Interview Questions For Software Engineers

Question About Your Knowledge And Experience

SOFTWARE ENGINEER Interview Questions & TOP SCORING ANSWERS!

Some of these technical questions will be straightforward questions about your tech knowledge and experience, and how you perform certain technical tasks. These will not necessarily have a clear right or wrong answer.

Here, a look at some common questions about technical knowledge and skills:

What programming languages have you used?
Describe the process you use for writing a piece of code, from requirements to delivery.
What books have you read on software engineering that you would recommend to someone in the business?
How do you make sure that your code can handle different kinds of error situations?
How do you find an error in a large file with code that you cannot step through?
How do you design scalable applications? Walk us through your process.

Most Popular Software Engineering Interview Questions

Enlisted below are the most frequently asked Software Engineer Interview Questions with answers.

Lets Explore!!

Q #1) What is SDLC?

Answer: SDLC stands for Software Development Life Cycle. It defines the step by step approach for the development of software. SDLC involves the following phases i.e. Requirement Gathering, System Analysis, Design, Coding, Testing, Maintenance, and Documentation.

Given below is the high-level representation of the various phases involved in SDLC.

Q #2) What are the various models available in SDLC?

Answer: There are several models available in SDLC for efficiently carrying out software development. Some of the models include the Waterfall model, V-Model, Agile model, etc.

Q #3) Explain the term Baseline.

Answer: A baseline is a milestone on the project which is usually defined by the project manager. Baselines are used to track the progress of the project from time to time to assess the overall health of the project.

Q #4) What are the responsibilities of a Software Project Manager?

Answer: A Software Project Manager is responsible for driving the project towards successful completion. It is the responsibility of the Software Project Manager to make sure the entire team follows a systematic and well-defined approach towards the development of software.

A software project manager is also responsible for the following tasks:

Project planning
Project delivery within time and budget.

Q #5) What is Cohesion?

Q #6) What is Coupling?

Explanation:

Which Design Patterns Do You Use Most Often

Your hiring manager may ask this question to gauge your knowledge of abstract and theoretical concepts and to get a better understanding of your work process. Before your interview, it is often helpful to review common software engineering terminology to prepare yourself for specific or technical questions. This may help you remember the technical names for patterns and processes to best articulate what you use each day.

Example:”For gaming projects, I implement my level state and player characters as singletons, and, for enemy creation, I use a factory to produce different enemies based on inputs. However, if a game is more complex, I may switch to using a compositional model, such as an Entity-Component-System. The system functions would leverage dependency injection to better separate concerns and increase the testability of the game logic.”

What Is The Limitation Of Rad Model

Limitation of RAD Model are:

It requires a sufficient number of Human Resources to create enough number of teams.
Developers and Users are not committed,the system fails.
It is not Properly Modularized building component may be Problematic.
It is not applicable when there is more possibility for Technical Risk.

Tech Skills Interview Questions

New Interview Questions for Senior Software Engineers

Typically, interviewers are eager to find out about your tech skills . Before your interview, review the job listing to make sure you know the technical requirements of the job. Be sure you are familiar with the programs and other technical skills necessary for the position.

Weave mentions of the job’s required tech skills and programs into your responses.

What Is Your Proudest Achievement As A Software Engineer

When interviewing potential software engineers for your open job, it’s important to provide opportunities for applicants to call attention to their strengths and accomplishments. Asking about a proudest moment allows the interviewee to showcase a project or event that they feel highlights their strongest features as a software engineer.

In addition to showcasing an applicant’s skills, the specific story they share can reveal much about their work ethic as well. This question gives the prospective employee the opportunity to share the project they thought would be most impressive to you, which indicates the type of work they value highly. You can use this to determine if their priorities align with your company’s values and preferences.

What Are The Expectations That You Have Set For This Role

Knowing the expectations of a role can help you better prepare for the duties and demands of the job. Especially at a high level of software engineering, position expectations can vary widely across companies. You can also ask the interviewer how the expectations for the role change over time, as expectations can often be different at 30 days than they are at 90 days, for example.

Related: âWhy Is the Team Looking To Fill This Role?â

Jenn explains the strategy behind asking the question âWhy Is the Team Looking To Fill This Role?â including what you could learn and what it tells the interviewer about you.

You May Like: How To Interview For A Job

How Do You Balance Quality With Speed When Delivering A Project

Software engineers often work on tight deadlines and may find themselves in positions where they need extra help to meet a target release date. If your company has a preferred approach in these situations, hiring staff who have a similar preference can help create more unity within the software engineering team.

