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Software Engineer Interview Questions

Review this list of 665 Software Engineer interview questions and answers verified by hiring managers and candidates.
  • Adobe logoAsked at Adobe 
    44 answers
    +39

    "Was this for an entry level engineer role?"

    Yeshwanth D. - "Was this for an entry level engineer role?"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +4 more
  • Accenture logoAsked at Accenture 
    126 answers
    Video answer for 'Tell me about yourself.'
    +118

    "As you know, this is the most important question for any interview. Here is a structure I like to follow, Start with 'I'm currently a SDE/PM/TPM etc with XYZ company.... ' Mention how you got into PM/TPM/SDE field (explaining your journey) Mention 1 or 2 accomplishments Mention what you do outside work (blogging, volunteer etc) Share why are you looking for a new role Ask the interviewer if they have any questions or will like to dive deep into any of your experience"

    Bipin R. - "As you know, this is the most important question for any interview. Here is a structure I like to follow, Start with 'I'm currently a SDE/PM/TPM etc with XYZ company.... ' Mention how you got into PM/TPM/SDE field (explaining your journey) Mention 1 or 2 accomplishments Mention what you do outside work (blogging, volunteer etc) Share why are you looking for a new role Ask the interviewer if they have any questions or will like to dive deep into any of your experience"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
    +17 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    12 answers
    Video answer for 'Tell me about a time you took a calculated risk when speed was critical.'
    +9

    "Just a bit of context on what could be a risk in Product or Software Development. We talk about the Scope, Quality, and Time Triangle. IMHO the only variables that can matter and can pose risk are these. Try to form an answer where you used the Effort, Value, Risk framework to quantify the risk. The answer can be similar to short term sacrifices for long term gains, as you do take in mind the risk the short term sacrifices pose. Situation - I was leading the team to complete an overhaul of the"

    Umang S. - "Just a bit of context on what could be a risk in Product or Software Development. We talk about the Scope, Quality, and Time Triangle. IMHO the only variables that can matter and can pose risk are these. Try to form an answer where you used the Effort, Value, Risk framework to quantify the risk. The answer can be similar to short term sacrifices for long term gains, as you do take in mind the risk the short term sacrifices pose. Situation - I was leading the team to complete an overhaul of the"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
    +1 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    28 answers
    Video answer for 'Tell me about a time when you solved a complex problem and how you went about it.'
    +12

    "I work at a startup that makes software for Law Enforcement and the FBI. Our product analyzes calls being made by prison inmates and "listens" for predictors of violence and criminal behavior. Our clients are some of the top state prisons in the country. Recently one of the largest states in the country decided to evaluate our product for their prison system. I demo'd the product to the officers and they seemed to like everything. During the presentation they asked us if the product was ADA com"

    Aabid S. - "I work at a startup that makes software for Law Enforcement and the FBI. Our product analyzes calls being made by prison inmates and "listens" for predictors of violence and criminal behavior. Our clients are some of the top state prisons in the country. Recently one of the largest states in the country decided to evaluate our product for their prison system. I demo'd the product to the officers and they seemed to like everything. During the presentation they asked us if the product was ADA com"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
    +6 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    59 answers
    Video answer for 'Design Instagram.'
    +53

    "Very well done."

    Vijay M. - "Very well done."See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Product Design
    +3 more
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  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    1 answer

    "The below system design addresses the requirements for a scalable distributed onboarding service, focusing on robust data validation, asynchronous processing, real-time aggregation, and efficient querying of metadata. Core Principles: Asynchronous Processing: Decouple components to ensure high throughput and responsiveness. Scalability & Elasticity: Utilize technologies that can scale horizontally to handle varying loads. Data Durability & Integrity: Ensure no data l"

    Anonymous Mongoose - "The below system design addresses the requirements for a scalable distributed onboarding service, focusing on robust data validation, asynchronous processing, real-time aggregation, and efficient querying of metadata. Core Principles: Asynchronous Processing: Decouple components to ensure high throughput and responsiveness. Scalability & Elasticity: Utilize technologies that can scale horizontally to handle varying loads. Data Durability & Integrity: Ensure no data l"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    System Design
    +1 more
  • Adobe logoAsked at Adobe 
    8 answers
    +5

    "One of the most challenging situations was joining a new startup to realize that they did not figure out their core product and that customers were dissatisfied and leaving in droves. I worked together with the leaders to understand the core issue and the reasons that the customers were leaving. Then together with the team, we set out to map out those core issues and the gaps that we had in our product. We then worked towards designing a new solution to address those gaps and build an MVP. W"

