Community Management interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Tell me about a community program, a moderation moment, or a member experience you're most proud of.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why community management - and why this vs marketing, product, or customer support?
5. Which community area or member segment would you want to own, and why?
6. Why the firm?
7. How would you describe the firm's community + member base in your own words?
8. How does community management actually create value at a consumer-internet firm?

Technical concepts to master

• Community strategy + member journey + program design

  SPACES model (CMX) · Member journey + contributor pyramid · ONE primary home + cadence · Sense of community (McMillan + Chavis)

• Moderation + trust-and-safety + crisis response

  Code of Conduct + tiered enforcement · Mod-tool fluency + ops · Crisis response playbook · Moderator wellbeing + transparency reports

• Member growth + contributor pyramid + retention

  1% / 9% / 90% rule · First-post conversion mechanics · Recognition + champion ladder · Retention curves + community PMF

• Cross-functional + brand voice + cultural leadership

  Structured member feedback brief · Brand voice + tone book · Two-way bridge - loop closure · Cultural leadership + norm-setting

Practical drills

• the firm wants to launch a new community program (or community surface). Walk me through the 90-day plan from listening to first measurement.
• A high-profile member posts a critical thread; within 2 hours it has 500 reactions, pile-on comments, and a journalist DM. Walk me through how you handle it.
• the firm's community has 200K lurkers but only 2K active contributors. Walk me through how you'd grow active contributors by 50% in 6 months.

Smart-question anchors

• Community team + scope - team shape, what the role would specifically own in 6-12 months
• Existing surfaces + programs - current channels, recent program launches, ambassador / creator state
• Moderation + CoC - moderation tone, escalation playbook, T+S integration, recent crisis lessons
• Member feedback loop - how member voice reaches product / marketing / PR, who owns the bridge
• Measurement + ROI - community KPIs, deflection + retention attribution, leadership relationship

Sourced from

CMX Hub — Community Industry Reports + Community Manager interview canon · Feverbee — Community strategy + measurement curriculum (Richard Millington) · Trust + Safety Professional Association (TSPA) — moderation + escalation canon · Common Room + Orbit — community-led growth + member-journey instrumentation · Discord + Reddit + Stack Overflow + Discourse — platform moderation + Code of Conduct standards · Indeed + Glassdoor + HubSpot — Community Manager interview question banks