Asking a prospective hire about their response when facing a tight schedule not only reveals how they could fit in with your office culture, but it also allows them to show their commitment to high performance levels. A strong applicant may use this question to note the ways they remain on schedule and avoid the need for sacrifices whenever possible.

Software Engineer Interview Questions

Google Coding Interview With A Normal Software Engineer

David is a software engineer with over 13 years in the industry and a passion for web technologies. His work experience ranges from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

Related: Top 6 Common Interview Questions and Answers

Jenn, an Indeed Career Coach, breaks down the intentions behind employer’s questions and shares strategies for crafting strong responses.

When interviewing for a software engineer position, the hiring manager may ask you a variety of questions related to your skills and experience. As you prepare for your next interview, it may be helpful to review some of the most commonly asked questions and prepare answers for them.

In this article, we discuss some of the most common software engineer interview questions and we offer examples of how to answer them effectively.

Don’t Miss: How Can I Watch The Harry And Meghan Interview

How Much Do Software Developers Interact With Other Departments

Asking this question shows youre interested in the interpersonal and cross-functional aspects of the job, not just the programming side of it. Employers often look for software developers who are good communicators and are able to easily collaborate with different departments. This is especially true on remote teams!

Depending on what the answer is, you may want to dig deeper. For example, if the role interacts a lot with other teams, is it because of company culture or a lack of organized communication? Alternatively, if the role doesnt interact much with other teams, is it because software developers are given a lot of time for deep work or theyre simply too isolated?

Recommended Reading: What To Wear To A Teacher Interview

How Do You Refactor Classes For Parallel And Concurrent Processes

Similar to refactoring classes for easier unit testing, your ability to refactor classes for parallel and concurrent processing shows the interviewer your understanding of working with non-deterministic programming. In your answer, give examples of how you used threads, background jobs and sub-processes when implementing solutions to support improvements in software designs.

Example:”When refactoring classes on a recent build, I applied asynchronous processing to manage my organization’s financial databases. By designing parallel and concurrent processing features, I was able to improve the functionality and speed of data retrieval of various user applications. Since the size of the data structure was so large, multiple background processes previously hindered the system’s processing speeds. With concurrent processing, however, my team was able to apply solutions more effectively when updating system data each accounting period.”

Also Check: What Questions Should I Ask For An Interview

What Learning Opportunities Could I Have In This Position

You can also ask the interviewer about potential learning opportunities in the position. This can show the interviewer that you have a learning mindset and a drive to improve yourself as a software engineer. If you hope to advance your career, it can also inform you what opportunities you may have for growth within the company.

Apple Software Engineer Interview Questions

– Ar Rifa’ wa al Mintaqah al Jan
– Al Mintaqah al Gharbiyah
– San Andrés and Providence and
Democratic Republic of Congo – All Cities
– Baladiyat al Jabal al Akhdar
– Baladiyat an Nuqat al Khams
– Shabyat Wd al ayt
– Shabyat al Wt
Papua New Guinea – All Cities
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – All Cities
– Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija
United Arab Emirates – All Cities
Virgin Islands – All Cities
Yemen – All Cities

48010.5K

8 Jan 2015

I interviewed at Apple

Interview

Around 2 months after I submitted my resume for Apple software engineer position, I got a call from the hiring manager. He asked me what was the good day for the interview. It took half day for meeting 5 people. It was long hour interview for me. Each interviewer spent ~ 30 minutes and asked ~ 4 questions. Each interviewer asked questions in the different areas.

What Questions Do You Have For Us

When interviewing a potential software engineer, it is important not just to ask them questions but to allow them to ask their own questions.

If an engineer doesnt really care about your company and is just interested in making money, they probably wont have a lot of questions.

In addition, a good software engineer who cares about their work is in high demand, and cares about working with a great team will probably have a few questions for you as well.

They might want to ask about the company culture, the work-life balance, your company values, the goals you are trying to reach, what you are looking for in a software developer and more to figure out whether you would make a good fit for them and how they will fit in with your overall company goals.

Best Resources For Coding Interviews

The selection of good resources is very important for success in your coding interviews. If you chose the wrong resource then more than money, you will lose the valuable time you need for preparation, hence spending some time researching for a good resource.

