# Interview question: Tell me about a time when you disagreed or conflicted with leadership Aced (formerly Exponent) publishes a public search API over its indexed pages; the guide is at https://www.aced.io/agents/agent-access. Source: https://www.aced.io/questions/4947/disagree-with-leadership Source observed: 2026-11-04T23:46:11.591Z Last checked: 2026-11-04T23:46:11.591+00:00 Indexed: 2026-11-05T18:59:14.033+00:00 --- # Tell me about a time when you disagreed or conflicted with leadership We provide interview-preparation resources through Aced, formerly Exponent. This page is a behavioral interview question where candidates can review shared interview experiences, read a community answer, explore related questions and courses, and submit their own answer. We also provide an option to practice this question with AI. ## Question details - **Category:** Behavioral - **Interview experiences shared:** 5 - **Interface summary:** 6 interviews are associated with the question, which was last asked 2 months ago at the time shown on the page. - **Roles represented:** [Product Manager](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=pm) (2), [Software Engineer](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=swe) (2), [Technical Program Manager](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=tpm), and [Solutions Architect](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=solutions-architect). - **Companies represented:** [Amazon](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=amazon) (2), [Netflix](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=netflix) (2), [OpenAI](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=openai), and [Microsoft](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=microsoft). - Detailed company statistics require [Upgrade](https://www.aced.io/upgrade?src=questions). ## Interview experiences The page contains five shared experiences. Each entry links to its full experience report. 1. **Amazon — 2 months ago** ([full experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/amazon-sr-staff-product-manager-interview-525397) · Product Manager · Sr. Staff / L7) > “The process was significantly more rigorous than what I’ve experienced at other big tech companies. While most companies focus primarily on technical execution, Amazon's intense focus on evaluating every response against specific Leadership Principles adds a layer of complexity that requires deep preparation. That said, the recruiter was incredibly accurate, transparent, and helpful regarding what to expect, which is rare in this industry and highly appreciated.” 2. **Amazon — 4 months ago** ([full experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/amazon-staff-technical-program-manager-interview-fddf78) · Technical Program Manager · Staff / L6) > “It's tougher and more in-depth on the technical aspect. Expect complex examples.” 3. **OpenAI — 7 months ago** ([full experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/openai-principal-product-manager-interview-1fdad0) · Product Manager · Principal / Director / L8+) > “They cold-reached out to me, and the process felt unusual right away because there were a bunch of reschedules and the 30-minute recruiter screen was basically a real behavioral interview. The weirdest moment on that first call was hearing that comp was 'beyond competitive' and 'never a concern,' and then being told they usually downlevel people one or two levels. After that I had two PM rounds: a brutal Friday product-sense interview with an under-specified memory-machine prompt and almost no feedback, then a Monday metrics round that was a smash and felt much more normal. I got rejected before the final rounds, which were supposed to include org dynamics and another business-alignment style interview. The whole thing felt extremely interviewer-dependent, with one round feeling dismissive and pedestal-y and the next feeling collaborative and genuinely strong.” 4. **Netflix — 2 years ago** ([full experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/netflix-senior-software-engineer-interview-de66d8) · Software Engineer · Senior / L5) > “I interviewed for a senior full-stack role in Seattle, and the whole process felt way more specialized than most big-company interview loops I’ve been through. By the time I got into the loop, it felt like they'd already assumed I could code, so the real test was whether my background matched the team’s exact domain and whether I aligned with the culture memo. The technical rounds were practical React exercises tied closely to internal tooling, not DS&A problems, and the system design round was surprisingly open-ended and conversational with no architecture diagramming at all. The behavioral side was much heavier than usual, and multiple interviewers repeated the same disagreement or feedback themes to see if I had more than one canned example. Overall, it felt less like a generic company process and more like a team trying to hire someone who had basically already done their job before.” 