Engineer Interviews

Engineer Interview Questions

Engineers are responsible for designing and building products. In an interview context, expect to be quizzed on your technical skills, and also evaluated for your ability to work as a part of a team to get things built. The specific questions you are asked will depend on what type of engineering position you are looking for such as a specific engineering discipline like software engineer, electrical engineer, or mechanical engineer.

Top Engineer Interview Questions & How to Answer

Question 1

Question #1: What is the most challenging engineering project you've dealt with, and how did you ensure it was successful?

How to answer
How to answer: This question requires you to give a specific example. Ideally, you're able to choose a project that mirrors the type of work you'd do in the role you're interviewing for. Even if it's not your most challenging project, make sure you describe your obstacle(s) and the successful outcome clearly and enthusiastically.
Question 2

Question #2: In your current role, what steps do you take to avoid making mistakes?

How to answer
How to answer: Whether you have a formal process or not, list any specific measures you employ (i.e., digital tools, consulting with colleagues, etc.). Make sure your answer demonstrates a commitment to quality control, efficiency, and safety.
Question 3

Question #3: Describe a time you dealt with a difficult client or stakeholder.

How to answer
How to answer: This one also requires a specific example that demonstrates patience and good judgment. An employer is looking for evidence that you're able to confidently and calmly stand by your decisions. Share an example with a positive outcome.

841,850 engineer interview questions shared by candidates

There is only one coding problem given 100min. The problem is as below: A group of farmers has some elevation data, and we’re going to help them understand how rainfall flows over their farmland. We’ll represent the land as a two-dimensional array of altitudes and use the following model, based on the idea that water flows downhill: If a cell’s four neighboring cells all have higher altitudes, we call this cell a sink; water collects in sinks. Otherwise, water will flow to the neighboring cell with the lowest altitude. If a cell is not a sink, you may assume it has a unique lowest neighbor and that this neighbor will be lower than the cell. Cells that drain into the same sink – directly or indirectly – are said to be part of the same basin. Your challenge is to partition the map into basins. In particular, given a map of elevations, your code should partition the map into basins and output the sizes of the basins, in descending order. Assume the elevation maps are square. Input will begin with a line with one integer, S, the height (and width) of the map. The next S lines will each contain a row of the map, each with S integers – the elevations of the S cells in the row. Some farmers have small land plots such as the examples below, while some have larger plots. However, in no case will a farmer have a plot of land larger than S = 1000. Note: The input uses unix line endings (\n). If you try to view the sample inputs on a windows machine with a program that does not convert line endings (like Notepad), you will see the input appear all on a single line. Your code should output a space-separated list of the basin sizes, in descending order. (Trailing spaces are ignored.) While correctness and performance are the most important parts of this problem, a human will be reading your solution, so please make an effort to submit clean, readable code. In particular, do not write code as if you were solving a problem for a competition. A few examples are below. Input: 3 1 5 2 2 4 7 3 6 9 Output: 7 2 The basins, labeled with A’s and B’s, are: A A B A A B A A A Input: 1 10 Output: 1 There is only one basin in this case. Input: 5 1 0 2 5 8 2 3 4 7 9 3 5 7 8 9 1 2 5 4 3 3 3 5 2 1 Output: 11 7 7 The basins, labeled with A’s, B’s, and C’s, are: A A A A A A A A A A B B A C C B B B C C B B C C C Input: 4 0 2 1 3 2 1 0 4 3 3 3 3 5 5 2 1 Output: 7 5 4 The basins, labeled with A’s, B’s, and C’s, are: A A B B A B B B A B B C A C C C
avatar

