Software Engineer Interview Cheat Sheet

Make A Good Self Introduction At The Start Of The Interview

• Introduce yourself in a few sentences under a minute or 2.
  

  Follow our guide on how to make a good self introduction for software engineers

• Sound enthusiastic!
  

  Speak with a smile and you will naturally sound more engaging.

• Do not spend too long on your self introduction as you will have less time left to code.

How Does System Engineering Add Value To A Business

Having a system engineer is one of the key tasks that go along with any organization’s mission. With a smart systems engineer, businesses are able to make better decisions and coordinate more efficiently across teams. Having someone or a team dedicated to system operations means businesses can be sure it is constantly improved for maximum efficiency, leading to better savings and higher productivity.

How Would You Approach Solving A Situation In Which Production Is Decreasing

The purpose of this question is to assess your attitude toward dealing with problems that need to be addressed immediately for the sake of profitability. By asking this situational question, the interviewer can determine what kind of problem-solving skills you possess.

Tips:

• Assist the interviewer with a step-by-step process so they understand better.
• Provide relevant examples of possible solutions to the problem.

Sample Answer:

I would start by taking note of how the system is operating compared to expected performance. I would then assess all elements and subsystems to identify the faulty ones. Once the issue is identified, I’ll take the necessary steps to rectify it so the expected functionality is achieved.”

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What To Prepare For Coding Interviews

Now that, I have cleared the confusion that Coding interviews is important and you should not distract, lets get into real work. The big question is what to prepare for Coding interviews?

Well, the most important thing to prepare is Data Structure-based coding problems like array-based coding problems, string problems, linked list problems, binary tree problems, etc.

Apart from data structure-based questions, most of the programming job interviews also ask algorithm, design, bit manipulation, and general logic-based questions, which Ill describe in this section.

Its important that you practice these concepts because sometimes they become tricky to solve in the actual interview. Having practiced them before not only makes you familiar with them but also gives you more confidence in explaining the solution to the interviewer.

One of the main problems with coding problems is that there are hundreds and thousands of coding problems on interviews, there are even sites like LeetCode, HackerRank, Codewars, Topcoder, freeCodeCamp, HackerEarth which train programmers for coding interviews with lots of tough questions, which sometimes just overwhelms a beginner looking for a job.

I believe in simplicity and the 10% of effort which produce 90% of results and thats why I have collected top 100 coding problems which are not too tough and also frequently asked on real interviews.

Describe The Software Development Process

Software development is a lifecycle that breaks up the development into smaller parts, including:

• Requirements: Determining the clients expectations, needs, and requirements. The team strategizes, plans their work, and allocates resources.
• Design: Designing the softwares algorithm design and high-level architecture design to map out how the software will work.
• Development/Building: The actual coding that makes the software.
• Testing: Testing the software to ensure it works as intended.
• Deployment: Installing the software and making it available to the client and users.
• Maintenance: Regularly updating and debugging the software to ensure it continues running as intended.

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Tell Me About A Time You Failed What Is Your Biggest Weakness

All of us are born with certain weaknesses and have experienced failures. Interviewers know this, so don’t try to make yourself look perfect by deflecting the question.

Choose real scenarios

• The general rule of thumb to answering this question professionally yet honestly is to prepare one or two real scenarios that showcase your weaknesses, outline the failure, and highlight the actions you took to rectify the situation and improve yourself. With that said, avoid talking about failures that would raise severe red flags.

Personal traits to highlight

• What you want to highlight when answering this question is yourself-awareness, honesty, and dedication to self-growth.Admitting to your weaknesses and failures allows you to demonstrate your maturity and sense of responsibility.

Emphasize your ability to take risks

• Another aspect you might want to highlight is yourability to take well-informed risks. Detailing failures that resulted from well-informed risks can benefit you in the eyes of your interviewer, especially if they are looking for someone who isn’t overly risk aversive.

Conflict resolution and teamwork

TL DR: Use the STAR method

If you’re unsure about how to go about structuring your answer, the STAR method is a good guideline:

Now Youre Ready For The Coding Interview

These are some of the most common questions outside of data structure and algorithms that help you to do really well in your interview.

I have also shared a lot of these questions on my blog, so if you are really interested, you can always go there and search for them.

