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

You are given a list of strings (e.g. ["cat", "dog", "hat", "apple", "c"] ). Write a program that would take as input a string containing a wild card character, like "*at", "**t" (could be "cat", "hat", "bat"), "ca*", etc. and return true if there is a corresponding string in the list, and false otherwise.
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Software Engineer Intern

Interviewed at Meta

3.6
Oct 9, 2016

You are given a list of strings (e.g. ["cat", "dog", "hat", "apple", "c"] ). Write a program that would take as input a string containing a wild card character, like "*at", "**t" (could be "cat", "hat", "bat"), "ca*", etc. and return true if there is a corresponding string in the list, and false otherwise.

Given an integer array, write a program that returns an array with elements = product of the integers in input array except the one in its position. Ex: Given input: [2, 3, 10, 4, 5], output: [600, 400, 120, 300, 240] What is the complexity of your program? When will your program not work? Below is what I presented (O(n)), but it did not qualify me for the next round.
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Senior Software Engineer

Interviewed at Zocdoc

3.6
Jun 9, 2014

Given an integer array, write a program that returns an array with elements = product of the integers in input array except the one in its position. Ex: Given input: [2, 3, 10, 4, 5], output: [600, 400, 120, 300, 240] What is the complexity of your program? When will your program not work? Below is what I presented (O(n)), but it did not qualify me for the next round.

Given a collection of numbers, it has two functions: insert() and getMedian(). Choose a data structure to construct this collection and design the insert() and getMedian() function. Explain the time complexity of each function.
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Software Engineer

Interviewed at Niantic

3.7
Oct 9, 2017

Given a collection of numbers, it has two functions: insert() and getMedian(). Choose a data structure to construct this collection and design the insert() and getMedian() function. Explain the time complexity of each function.

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