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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.

419,174 software engineer interview questions shared by candidates

1. You have n doors in a row that are all initially closed. You make n passes by the doors starting with the first door every time. The first time through you visit every door and toggle the door (if the door is closed, you open it, if its open, you close it). the second time you only visit every 2nd door (door #2, #4, #6. third pass you toggle 3rd, 6th, 9th door. What state are the doors in after the last pass? which doors are open ?
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Senior Software Engineer

Interviewed at LinkedIn

3.8★
Apr 5, 2017

1. You have n doors in a row that are all initially closed. You make n passes by the doors starting with the first door every time. The first time through you visit every door and toggle the door (if the door is closed, you open it, if its open, you close it). the second time you only visit every 2nd door (door #2, #4, #6. third pass you toggle 3rd, 6th, 9th door. What state are the doors in after the last pass? which doors are open ?

Debugging + System design: We wrote a simple (single-threaded) web crawler. Given a starting URL, it visits every reachable page. For each page, it determines the URLs of every static asset (images, javascript, stylesheets) on that page. The crawler returns a list with an entry for each crawled page and a listing of URLs for the assets found in that page.
avatar

Senior Software Engineer

Interviewed at GoCardless

3.7★
Feb 2, 2021

Debugging + System design: We wrote a simple (single-threaded) web crawler. Given a starting URL, it visits every reachable page. For each page, it determines the URLs of every static asset (images, javascript, stylesheets) on that page. The crawler returns a list with an entry for each crawled page and a listing of URLs for the assets found in that page.

Game related to coins : There are a bunch of coins on the table (about 20 I think) and 2 players have to pick 1-5 coins at each turn. The player who picks last coin wins the game. What will be your strategy if you are given the 1st chance to pick coins ?
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Software Engineer

Interviewed at Cadence Design Systems

4.1★
Oct 7, 2012

Game related to coins : There are a bunch of coins on the table (about 20 I think) and 2 players have to pick 1-5 coins at each turn. The player who picks last coin wins the game. What will be your strategy if you are given the 1st chance to pick coins ?

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