peer manager or a product partner. More rounds rarely add new evidence, and strong managers often have competing offers.

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Engineering Manager interview kit: questions and rubric

For hiring teams interviewing an engineering manager who leads one team of roughly five to ten engineers and still makes technical calls. It covers a short screen, five competencies with behavioral, situational and work-sample questions, anchored ratings, the questions never to ask, and a rule for deciding.

5 competencies · 11 questions · anchored 1-to-5 scale · Updated 10 October 2026 · Written by the Itya team

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How to use this kit

Agree the competencies with the hiring manager before the job is posted.
Give each interviewer one or two competencies, so nothing is asked twice.
Ask every candidate the same core questions; follow up freely.
Rate each competency against the anchors straight after the interview, alone.
Debrief on quotes, not adjectives, then decide with the rule at the end.

First-round screen

Fifteen to twenty minutes, by phone, video or a disclosed AI screen. The aim is to confirm the basics before the panel spends its time.

Why management, and why this team now? What do you want to be true of your team a year from today?
Tell me about the team you lead now: its size, what it owns, and how you spend a typical week.
How hands-on are you with code and technical decisions today, and how hands-on do you want to be in this role?
The job description sets out the location, working pattern and start date. Do those work for you, what is your notice period, and what compensation range are you expecting?

Competency 1

Hiring and developing people

An engineering manager's output is the team's output. The clearest evidence is what happened to the people who worked for them.

Tell me about an engineer who grew significantly while you managed them. What did you do, specifically?
Follow up with
- How did you work out what they needed?
- What feedback did you give them that was hard to hear?
- What are they doing now?
Strong answer
Names the person's starting point, the stretch work, feedback and support the manager arranged, and an observable change in scope, autonomy or level. Credits the engineer while showing the manager's own deliberate part.
Weak answer
Talks about growth in slogans ('I empower people'), or the person grew with no clear contribution from the manager.
Tell me about a time someone on your team was not meeting the bar. What did you do?
Follow up with
- When did you first notice, and when did you first say so?
- What did you write down?
- How did it end?
Strong answer
Raised it early and privately with specific examples and a clear expectation, set a time-bound plan with support, documented it, and reached a resolution, improvement or exit, treating the person with dignity throughout.
Weak answer
Waited months, hoped it would resolve itself, handed it straight to HR, or speaks about the person with contempt. No specific expectation was ever set.
Walk me through the last hire you made for your team, from opening the role to the offer.
Follow up with
- How did you decide what to assess?
- Tell me about a hire you got wrong. What changed afterwards?
Strong answer
Defined the competencies before sourcing, gave each interviewer a distinct area, collected written feedback before the debrief, and can name a hiring mistake and the process change it caused.
Weak answer
Hires on gut feel or 'culture fit', interviews alone, or cannot name a hiring mistake.

Rating	What it looks like
5 · Strong	Shows named people growing in scope, raises performance problems early with written expectations, and runs a deliberate hiring process that they have improved after a mistake.
3 · Mixed	Gives real examples of coaching and feedback. Handles performance problems, but late or only when HR pushes. Hiring is sound but informal.
1 · Weak	Speaks about development in slogans. Avoided or delayed hard feedback. Cannot name a person they grew or describe how they assess candidates.

Competency 2

Delivery and execution

A team that cannot ship predictably loses the trust of the business. The manager owns the system that turns priorities into shipped work.

Tell me about a project your team delivered late. What happened, and what did you change?
Follow up with
- When did you know it would be late, and who did you tell?
- What could you have cut?
Strong answer
Explains the root cause (estimation, scope, a dependency), when they saw the slip and how fast they told stakeholders, the options they offered, and a concrete change to planning afterwards.
Weak answer
Blames another team or the product manager, describes heroics instead of a fix, or claims their projects are never late.
What would you do if, in your first month, you found the team had committed to a date it could not meet?
Follow up with
- What would you need to know before talking to stakeholders?
- What would you say to the team?
Strong answer
Gathers the facts quickly, re-plans with the engineers, goes to stakeholders with a revised plan and the trade-offs (scope, date, people), and protects the team from silent overtime.
Weak answer
Pushes the team to work weekends to hit the date, or announces a slip with no new plan. Re-estimates without the engineers who will do the work.

Rating	What it looks like
5 · Strong	Runs a planning system the team trusts, surfaces risk early with options, and changes the process after each miss so it does not repeat.
3 · Mixed	Runs a reasonable planning rhythm and delivers most commitments. Surfaces risks, but sometimes late.
1 · Weak	Cannot describe how their team plans or tracks work. Responds to slips with pressure or blame.

Competency 3

Technical judgment

The manager need not write the most code, but they arbitrate trade-offs: build or buy, refactor or ship, reliability or features.

Tell me about a significant technical decision your team made in the last year. What was your part in it?
Follow up with
- What were the alternatives?
- How did you weigh engineering cost against business need?
- Would you make the same call today?
Strong answer
Describes the options and trade-offs in real technical detail, explains how they drew on the team's expertise rather than dictating, and ties the decision to a business outcome.
Weak answer
Either made the call alone on preference, or deferred entirely and cannot explain the reasoning. The technical description stays vague.
What would you do if your senior engineers wanted a quarter to pay down technical debt and your product manager wanted features?
Follow up with
- What evidence would you ask each side for?
- What would a compromise look like?
Strong answer
Asks for the cost of the debt in concrete terms (incidents, slower delivery, on-call load), proposes an explicit split or a staged plan, and makes the trade-off visible to leadership rather than settling it quietly.
Weak answer
Sides with engineering or with product by reflex, or proposes 'doing both' without a plan.

