Software Engineer Interviews

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

A couple tricky questions. One required writing a modified binary search, the other dealt with data structures and how to efficiently check if a given set of numbers contained two numbers summing to some other number x.
avatar

Software Engineer Intern

Interviewed at LinkedIn

3.8
Feb 8, 2013

A couple tricky questions. One required writing a modified binary search, the other dealt with data structures and how to efficiently check if a given set of numbers contained two numbers summing to some other number x.

2. /** * A tournament tree is a binary tree * where the parent is the minimum of the two children. * Given a tournament tree find the second minimum value in the tree. * A node in the tree will always have 2 or 0 children. * Also all leaves will have distinct and unique values. * 2 * / \ * 2 3 * / \ | \ * 4 2 5 3 * * In this given tree the answer is 3. */ class Node { Integer value; Node left, right; Node(Integer value, Node left, Node right) { this.value = value; this.left = left; this.right = right; } } class Solution { /** * This should return the second minimum * int value in the given tournament tree */ public static Integer secondMin(Node root) { } }
avatar

Senior Software Engineer

Interviewed at LinkedIn

3.8
Apr 5, 2017

2. /** * A tournament tree is a binary tree * where the parent is the minimum of the two children. * Given a tournament tree find the second minimum value in the tree. * A node in the tree will always have 2 or 0 children. * Also all leaves will have distinct and unique values. * 2 * / \ * 2 3 * / \ | \ * 4 2 5 3 * * In this given tree the answer is 3. */ class Node { Integer value; Node left, right; Node(Integer value, Node left, Node right) { this.value = value; this.left = left; this.right = right; } } class Solution { /** * This should return the second minimum * int value in the given tournament tree */ public static Integer secondMin(Node root) { } }

Write a program that takes an integer and prints out all ways to multiply smaller integers that equal the original number, without repeating sets of factors. In other words, if your output contains 4 * 3, you should not print out 3 * 4 again as that would be a repeating set. Note that this is not asking for prime factorization only. Also, you can assume that the input integers are reasonable in size; correctness is more important than efficiency. PrintFactors(12) 12 * 1 6 * 2 4 * 3 3 * 2 * 2
avatar

Software Engineer

Interviewed at LinkedIn

3.8
Nov 25, 2014

Write a program that takes an integer and prints out all ways to multiply smaller integers that equal the original number, without repeating sets of factors. In other words, if your output contains 4 * 3, you should not print out 3 * 4 again as that would be a repeating set. Note that this is not asking for prime factorization only. Also, you can assume that the input integers are reasonable in size; correctness is more important than efficiency. PrintFactors(12) 12 * 1 6 * 2 4 * 3 3 * 2 * 2

Viewing 1231 - 1240 interview questions

Glassdoor has 419,248 interview questions and reports from Software engineer interviews. Prepare for your interview. Get hired. Love your job.