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

* Merge two sorted linked list. The merged list should also be sorted. * Compact a string. i.e remove spaces * traverse a link list containing char* as data. test cases for the same. * reverse a string. test cases for the same. * remove all the given characters from a string.
Jun 22, 2015

* Merge two sorted linked list. The merged list should also be sorted. * Compact a string. i.e remove spaces * traverse a link list containing char* as data. test cases for the same. * reverse a string. test cases for the same. * remove all the given characters from a string.

Build a key-value data structure that allows the user to take a snapshot of the data. The user can read the key-value store from any snapshot. Structure has the normal key/value like methods plus something like snapshot = dataStructure.takeSnapshot() value = dataStructure.get(key, snapshot) void dataStructure.deleteSnapshot()
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Software Engineer

Interviewed at Rubrik

3.4
May 10, 2017

Build a key-value data structure that allows the user to take a snapshot of the data. The user can read the key-value store from any snapshot. Structure has the normal key/value like methods plus something like snapshot = dataStructure.takeSnapshot() value = dataStructure.get(key, snapshot) void dataStructure.deleteSnapshot()

Soft Skill question: How did you manage to solve a specific problem in the past? With what means? Questions that you have to answer on e.g video format before the interview: 1) Why have you applied for this position? 2) What will you bring to this particular role? 3) What do you expect from this position? Then a set of technical questions sent to you by email (answer before the interview) 1.Explain when and why you would use multi-threading programming? 2. When you would use templates over inheritance? (C++) Please explain. 3. In your opinion What is the most important change in C++ in the last 10 years, explain why. 4. A process is having performance issues but you do not know where exactly the problem is. Which tools would you use to diagnose the problems and how? Please start with basic system tools expected on any system first and with the possibility to add more advanced tools second. 5. Give a code example of a ranged for statement in C++. 6. What is the difference between Abstract and Interface classes (C++)? 7. How you would implement the error handing for a function controlling a piece of hardware? You can write the pseudo code if needed. (C++) 8. What is difference between C++ shared_ptr and unique_ptr. When would you use each of them. 9. What is C++ uniform initialization, please give a couple of code examples. 10. What is a python decorator and when you would use it. 11. Explain what is a python lambda function and give a code example. 12. What would be your criteria to decide when to implement a tool in C++ or Python
avatar

Software Engineer

Interviewed at European Southern Observatory

3.8
Mar 1, 2020

Soft Skill question: How did you manage to solve a specific problem in the past? With what means? Questions that you have to answer on e.g video format before the interview: 1) Why have you applied for this position? 2) What will you bring to this particular role? 3) What do you expect from this position? Then a set of technical questions sent to you by email (answer before the interview) 1.Explain when and why you would use multi-threading programming? 2. When you would use templates over inheritance? (C++) Please explain. 3. In your opinion What is the most important change in C++ in the last 10 years, explain why. 4. A process is having performance issues but you do not know where exactly the problem is. Which tools would you use to diagnose the problems and how? Please start with basic system tools expected on any system first and with the possibility to add more advanced tools second. 5. Give a code example of a ranged for statement in C++. 6. What is the difference between Abstract and Interface classes (C++)? 7. How you would implement the error handing for a function controlling a piece of hardware? You can write the pseudo code if needed. (C++) 8. What is difference between C++ shared_ptr and unique_ptr. When would you use each of them. 9. What is C++ uniform initialization, please give a couple of code examples. 10. What is a python decorator and when you would use it. 11. Explain what is a python lambda function and give a code example. 12. What would be your criteria to decide when to implement a tool in C++ or Python

They asked me to extract words from the parse tree. e.g. ((NJ (NN James) XX is) (AJ tall)) -> James is tall. Another question is to reverse a string an capitalize all the starting positions of words and lower case all the ending positions of words. e.g. Hello World -> Dlrow Olleh
Oct 9, 2016

They asked me to extract words from the parse tree. e.g. ((NJ (NN James) XX is) (AJ tall)) -> James is tall. Another question is to reverse a string an capitalize all the starting positions of words and lower case all the ending positions of words. e.g. Hello World -> Dlrow Olleh

There were 2 questions: 1 design and 1 implementation. The design was something like the following: you have a billion google searches a day, design a data structure which lets you pull out the top 100 unique ones at the end of the day.
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Software Engineer

Interviewed at Google

4.4
Oct 20, 2009

There were 2 questions: 1 design and 1 implementation. The design was something like the following: you have a billion google searches a day, design a data structure which lets you pull out the top 100 unique ones at the end of the day.

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