These common coding, data structure, and algorithm questions are the ones you need to know to successfully interview any company, big or small, for any level of programming job.

If you are looking for a programming or software development job in 2019, you can start your preparation with this list of coding questions and if you are ready for an Interview then you can also take TripleBytes quiz and go directly to the final round of interviews with top tech companies like Coursera, Adobe, Dropbox, Grammarly, and many more.

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What Are The Drawbacks Of The Spiral Model

The spiral model is a hybrid of the iterative development process and the waterfall model, with a focus on risk analysis. In the SDLC Spiral model, the development process begins with a limited set of requirements and progresses through each development phase. Until the application is ready for production, the software engineering team adds functionality for the increased requirement in ever-increasing spirals.

Drawbacks of the spiral model are:

• It’s significantly more complicated than other SDLC models. The procedure is intricate.
• Due to its high cost, it is not recommended for small projects.
• Risk Analysis is overly reliant, and it necessitates a high level of skill.
• Time estimation is challenging

• Schedule feasibility

Time And Space Complexity

What is Time and Space Complexity?

There are usually many ways to solve coding problems. But not every solution is created equally.

Good software development is defined by algorithms that are both efficient and practical. So, comparing the performance of different solutions will be a fundamental part of your coding interviews.

The time complexity of a program refers to how long an algorithm takes to run based on the input length.

Time complexity of an algorithm quantifies the amount of time taken by an algorithm to run as a function of the length of the input.

The space complexity refers to how much memory an algorithm needs to process that same input.

How to Learn More About Time and Space Complexity Algorithms

• Big O Cheat Sheet

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What Is The Difference Between Angular And Nodejs

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Develop An Algorithm That Output Your Current Location And A List Of Atms Locations In That Area Get You The Closest K Atms To Your Location

Create a method getDistance that calculates the distance between a and b.

Code:

import java.util.HashMap import java.util.Map import java.util.PriorityQueue public class PrioRQueueExample ) PrioRQueueExample pqe = new PrioRQueueExample //Number of ATMs to return i.e. Kint num_ATMs = 3 double curr_loc = 0.00 Map< String,Double>  nallATMLocs = new HashMap< String,Double> //Map of ATM names and their distance co-ordinatesnallATMLocs.put nallATMLocs.put nallATMLocs.put nallATMLocs.put nallATMLocs.put nallATMLocs.put nallATMLocs.put nallATMLocs.put nallATMLocs.forEach -> else}}) pq.forEach) }private double getLocation}

These interview questions will also help in your viva

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What Does A Software Project Manager Do

A software product manager leads and manages the software product management department. They are in charge of the software product’s specialization, goals, structure, and expectations. They also head the planning, backlog grooming, stakeholder management, and providing roadmap necessary to create the best software.

Final Interview Preparation Tips For Faang Coding Interviews

Technical interviews can be a tough nut to crack, especially when you are considering a FAANG company. Remember that software programming is a highly competitive field, and if you want to stand out from the rest of the candidates, you need to keep a few things in mind.

No coding interview cheat sheetis complete without tips on preparing for the interviews and what to do during the interview process. So here are our top tips to help you:

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What Are The Types Of Static Testing Tools

There are the three types of static testing tools.

• Code-based testing tools: These tools take source code as input and generate test cases.
• Specialized testing tools: Using this language, the detailed test specification can be written for each test case.
• Requirement-based testing tools: These tools help in designing as per user requirements.

Top 100 Coding Problems From Programming Job Interviews

Without wasting any more of your time, here is my list of 100 frequently asked coding problems from programming job interviews. In order to get most of this list, I suggest actually solving the problem.

Do it yourself, no matter whether you are stuck because thats the only way to learn. After solving a couple of problems you will gain confidence.

I also suggest you look at the solution when you are stuck or after you have solved the problem, this way you learn to compare different solutions and how to approach a problem from a different angle.

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Question : What Is An Example Of A Successful Project That You Completed

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.

