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Data Engineer Interview Questions

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Data Engineer Interview Questions

Data engineers are IT professionals who are needed in almost every industry. Data engineers monitor data trends to determine best next steps for companies. A critical part of a data engineer job is to process raw data into usable data by creating data pipelines and building data systems.

Top Data Engineer Interview Questions & How To Answer

Question 1

Question #1: Can you describe in detail your level of expertise with programming languages?

How to answer
How to answer: Before the interview, review your resume and/or portfolio and make a list of the programs you are most proficient with. If you find that you are lacking the expertise in a program that the company predominately uses, describe yourself as a highly motivated self-starter who will work tirelessly to learn the program(s).
Question 2

Question #2: Explain data engineering in your own words.

How to answer
How to answer: Highlight your role in relation to the larger organization and other roles like data scientists to clearly define your contribution to the overall system of business. Clarify the difference between a database-centric engineer and a pipeline-centric engineer.
Question 3

Question #3: Can you describe your experience working with Apache Hadoop and cloud data management environments?

How to answer
How to answer: Research the company's software, data cloud products, and use of Apache Hadoop to be prepared for this inquiry. Data Engineers must be fluent in programming languages and data management systems used throughout the industry such as Apache Hadoop.

20,205 data engineer interview questions shared by candidates

// Given a singly linked list without values defined by: class Node { Node next } // Write a function that removes all elements from the list whose _index_ is a fibonacci number // o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o // 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 // x x x x x // becomes // o ----------------> o ------> o -> o ------> o -> o -> o // 0 4 6 7 9 10 11
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Software Engineer/Data Scientist

Interviewed at Tripadvisor

3.5★
Oct 29, 2014

// Given a singly linked list without values defined by: class Node { Node next } // Write a function that removes all elements from the list whose _index_ is a fibonacci number // o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o -> o // 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 // x x x x x // becomes // o ----------------> o ------> o -> o ------> o -> o -> o // 0 4 6 7 9 10 11

The tech interview had 3 different task, all timed separately: 1. Read about a business context and update an existing SQL schema to make it work for the context 2. Write a fairly complex SQL query to achieve a certain result 3. Write some API type code in a language of your choice per a specification. Pass given tests but also write more tests
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Senior Data Engineer

Interviewed at Paradigm Health

4★
Apr 21, 2023

The tech interview had 3 different task, all timed separately: 1. Read about a business context and update an existing SQL schema to make it work for the context 2. Write a fairly complex SQL query to achieve a certain result 3. Write some API type code in a language of your choice per a specification. Pass given tests but also write more tests

1st round - Your current project architecture Python coding question - hello and olleh how to check all characters exist in both strings? SQL coding question of joining multiple tables and derive few attributes. 2nd Round - Managerial and non technical How to resolve conflicts at work? 3rd Round - How to delete duplicates from a table? (This questions was asked even though they were hiring for OLAP project setup) Current project and architecture etc. How did you train and evaluate ML models? Question on Oracle index How resolve conflict at work? (Same question again in this round)
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Data Engineer

Interviewed at Cornerstone OnDemand

3.2★
Jul 12, 2024

1st round - Your current project architecture Python coding question - hello and olleh how to check all characters exist in both strings? SQL coding question of joining multiple tables and derive few attributes. 2nd Round - Managerial and non technical How to resolve conflicts at work? 3rd Round - How to delete duplicates from a table? (This questions was asked even though they were hiring for OLAP project setup) Current project and architecture etc. How did you train and evaluate ML models? Question on Oracle index How resolve conflict at work? (Same question again in this round)

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Glassdoor has 20,205 interview questions and reports from Data engineer interviews. Prepare for your interview. Get hired. Love your job.