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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.

20,132 data engineer interview questions shared by candidates

I am not sure if I can say this is a question but that is what they asked : we have a flat file with all transaction coming from third party, that data need to be pushed into our database and then give a result for reporting purpose with an open source ETL tool. how would you do that? ( they are not specific about what ETL tool, no details on flat file and etc.)
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Data Engineer

Interviewed at Nordstrom

3.6★
Jun 7, 2018

I am not sure if I can say this is a question but that is what they asked : we have a flat file with all transaction coming from third party, that data need to be pushed into our database and then give a result for reporting purpose with an open source ETL tool. how would you do that? ( they are not specific about what ETL tool, no details on flat file and etc.)

*For the coding questions in previous rounds, they may ask to write algorithm on paper and also may ask to implement on coderpad in our favorite language. *Round 8 (HR round, phone, 20 mins ): - He explained about the company, role and asked about my interests. Salary negotiation. Availability to join.
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Data Engineer

Interviewed at Poshmark

4★
Oct 28, 2018

*For the coding questions in previous rounds, they may ask to write algorithm on paper and also may ask to implement on coderpad in our favorite language. *Round 8 (HR round, phone, 20 mins ): - He explained about the company, role and asked about my interests. Salary negotiation. Availability to join.

They asked if I had ever worked at a data center before. I laughed and told them I've literally worked at the data center that I'm applying to work for them at for them as a contractor. They had no idea and don't seem to communicate in between offices
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Data Center Engineer

Interviewed at Trace3

4.4★
Dec 20, 2024

They asked if I had ever worked at a data center before. I laughed and told them I've literally worked at the data center that I'm applying to work for them at for them as a contractor. They had no idea and don't seem to communicate in between offices

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