    WaterBuffalo - "One of the most challenging situations was joining a new startup to realize that they did not figure out their core product and that customers were dissatisfied and leaving in droves. I worked together with the leaders to understand the core issue and the reasons that the customers were leaving. Then together with the team, we set out to map out those core issues and the gaps that we had in our product. We then worked towards designing a new solution to address those gaps and build an MVP. W"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
    +5 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    60 answers
    Video answer for 'What is the project you are most proud of?'
    +53

    "I was working for my friend building streams at venues across the Chicago land area for FGC (fighting game tournaments), I adjusted and engineered his equipment to be set up permanently that's until covid came around at least. I used OBS to give visual appearances to stream watchers. So we're talking about subscribe, follow, and donation notifications and things of that nature for viewers to know they contributed in one of those ways. I set up proper sign-up scheduling for participants to lock t"

    Ayinde B. - "I was working for my friend building streams at venues across the Chicago land area for FGC (fighting game tournaments), I adjusted and engineered his equipment to be set up permanently that's until covid came around at least. I used OBS to give visual appearances to stream watchers. So we're talking about subscribe, follow, and donation notifications and things of that nature for viewers to know they contributed in one of those ways. I set up proper sign-up scheduling for participants to lock t"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
    +13 more
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    13 answers
    +9

    "Designing a system to deny services to requests from banned IPs involves integrating real-time IP checking with your service architecture. Here’s a detailed outline of how you can design such a system: System Design Overview The goal is to ensure that your service can efficiently check incoming requests against a list of banned IPs and deny access when necessary. The system will leverage an external API, security.gov.x, to determine if an IP address is blocked or allowed. **Key Compone"

    Palak A. - "Designing a system to deny services to requests from banned IPs involves integrating real-time IP checking with your service architecture. Here’s a detailed outline of how you can design such a system: System Design Overview The goal is to ensure that your service can efficiently check incoming requests against a list of banned IPs and deny access when necessary. The system will leverage an external API, security.gov.x, to determine if an IP address is blocked or allowed. **Key Compone"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    System Design
    +2 more
  • Stripe logoAsked at Stripe 
    10 answers
    Video answer for 'Design a Distributed LRU Cache'
    +7

    "One good reason for using the doubly linked list is that to remove an accessed item in the list from its existing position say in the middle of the list and move it to the head, you need to update the previous node's next pointer and the next node's previous pointer. A singly linked list only has next pointers, so removing from the middle would require traversing from the head to find the previous node which requires O(n) time. A doubly linked list allows O(1) removal from any position because w"

    Javed S. - "One good reason for using the doubly linked list is that to remove an accessed item in the list from its existing position say in the middle of the list and move it to the head, you need to update the previous node's next pointer and the next node's previous pointer. A singly linked list only has next pointers, so removing from the middle would require traversing from the head to find the previous node which requires O(n) time. A doubly linked list allows O(1) removal from any position because w"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    System Design
    +1 more
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    59 answers
    +56

    "Approach Clarify the question Define deaf --> unable to hear, but can communicate via sign language, lip read and use all other senses Define fire alarm --> for residential use, it notifies occupants of smoke and potential fires and alerts fire department to check in and/or come over Define constraints --> budgetary constraint, design should be user-friendly and convenient Define goals --> get folks out of harm's way quickly and notify fire department to c"

    Bella R. - "Approach Clarify the question Define deaf --> unable to hear, but can communicate via sign language, lip read and use all other senses Define fire alarm --> for residential use, it notifies occupants of smoke and potential fires and alerts fire department to check in and/or come over Define constraints --> budgetary constraint, design should be user-friendly and convenient Define goals --> get folks out of harm's way quickly and notify fire department to c"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Product Design
    +1 more
  • Adobe logoAsked at Adobe 
    48 answers
    +41

    "def is_palindrome(s: str) -> bool: new = '' for a in s: if a.isalpha() or a.isdigit(): new += a.lower() return (new == new[::-1]) debug your code below print(is_palindrome('abcba')) `"

    Anonymous Roadrunner - "def is_palindrome(s: str) -> bool: new = '' for a in s: if a.isalpha() or a.isdigit(): new += a.lower() return (new == new[::-1]) debug your code below print(is_palindrome('abcba')) `"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +4 more
  • Accenture logoAsked at Accenture 
    4 answers

    "For any project based questions, it is important to structure your response clearly, showcasing your thought process, technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and how your work added value. Besides the STAR method, you can also use this kind of framework: 1. Start by selecting a relevant project (related to the role) Give the project background and what specific problem it solved. 2. Align the project's objective and your role Be specific about your role: were you the le"