5. **Netflix — 2 years ago** ([full experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/netflix-senior-software-engineer-interview-de66d8) · Software Engineer · Senior / L5) > “I interviewed for a senior full-stack role in Seattle, and the whole process felt way more specialized than most big-company interview loops I’ve been through. By the time I got into the loop, it felt like they'd already assumed I could code, so the real test was whether my background matched the team’s exact domain and whether I aligned with the culture memo. The technical rounds were practical React exercises tied closely to internal tooling, not DS&A problems, and the system design round was surprisingly open-ended and conversational with no architecture diagramming at all. The behavioral side was much heavier than usual, and multiple interviewers repeated the same disagreement or feedback themes to see if I had more than one canned example. Overall, it felt less like a generic company process and more like a team trying to hire someone who had basically already done their job before.” ## Community answer **[Graig](https://www.aced.io/users/db3ce552-c400-4fcf-b801-7019ee19ff0e)** — Member, **969 karma** ([karma details](https://www.aced.io/users/db3ce552-c400-4fcf-b801-7019ee19ff0e)), October 11, 2026 > We were working on automation and one of projects took close to 5 months and the leadership wanted to execute it via automation and I got hard negative review that I didn't used automation.I made them understand that most of part of project was not involve any code but request management to azure for IP allocation for our infra which takes time due to internal azure dependencies not engineer effort ## Related questions - [Tell me about a time when you disagreed with Engineering.](https://www.aced.io/questions/263/engineering-disagreement) - [Tell me about a time when you dealt with a conflict with engineers.](https://www.aced.io/questions/924/conflict-with-engineers) - [Tell me about a time you disagreed with a team member.](https://www.aced.io/questions/6521/describe-team-disagreement-experience) ## Related courses ### [Product Management Interview Prep](https://www.aced.io/courses/pm) ![Product Management Interview Prep](https://images.ctfassets.net/x78yjrjc11pq/4PFBEhtIRyKwPm14eaBAFm/ad92a8c4dd1dc51108b3a855de64473b/product_management_track_compressed_063e6d4b35.jpeg?w=800&h=800&fm=webp&q=75) We help candidates prepare for PM roles at Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, Apple, Google, and more. The course covers AI product-sense rounds, vibe-coding prototypes, metrics questions, AI fluency, product strategy, product sense, analytical and execution interviews, leadership and drive (behavioral), and technical PM interviews. ### [Product Skills Course](https://www.aced.io/courses/pm-skills) ![Product Skills Course](https://images.ctfassets.net/x78yjrjc11pq/6bSjuhpNfU7emXQdz776t5/389a7c3fc4c4006965c8471b06554b8a/user-insight_a3d886ea91__281_29_4333187956.jpeg?w=800&h=800&fm=webp&q=75) We cover the fundamentals of product management and the basic skills a product manager needs. ## Add your answer We provide an editor for submitting a personal answer. Submitting marks the question complete. The editor supports bold, italic, bulleted and numbered lists, quotes, inline code, and code blocks. [Practice with AI](https://www.aced.io/practice/ai/new?type=Behavioral&question=disagree-with-leadership&src=questions) --- [Read this page’s summary](https://www.aced.io/agents/api/public/v1/page-tldr?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aced.io%2Fquestions%2F4947%2Fdisagree-with-leadership&trace=t_679ff9ab98f3) ## Ask a follow-up about this page Need a more specific answer? Ask the exact question you have. It returns a fresh, cited answer from Aced (formerly Exponent)’s knowledge base. No account or API key required. Open this URL with your own question, URL-encoded. Include your question in q. All research inputs are optional; no account or setup. `GET https://www.aced.io/agents/agent/faq?q={question}&trace=t_679ff9ab98f3` [Tool guide and examples](https://www.aced.io/agents/agent-access) · [OpenAPI](https://www.aced.io/agents/api/public/v1/openapi.json) · [Page TLDR form](https://www.aced.io/agents/agent-tools/page-tldr?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aced.io%2Fquestions%2F4947%2Fdisagree-with-leadership). Opening a form does not execute a tool.