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Software Engineer Interviews

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Software Engineer Interview Questions

Software engineers write programs to design and develop computer software. Interviews are highly technical, so come ready to work through coding problems and math brainteasers. The specific questions you are asked will depend on what type of programming position you are looking for. Try researching a specific software discipline such as web development, application development, or system development.

Top Software Engineer Interview Questions & How to Answer

Question 1

Question #1: How would you describe your programming task process?

How to answer
How to answer: When answering a question about your process or life cycle for software development and engineering, it's helpful to consider every step, beginning with obtaining the requirements for the end product. Include as much detail as possible to help the interviewer learn more about any work you've done as a software engineer and how you handle a task to show your ability to tackle a project from start to finish.
Question 2

Question #2: Which programming languages do you know and prefer?

How to answer
How to answer: An interviewer will want to know what programming languages you're familiar with, as well as which languages you prefer. This question doesn't necessarily have a right or wrong answer, but it does provide insights into your capabilities and coding expertise. If the job listing for which you are interviewing includes specific language knowledge preferences, make sure to include them when outlining the software languages you know.
Question 3

Question 3: What is an example of a successful project that you completed?

How to answer
How to answer: When describing your success with a past project, it's helpful to identify aspects of the project that went well and detail the different task list elements. You can describe the team with whom you worked on the project, how you managed your time, and how you specifically contributed to the project.

419,248 software engineer interview questions shared by candidates

Given a string of format '2+3*2-1', calculate and return the result. No parenthesis in the input, just integers and + - * / operators. Operator precedence has to be considered. Linear time complexity and minimal data structure use is preferred.
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Software Development Engineer I

Interviewed at Microsoft

4★
Jan 4, 2013

Given a string of format '2+3*2-1', calculate and return the result. No parenthesis in the input, just integers and + - * / operators. Operator precedence has to be considered. Linear time complexity and minimal data structure use is preferred.

Given a triangle, determine if its a scalene, equilateral, isosceles or neither... required knowledge of triangle properties, I learnt these properties about two decades ago so ofcourse I was fuzzy on the details, completely unexpected
avatar

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET)

Interviewed at Microsoft

4★
Feb 19, 2013

Given a triangle, determine if its a scalene, equilateral, isosceles or neither... required knowledge of triangle properties, I learnt these properties about two decades ago so ofcourse I was fuzzy on the details, completely unexpected

Imagine you have a string and you want to return False if there are repeat characters in this string, what are the fastest and most space efficient ways to do this. (I clarified and he only wanted to return False if there was a repeat letter or number)
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Software Development Engineer Intern

Interviewed at Microsoft

4★
Nov 7, 2014

Imagine you have a string and you want to return False if there are repeat characters in this string, what are the fastest and most space efficient ways to do this. (I clarified and he only wanted to return False if there was a repeat letter or number)

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