Software Engineer

Interviewed at Palantir Technologies

3.7
Mar 7, 2013

There is only one coding problem given 100min. The problem is as below: A group of farmers has some elevation data, and we’re going to help them understand how rainfall flows over their farmland. We’ll represent the land as a two-dimensional array of altitudes and use the following model, based on the idea that water flows downhill: If a cell’s four neighboring cells all have higher altitudes, we call this cell a sink; water collects in sinks. Otherwise, water will flow to the neighboring cell with the lowest altitude. If a cell is not a sink, you may assume it has a unique lowest neighbor and that this neighbor will be lower than the cell. Cells that drain into the same sink – directly or indirectly – are said to be part of the same basin. Your challenge is to partition the map into basins. In particular, given a map of elevations, your code should partition the map into basins and output the sizes of the basins, in descending order. Assume the elevation maps are square. Input will begin with a line with one integer, S, the height (and width) of the map. The next S lines will each contain a row of the map, each with S integers – the elevations of the S cells in the row. Some farmers have small land plots such as the examples below, while some have larger plots. However, in no case will a farmer have a plot of land larger than S = 1000. Note: The input uses unix line endings (\n). If you try to view the sample inputs on a windows machine with a program that does not convert line endings (like Notepad), you will see the input appear all on a single line. Your code should output a space-separated list of the basin sizes, in descending order. (Trailing spaces are ignored.) While correctness and performance are the most important parts of this problem, a human will be reading your solution, so please make an effort to submit clean, readable code. In particular, do not write code as if you were solving a problem for a competition. A few examples are below. Input: 3 1 5 2 2 4 7 3 6 9 Output: 7 2 The basins, labeled with A’s and B’s, are: A A B A A B A A A Input: 1 10 Output: 1 There is only one basin in this case. Input: 5 1 0 2 5 8 2 3 4 7 9 3 5 7 8 9 1 2 5 4 3 3 3 5 2 1 Output: 11 7 7 The basins, labeled with A’s, B’s, and C’s, are: A A A A A A A A A A B B A C C B B B C C B B C C C Input: 4 0 2 1 3 2 1 0 4 3 3 3 3 5 5 2 1 Output: 7 5 4 The basins, labeled with A’s, B’s, and C’s, are: A A B B A B B B A B B C A C C C

what is difference between stlc and sdlc? Difference between functional and non-functional.? Black box testing?I was asked some negative scenoriao for upload photo. About academic project and roles and responsibolity.smoke testing
avatar

Software Test Engineer

Interviewed at Brainvire Infotech

3.3
Apr 17, 2017

what is difference between stlc and sdlc? Difference between functional and non-functional.? Black box testing?I was asked some negative scenoriao for upload photo. About academic project and roles and responsibolity.smoke testing

Classix 2 eggs problem . * You are given 2 eggs. * You have access to a 100-storey building. * Eggs can be very hard or very fragile means it may break if dropped from the first floor or may not even break if dropped from 100 th floor.Both eggs are identical. * You need to figure out the highest floor of a 100-storey building an egg can be dropped without breaking. * Now the question is how many drops you need to make. You are allowed to break 2 eggs in the process
avatar

Senior Software Engineer

Interviewed at Goldman Sachs

3.7
Sep 9, 2009

Classix 2 eggs problem . * You are given 2 eggs. * You have access to a 100-storey building. * Eggs can be very hard or very fragile means it may break if dropped from the first floor or may not even break if dropped from 100 th floor.Both eggs are identical. * You need to figure out the highest floor of a 100-storey building an egg can be dropped without breaking. * Now the question is how many drops you need to make. You are allowed to break 2 eggs in the process

1. You have n doors in a row that are all initially closed. You make n passes by the doors starting with the first door every time. The first time through you visit every door and toggle the door (if the door is closed, you open it, if its open, you close it). the second time you only visit every 2nd door (door #2, #4, #6. third pass you toggle 3rd, 6th, 9th door. What state are the doors in after the last pass? which doors are open ?
avatar

Senior Software Engineer

Interviewed at LinkedIn

3.8
Apr 5, 2017

1. You have n doors in a row that are all initially closed. You make n passes by the doors starting with the first door every time. The first time through you visit every door and toggle the door (if the door is closed, you open it, if its open, you close it). the second time you only visit every 2nd door (door #2, #4, #6. third pass you toggle 3rd, 6th, 9th door. What state are the doors in after the last pass? which doors are open ?

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