    Malay K. - "For any project based questions, it is important to structure your response clearly, showcasing your thought process, technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and how your work added value. Besides the STAR method, you can also use this kind of framework: 1. Start by selecting a relevant project (related to the role) Give the project background and what specific problem it solved. 2. Align the project's objective and your role Be specific about your role: were you the le"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
    +9 more
  • xAI logoAsked at xAI 
    1 answer

    "=>user => window {addfile(void * file, userID, chatID) => add to fileList=> Display(file pointer)} => file=> pointer to DB, thumbnail => file will stores in database, pointer to the file+ thumbnail to be visible to chat => file is associated with chat => chat : users list, notepad: post { , user posted} class file{ void * buffer = nullptr; string fileName = nullptr; public: file( void content, string filename ):fileName ("

    Ankush G. - "=>user => window {addfile(void * file, userID, chatID) => add to fileList=> Display(file pointer)} => file=> pointer to DB, thumbnail => file will stores in database, pointer to the file+ thumbnail to be visible to chat => file is associated with chat => chat : users list, notepad: post { , user posted} class file{ void * buffer = nullptr; string fileName = nullptr; public: file( void content, string filename ):fileName ("See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Coding
    +1 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    1 answer

    "I confirmed with the interviewer that its about how slave replaces primary when primary node when suddenly shuts down. It was very tough question for me i felt. i told, we need to maintain schema of primary, secondary instances with their URL's and posts. There should be heartbeat service which always pings the actual microservices to get to know their instances health."

    Sreenath P. - "I confirmed with the interviewer that its about how slave replaces primary when primary node when suddenly shuts down. It was very tough question for me i felt. i told, we need to maintain schema of primary, secondary instances with their URL's and posts. There should be heartbeat service which always pings the actual microservices to get to know their instances health."See full answer

    Software Engineer
    System Design
  • Accenture logoAsked at Accenture 
    70 answers
    +60

    "I follow a variation of the RICE framework when prioritizing how I ship product features. I start by looking at: Reach: Because the customer segmentation across our product portfolio is so similar, I tend to hold a lot of weight on product features that will maximize our customer reach with a minimal LOE. Impact: After establishing which customer segments will benefit from the product feature, I determine the urgency and estimated impact on each customer segment based on customer i"

    Ashley C. - "I follow a variation of the RICE framework when prioritizing how I ship product features. I start by looking at: Reach: Because the customer segmentation across our product portfolio is so similar, I tend to hold a lot of weight on product features that will maximize our customer reach with a minimal LOE. Impact: After establishing which customer segments will benefit from the product feature, I determine the urgency and estimated impact on each customer segment based on customer i"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
    +10 more
  • Anthropic logoAsked at Anthropic 
    Add answer
    Software Engineer
    System Design
  • Adobe logoAsked at Adobe 
    31 answers
    +26

    "We can use dictionary to store cache items so that our read / write operations will be O(1). Each time we read or update an existing record, we have to ensure the item is moved to the back of the cache. This will allow us to evict the first item in the cache whenever the cache is full and we need to add new records also making our eviction O(1) Instead of normal dictionary, we will use ordered dictionary to store cache items. This will allow us to efficiently move items to back of the cache a"

    Alfred O. - "We can use dictionary to store cache items so that our read / write operations will be O(1). Each time we read or update an existing record, we have to ensure the item is moved to the back of the cache. This will allow us to evict the first item in the cache whenever the cache is full and we need to add new records also making our eviction O(1) Instead of normal dictionary, we will use ordered dictionary to store cache items. This will allow us to efficiently move items to back of the cache a"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +6 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    12 answers
    Video answer for 'Tell me about a time when you raised the bar.'
    +8

    "Please provide a transcript. One grasps 150 words in a video, but can grasp 250 words when reading text."

    Astro S. - "Please provide a transcript. One grasps 150 words in a video, but can grasp 250 words when reading text."See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
    +3 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    22 answers
    +18

    "I will use below 4 pillars to rate and prioritize those 5 projects: Analyze the impact of those 5 projects, to our team and to the whole company maybe Find out if those 5 projects have any dependency between each other Clarify the timeline of each project Identity the status of resources to work on those 5 projects and also the status of their dependencies"

    Dean Z. - "I will use below 4 pillars to rate and prioritize those 5 projects: Analyze the impact of those 5 projects, to our team and to the whole company maybe Find out if those 5 projects have any dependency between each other Clarify the timeline of each project Identity the status of resources to work on those 5 projects and also the status of their dependencies"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
Showing 21-40 of 665