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.

418,794 software engineer interview questions shared by candidates

Given a string of numbers, you can interpolate basic operations (+, -, * and /) to create an equation that can be evaluated using simple math. Given a string of numbers and a value, write a method that prints all of the equations that can be generated using that string that evaluate to the given value. ex- f("323",3) will print out "3 * 2 - 3"
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Software Engineer

Interviewed at Triplebyte

3.5
Mar 31, 2016

Given a string of numbers, you can interpolate basic operations (+, -, * and /) to create an equation that can be evaluated using simple math. Given a string of numbers and a value, write a method that prints all of the equations that can be generated using that string that evaluate to the given value. ex- f("323",3) will print out "3 * 2 - 3"

A few questions on basic command-line syntax in Unix shells: 1. How would you log output and error messages from a command to a file? 2. How would you run the same command on every file in a directory? 3. How would you find the PID of a named process (say if you wanted to kill it)?
avatar

Software Engineer

Interviewed at Morgan Stanley

3.9
Feb 28, 2012

A few questions on basic command-line syntax in Unix shells: 1. How would you log output and error messages from a command to a file? 2. How would you run the same command on every file in a directory? 3. How would you find the PID of a named process (say if you wanted to kill it)?

You have a genealogy: 1) Describe a data structure to represent it. 2) Given any two people within the genealogy, describe an algorithm to determine if they share a common ancestor. You just need to return true/false, not all ancestors.
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Software Engineer

Interviewed at Google

4.4
Mar 21, 2010

You have a genealogy: 1) Describe a data structure to represent it. 2) Given any two people within the genealogy, describe an algorithm to determine if they share a common ancestor. You just need to return true/false, not all ancestors.

You have a n number of cities. Lets say city 1 has some information that needs to be sent to all other n-1 cities using minimal cost. Cost between each pair of cities is given. any number of cities can transmit the information once they receive the information but the overall total cost should be minimum
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Software Engineer

Interviewed at Google

4.4
Nov 2, 2011

You have a n number of cities. Lets say city 1 has some information that needs to be sent to all other n-1 cities using minimal cost. Cost between each pair of cities is given. any number of cities can transmit the information once they receive the information but the overall total cost should be minimum

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