Rating	What it looks like
5 · Strong	Explains trade-offs in technical and business terms, draws out the team's expertise, and makes decisions whose reasoning others can inspect later.
3 · Mixed	Understands the main trade-offs and makes sensible calls, but leans toward engineering or product without making the trade-off explicit.
1 · Weak	Cannot explain the trade-offs behind their team's technical decisions, or dictates technical choices without involving the team.

Competency 4

Stakeholder communication

The manager is the team's interface with product, design, other engineering teams and leadership. Clear, early communication prevents most escalations.

Tell me about a time you had to say no, or not yet, to a senior stakeholder.
Follow up with
- How did you frame it?
- What did you offer instead?
- What was the relationship like afterwards?
Strong answer
Explained the constraint plainly, offered alternatives with their costs, and kept the relationship intact. Can show the follow-up that maintained trust.
Weak answer
Always says yes and absorbs the cost in the team, or says no without alternatives and leaves the stakeholder to escalate.
Work sample: here are the facts of a project that is two weeks behind. Write a three-sentence status update for leadership.
Follow up with
- What did you leave out, and why?
- What do you need from leadership?
Strong answer
Leads with the status and the new date, gives the cause in one line, and states the decision or help needed. No jargon, no buried news.
Weak answer
Opens with background and buries the slip, hedges without a new date, or omits what leadership must decide.

Rating	What it looks like
5 · Strong	Delivers bad news early with options, says no with alternatives, and writes updates that lead with the decision needed.
3 · Mixed	Communicates clearly with peers and leadership, but is sometimes slow to deliver bad news or too quick to accept requests.
1 · Weak	Communicates late or only when asked, and avoids conflict with stakeholders until it escalates.

Competency 5

Team health

Burnout, attrition and quiet disengagement show up in delivery months later. Good managers notice early and fix the way the team works, not only the symptom.

Tell me about a time someone on your team was struggling or close to burning out. How did you notice, and what did you do?
Follow up with
- What did you change in how the team worked?
- What do you wish you had done sooner?
Strong answer
Noticed specific signals (missed one-to-ones, a drop in quality), spoke privately, adjusted the workload, and fixed the underlying cause, such as on-call load or unclear priorities. Respected the person's privacy.
Weak answer
Noticed only when the person resigned, or treats wellbeing as purely the individual's problem.
What would you do if two senior engineers on your team stopped working together after a heated disagreement?
Follow up with
- How would you avoid taking sides?
- When would you involve HR?
Strong answer
Speaks to each separately, then together, focuses on the work and the behavior, sets clear expectations, and follows up within days. Does not let it drift.
Weak answer
Hopes it blows over, takes a side publicly, or moves one of them off the team without addressing the behavior.

Rating	What it looks like
5 · Strong	Spots signals early, acts privately and respectfully, and changes the team's system (on-call, priorities, norms) so the problem does not return.
3 · Mixed	Notices problems and responds with care, but fixes symptoms rather than the way the team works.
1 · Weak	Does not notice team problems until someone leaves. Handles conflict by avoiding it or by taking sides.

Never ask

Don't ask a candidate's age, or whether they are comfortable managing people older or younger than they are. Why: age says nothing about management skill, and age-based decisions are unlawful in many places.
Don't ask about marital status, children, pregnancy or how a parent would 'manage the hours'. Why: none of it is job-related. Describe the hours and on-call expectations and ask every candidate whether they can meet them.
Don't ask about religion, caste, community or the origin of a surname, directly or by proxy ('What does your father do?'). Why: in India these questions signal caste and religion, which have no bearing on the job.
Don't ask 'Where are you from originally?' or 'What is your native place?'. Why: it invites judgments about region and community. If location matters, ask whether the candidate can work from the job's location.
Don't ask about health conditions, disabilities or past medical leave. Why: the only relevant question is whether the candidate can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation.
Don't ask for salary history where the law restricts it, as many US states and cities do. Why: it carries past pay gaps into the new offer. Ask for the expected compensation range instead.
Don't ask the candidate to name, rate or share private details about people they manage now. Why: it asks them to break their reports' confidence. Ask about the situation and what they did, without names.

Making the decision

The must-haves are hiring and developing people, delivery and execution, and stakeholder communication. Any 1 on a must-have is a no, and so is any competency rated 1 by two interviewers. A hire needs an average of 3.5 or higher. The hiring manager, usually the director the role reports to, decides after the debrief and records the evidence behind each rating.

Questions people ask

Should an engineering manager candidate do a coding interview?: It depends on how hands-on the role is. If the manager will write production code, include a short technical exercise. If not, a design or architecture discussion tests the technical judgment they will actually use, without testing a skill the job does not need.
Should engineers on the team interview their future manager?: Yes, for one round, with a defined competency such as team health and the same written anchors as everyone else. It shows the candidate what the team is like and gives the team a voice. It should not turn into a popularity veto.
How do we assess a first-time manager?: Look for management behavior in a non-manager job: mentoring, leading a project, running interviews, settling a disagreement. Ask the same questions and accept examples from tech-lead work. The anchors stay the same; the scope of the evidence is smaller.
How many interviews does an engineering manager loop need?: Usually a screen plus four rounds: people, delivery, technical judgment, and stakeholders, with one run by a peer manager or a product partner. More rounds rarely add new evidence, and strong managers often have competing offers.

A kit is step one.

Itya holds every interviewer to the same rubric, records the interview, and drafts the scorecard with the quotes behind each rating. The AI drafts; your team decides. Free plan, unlimited teammates.

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