Never Say These Three Words

Using âummâ and âwellâ and âlikeâ while you gather your thoughts during complicated technical interview questions is understandable, but try to avoid âI donât knowâ in response to a question you are unsure of. Instead, reframe uncertainty with curiosity. Say something like, âI am interested in the ways ABC is changing the field and am planning to learn more about that by studying XYZ.â

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What Aspect Of Our Company Product Or Team Interests You Most

Retention is a high priority for many employers. Replacing a team member can be quite expensive in cost terms of recruitment and training time. Asking questions to ensure your interests and motivations align with that of the company can reduce the risk of losing you as a team member. Though youre ideally excited by the mission of the company, it is not uncommon for companies to use niche technology specifically to attract higher-quality talent. To answer this question, incorporate details from your research that speak specifically to the companys values, past projects or a responsibility mentioned in the job description that aligns with your career motivations and progression.

Example:”I was watching an interview with your CEO about your product that aims to disrupt the lending industry. Streamlining arduous tasks like loan applications has huge potential. I think the growth in this sector over the last year is a big indication of things to come. Additionally, Im excited by the untapped potential of blockchain technology you have recently decided to incorporate. I see this as giving your company the competitive advantage in this space as the verifiable auditability will reduce compliance costs.”

Faqs On Microsoft Software Engineer Interviews

Question 1: What does a Software Engineer do at Microsoft?

Microsoft Software Engineers are involved in building, coding, hacking, designing, and testing. Engineers at Microsoft strive to put their passion and energy into delivering world-class products.

Question 2: How do I prepare for the Microsoft Software Engineer interview?

Develop an interview prep plan and practice as many Microsoft Software Engineer interview questions as you can. You can also go for an interview prep bootcamp like Interview Kickstart that offers one-of-its-kind, tailor-made prep interview courses for Software Engineers. Sign up for the FREE webinar on How to Nail Your Next Tech Interview to learn more.

Question 3: How many interview rounds are there in the Microsoft Software Engineer interview?

The Microsoft Software Engineer interview consists of two main rounds:

Want to learn more? on How to Nail Your Next Tech Interview.

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Question #: How Would You Describe Your Programming Task Process

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.

How To Nail Your Next Tech Interview

One of the best ways to size the success of a company is when it needs no introduction. Microsoft is one such company. From being the leader in IT innovation for the past four decades to bringing the computer into every household and business, Microsoft has been responsible for driving transformational change worldwide. And at the heart of Microsoft is every Microsoft Software Engineer who made this possible.

And so, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft places great value and expectations in the software engineers it hires. Microsoft has one of the most rigorous hiring processes among FAANG companies. Microsoft Software Engineer interview questions are designed to test your analytical, problem-solving, execution, and behavioral skills.

If you are preparing for a tech interview, check out our interview questions and salary negotiation ebook to get interview-ready! Also, read How to Get Software Engineering Jobs at Microsoft and Microsoft Interview Questions for specific insights and guidance on Microsofttech interviews.

Having trained over 6,000 software engineers, we know what it takes to crack the toughest tech interviews. Since 2014, Interview Kickstart alums have been landing lucrative offers from FAANG and Tier-1 tech companies, with an average salary hike of 49%. The highest ever offer received by an IK alum is a whopping $933,000!

Want to nail your next tech interview? Sign up for our FREE Webinar.

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What Is Wasi And Why Is It Being Introduced

The WASI class implements the WASI system called API and extra convenience methods for interacting with WASI-based applications. Every WASI instance represents a unique sandbox environment. Each WASI instance must specify its command-line parameters, environment variables, and sandbox directory structure for security reasons.

Software Engineer Behavioral Interview Questions

Woohoo! Its finally Friday, and you have plans. Grab a drink after work, and welcome the weekend in style. Your organization is looking for fresh talent, and you are in charge of interviews in the coming week. You know that after a restful weekend, youll be able to start formulating the software engineer interview questions for candidates.

Among these are software engineer behavioral questions that offer you deeper insights into how a candidate can perform when faced with various real-world situations at the workplace.

Prepping for a software engineer interview is no walk in the park. Fortunately, these behavioral interview questions and answers for software engineers can help guide the way.

While behavioral questions play a vital role in assessing a candidates skills, the following pitfalls tend to challenge building a high-performing engineering team:

• The candidates get nervous, which reduces their responsiveness during the interview making you miss real talent.
• The questions dont set the talent bar high, as most are standard and shared across the board.
• They neither boost the candidates experience nor offer immediate, unbiased feedback.
• They are inefficient and time-consuming.

Technical behavioral interview questions and answers might narrow down your search, but at what cost?

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