Software Engineer Interview Questions

Review this list of 587 software engineer interview questions and answers verified by hiring managers and candidates.
  • +8

    "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
  • Uber logoAsked at Uber 
    Software Engineer
    System Design
  • Adobe logoAsked at Adobe 
    +33

    "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
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +1 more
  • +11

    "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
    +5 more
  • 🧠 Want an expert answer to a question? Saving questions lets us know what content to make next.

  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    Video answer for 'Design Instagram.'
    +52

    "Very well done."

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

    Software Engineer
    Product Design
    +3 more
  • Accenture logoAsked at Accenture 
    Video answer for 'Tell me about yourself.'
    +116

    "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
    +12 more
  • Software Engineer
    Behavioral
  • +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 

    "function longestCommonPrefix(arr1, arr2) { const prefixSet = new Set(); for (let num of arr1) { let str = num.toString(); for (let i = 1; i <= str.length; i++) { prefixSet.add(str.substring(0, i)); } } let longestPrefix = ""; for (let num of arr2) { let str = num.toString(); for (let i = 1; i <= str.length; i++) { let prefix = str.substring(0, i); if (prefixSet.has(prefix)) { "

    Maykon henrique D. - "function longestCommonPrefix(arr1, arr2) { const prefixSet = new Set(); for (let num of arr1) { let str = num.toString(); for (let i = 1; i <= str.length; i++) { prefixSet.add(str.substring(0, i)); } } let longestPrefix = ""; for (let num of arr2) { let str = num.toString(); for (let i = 1; i <= str.length; i++) { let prefix = str.substring(0, i); if (prefixSet.has(prefix)) { "See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +1 more
  • +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
  • Apple logoAsked at Apple 
    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +1 more
  • xAI logoAsked at xAI 

    "Which location you were interviewed? Can you please share some details?"

    K S. - "Which location you were interviewed? Can you please share some details?"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    System Design
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    Video answer for 'What is the project you are most proud of?'
    +49

    "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
    +12 more
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    +55

    "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
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    +1

    "1. Requirements Analysis Functional Requirements Video streaming with multiple quality levels Content browsing and search Continue watching functionality Content recommendations Non-Functional Requirements Low latency video delivery (<2s startup time) High availability (99.99% uptime) Scalability to handle millions of concurrent streams API response time < 100ms 2. Microservices Architecture Core Microservices Content Service Content metadata mana"

    Reno S. - "1. Requirements Analysis Functional Requirements Video streaming with multiple quality levels Content browsing and search Continue watching functionality Content recommendations Non-Functional Requirements Low latency video delivery (<2s startup time) High availability (99.99% uptime) Scalability to handle millions of concurrent streams API response time < 100ms 2. Microservices Architecture Core Microservices Content Service Content metadata mana"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    System Design
  • "Assumptions - Multiple reader/writer threads issue set() [with transaction] and get() operations concurrently All data can fit into memory. Requirements - Good performance (ex. less lock contention) Optimize memory footprint (ex. don't store stale entries in memory) Naive Approach - Wrap a standard hashmap/dictionary with reader-writer lock. We can also shard the map to reduce lock contention (ex. 32 segments for 32 core cpu) Allocate local buffer to a writer when a transacti"

    Pushkar G. - "Assumptions - Multiple reader/writer threads issue set() [with transaction] and get() operations concurrently All data can fit into memory. Requirements - Good performance (ex. less lock contention) Optimize memory footprint (ex. don't store stale entries in memory) Naive Approach - Wrap a standard hashmap/dictionary with reader-writer lock. We can also shard the map to reduce lock contention (ex. 32 segments for 32 core cpu) Allocate local buffer to a writer when a transacti"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Coding
  • Uber logoAsked at Uber 

    " def closest_palindrome(n: str) -> str: """ Finds the closest palindromic number to n (excluding itself). Assumptions: If two palindromes are equally close, return the smaller one. n is a positive integer represented as a string. Time Complexity: O(1) Space Complexity: O(1) """ length = len(n) num = int(n) Helper to build palindrome from a prefix def makepalindrome(prefix: int, isodd_length: bool) -> int: s = str(prefi"

    Ramachandra N. - " def closest_palindrome(n: str) -> str: """ Finds the closest palindromic number to n (excluding itself). Assumptions: If two palindromes are equally close, return the smaller one. n is a positive integer represented as a string. Time Complexity: O(1) Space Complexity: O(1) """ length = len(n) num = int(n) Helper to build palindrome from a prefix def makepalindrome(prefix: int, isodd_length: bool) -> int: s = str(prefi"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +1 more
  • Adobe logoAsked at Adobe 
    +32

    "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
  • Apple logoAsked at Apple 
    Video answer for 'Find the container with the maximum volume of water.'

    "int getMaxWater(vector& nums) { int n = nums.size(); int mx = INT_MIN; int i=0, j=n-1; while(i<j) { int water = (j - i) * min(nums[i], nums[j]); mx = max(mx, water); if(nums[i] < nums[j]){ i++; } else { j--; } } return mx; } `"

    Richard W. - "int getMaxWater(vector& nums) { int n = nums.size(); int mx = INT_MIN; int i=0, j=n-1; while(i<j) { int water = (j - i) * min(nums[i], nums[j]); mx = max(mx, water); if(nums[i] < nums[j]){ i++; } else { j--; } } return mx; } `"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +3 more
Showing 21-40 of 587