If you need recommendations, the following are some of my the tried and tested resources to learn Data Structure and Algorithms in-depth for coding interviews:

Data Structures and Algorithms: Deep Dive Using Java for Java developers. Learn about Arrays, Linked Lists, Trees, Hashtables, Stacks, Queues, Heaps, Sort algorithms, and Search algorithms

And, if you prefer books, there is no better than the Cracking The Coding Interview, by Gayle Laakmann McDowellwhich presents 189+ Programming questions and solutions. A good book to prepare for programming job interviews in a short time. Btw, I will also earn some money if you buy any of these resources mentioned here.

You May Like: How To Make A Portfolio For Interview

Do You Prefer Working Alone Or In A Team

While it may seem like you need to pick one or the other, that isnt necessary. Instead, talk about tasks where you find working independently is the best choice and then present scenarios where you value collaboration. Use examples from your past work to show that you can thrive in both situations.

Software Engineer Interview Questions And Answers

All You Need To Know About Behavioral Interviews (for software engineers)

Interviews can be intimidating. You want to impress your interviewer, say the right things, and control your nervousness all at the same time. As is the case with most high-pressure situations, the process is far easier if you prepare ahead of time. But how can you know what the interviewer will ask before heading in? Heres a breakdown of some of the most common software engineer interview questions, as well as questions you may want to pose yourself during your interview.

Read Also: How To Give An Exit Interview

Recommended Reading: How To Do An Exit Interview

Why Should We Hire You

This is also an important question, as it will give the applicant the opportunity to explain more about themselves, what their skills are, what they bring to the table, and how they will help your company reach its goals.

That last part is important, as it will give you an opportunity to see whether teamwork is important to them or not.

You dont want them to just go on about their education and skills, but you also want them to show you how they can help you and be an important asset to your team.

Senior Software Engineer Interview Questions: 40 Examples

The Indeed Editorial Team comprises a diverse and talented team of writers, researchers and subject matter experts equipped with Indeed’s data and insights to deliver useful tips to help guide your career journey.

Senior software engineers oversee various development projects and lead teams in realizing company goals. Because of their senior positions, they often manage the needs and approaches to product development for their organizations. If you’re getting ready to interview for a senior role in software engineering, it’s important to prepare in advance for questions that showcase your technical and leadership capabilities.

In this article, we cover 40 senior software engineer interview questions with several example answers to help you get ready and succeed in your interview.

You May Like: Where To Take Video Interview

What Do You Think Are The Biggest Challenges Facing The Software Engineering Team

Software Engineer Job Interview Questions

Asking about challenges facing the software engineering team and the company as a whole can give you insight into the well-being of the company, and it can also show the interviewer that you care about the company and want to contribute to overcoming challenges and solving problems.

This question can give you an idea of what specific issues you would work on if you chose to accept the position. You can also ask about how the challenges are already being addressed to help you understand what the company’s general attitude is toward experiencing challenges.

Related: âWhat Has Been a Challenge for This Team in the Past?â

Jenn explains the strategy behind asking âWhat Has Been a Challenge for This Team in the Past?â including what you could learn and what it tells the interviewers about you.

Also Check: Interview Questions To Ask Office Manager

Additional Software Engineer Interview Questions

Here are other common questions you can expect from a software engineer interview:

What are your best software development tools?
What process do you use to review other people’s code?
Which project management tools are you familiar with?
Do you prefer working independently or as part of a team?
How do you explain your work to non-tech stakeholders?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Tell me about a time you had a misunderstanding with the business manager over a technical issue. How did you resolve the problem?
Have you ever held a leadership position?
Have you ever contributed to open-source projects?
Do you have any personal projects?

Negotiating The Software Engineer Offer Package

Finally, the last thing you absolutely need to prepare for before your interview is salary negotiation for software engineers. At any point during the interview process, conversation about salary may crop up. We also have in-depth guides about negotiation strategies and software engineer compensation.

And that is all from me – for more detail on each step of the software engineer interview preparation process, do dive into each topic within my handbook through the sidebar or by navigating to the next page!

Don’t Miss: How To Prepare For Faang Interviews

How Did You Solve A Problem You Faced

This question will allow the candidate to explain how they approach problems and their methodology for solving them. It will show whether they have the skills to hold up to pressure and use their problem-solving skills to arrive at a solution.

This does not have to be a software engineering problem, though it may be. It can also be a problem with teamwork. For example, they can explain how they had a disagreement with a colleague on how to properly approach a specific problem and how they came to an agreement with that colleague.

This will show that they have the teamwork skills to work with someone else, even when there is a conflict.