Top Software Engineer Interview Questions

Srini K. - "performance issues and sudden spikes on input requests by scaling techniques and optimization."See full answer

Scott S. - " To clarify on what we are trying to solve for and get the definition of a distributed scheduler straight . So A Distributed Scheduler refers to a system that can handle job scheduling and execution in a scalable and fault-tolerant manner by distributing the workload across multiple servers or nodes. we will make some assumptions with the design , as follows: we will assume 10,000 QPS for job submissions and should be able query for jobs status . Job execution should have minimal latency"See full answer

BePostive - "· Listen both sides and without any bias. Support or focus on the problem rather than person. Take necessary steps in case there is middle ground its well and good if both parties agree. If not be honest and support the person who is correct. Ultimate goal is to be useful for overall project and company rather individual satisfaction. The approach should be fit into overall team goal."See full answer

Adam M. - "This is a great question! If you don't mind, I'd love to list 3 strengths and weaknesses then dive a little deeper on one of each of them. I think my three greatest strengths are: Empathy Openness to feedback Drive And three weaknesses I have been working to strengthen are: Sometimes my desire to achieve can put me at risk of overcommitting Communicating status to the right stakeholders at the appropriate time Creating detailed and strategic lists of priorities so I can meet th"See full answer

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

Scott S. - " The Situation A few months ago, our trading platform started experiencing significant latency issues during peak trading hours. This latency was affecting our ability to process real-time market data and execute trades efficiently, potentially leading to substantial financial losses and missed opportunities. Identifying the Problem The first step was to identify the root cause of the latency. I organized a team meeting with our data engineers, DevOps, and network specialists to gather"See full answer

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

Unicorn 2. - "I would like to ask a few clarifying questions Lyft for kids: Does this mean we want to design a ride sharing app for kids? (Assuming yes) Do we have any existing features catered to kids? (Assuming no) Lyft has a lot of features. I am going to assume basic table stake features which Lyft already has as: Ability to call for a ride Ride tracking Are there any goals that we would like to achieve with this feature? If we look at current market conditions, Lyft has biggest threat f"See full answer

Kurt K. - "Why skip defining the data model? Or did I just miss it?"See full answer

Tiago R. - "function serialize(list) { for (let i=0; i 0xFFFF) { throw new Exception(String ${list[i]} is too long!); } const prefix = String.fromCharCode(length); list[i] = ${prefix}${list[i]}; console.log(list[i]) } return list.join(''); } function deserialize(s) { let i=0; const length = s.length; const output = []; while (i < length) { "See full answer

Laksitha R. - "public static int maxProfitGreedy(int[] stockPrices) { int maxProfit = 0; for(int i = 1; i todayPrice) { maxProfit += tomorrowPrice - todayPrice; } } return maxProfit; } "See full answer

onering2ruleall - "My leadership style is flexible and adaptive, it varies depending on the team members and the needs of the company. My leadership goal is to empower the team and inspire and grow leaders. In order to achieve that, I combine transformational, democratic and coaching leadership styles. Usually when we are facing a new type of challenge, or at the early stage of a project, I like to adapt the transformational leadership which allows me to listen to all the suggestions from the team members and sta"See full answer

Anna D. - "Situation. Initially, my team consisted of young guys who were hired by team leaders based on hardskills. Previously, the company had just begun the transition from a process-based to a product-based approach. In the process of searching and selecting candidates, the interests of the team and the product owner were not taken into account. The candidate didn't pass a behavioral interview on soft skills. Thus, the team consisted of diverse and talented guys, but not very interested in fast wor"See full answer

Krish M. - "Situation: I led a critical initiative to re-architect the high volume customer data platform. The system handled over 90 PB of records handling around 70 billion customer records daily and was foundational to customer data capabilities across multiple enterprise products. The existing architecture faced significant challenges around latency, accuracy, and scalability, and any disruption would directly impact global customers and downstream systems. Task: I was responsible for leading t"See full answer

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

Nagendra S. - "Assumptions: Platform: iOS/Android and Web Application Service Type: Renting Bicycles (hourly, daily, weekly), possibility of buying or selling Geography: Focusing on Asian markets, e.g., India, where bicycles are a popular mode of transportation Role: Product Manager at Microsoft Objective: Design an app focusing on customer engagement and new customer acquisition Setting the Stage: Why a Renting Business? Market Potential: In Asian markets, a si"See full answer

Soumya S. - "In 2019, I was given a very important problem to solve. In a team of 3 we had to build a mobility assist device. The customer segment we would go for was something we could decide. The project was very close to me as I had lost someone I loved because of cancer and I saw how reduced mobility was a huge pain point in not being able to do physical activities. My team could only think of elderly people as the main target market. As the Head of Product what I did was: 1) I helped them dive even d"See full answer

David P. - "delete"See full answer

Rick E. - " Time O(n^2) Space O(1) from typing import List def three_sum(nums: List[int]) -> List[List[int]]: pass # your code goes here res = [] n = len(nums) nums.sort() for i in range(n-2): if i > 0 and nums[i] == nums[i - 1]: continue l,r = i + 1, n - 1 while l 0: r -= 1 "See full answer

Anonymous Muskox - "Okay so the objective is to describe a product which I think is poorly designed despite of what market sentiments are around this and how the product is performing currently. Okay understood, so the way I would like to go about it is first I will state what are the factors which I look in a product to tell it is a good product. Then will see how a particular product doesn’t follow this and that's why I called it a poorly designed product. For me a product is great if it is having these qualities"See full answer