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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.

419,688 software engineer interview questions shared by candidates

The technical question was: You're given an array of strings. Sort it so that the result returns an array of an array of strings sorted into its anagrams. (e.g. input: ["aa", "ad", "da"], output: [ ["aa"], ["ad", "da"] ]
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Software Engineer Intern

Interviewed at Yelp

3.1★
Nov 30, 2013

The technical question was: You're given an array of strings. Sort it so that the result returns an array of an array of strings sorted into its anagrams. (e.g. input: ["aa", "ad", "da"], output: [ ["aa"], ["ad", "da"] ]

Design an LRU cache. It's a data struct with a capacity. Beyond this capacity the least recently used item is removed. You should be able to insert an element, access an element given its key, and delete an element, in constant time. Note that when you access an element, even if it's just for a read, it becomes the most recently used.
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Software Engineer

Interviewed at Dropbox

3.9★
Nov 22, 2013

Design an LRU cache. It's a data struct with a capacity. Beyond this capacity the least recently used item is removed. You should be able to insert an element, access an element given its key, and delete an element, in constant time. Note that when you access an element, even if it's just for a read, it becomes the most recently used.

Given a string that looks like this: Fall2014 BIO110, return 4 pieces of information: Season - Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall Year - 20XX Subject - BIO, ENGR, etc Course number The season and year cluster may be space separated. Season always comes before year. The subject and course number cluster may also be space separated. Subject always comes before course number. The season/year and subject/course clusters are always space separated. You are guaranteed that season/year cluster comes first. Season can also be given like this: W = Winter Sp = Spring Su = Summer F = Fall Years can be given without their prefix of "20". So if you're given Fall14, you should be able to extract a year of 2014. Subject and course number come as they are. You are guaranteed that subjects are purely alphabetical. Examples: Input: F 13 ENGR 110 Season: Fall Year: 2013 Subject: ENGR Course #: 110 Input: Su2015 BIO340 Season: Summer Year: 2015 Subject: BIO Course #: 340
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Software Engineer

Interviewed at Course Hero

3.9★
Nov 11, 2017

Given a string that looks like this: Fall2014 BIO110, return 4 pieces of information: Season - Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall Year - 20XX Subject - BIO, ENGR, etc Course number The season and year cluster may be space separated. Season always comes before year. The subject and course number cluster may also be space separated. Subject always comes before course number. The season/year and subject/course clusters are always space separated. You are guaranteed that season/year cluster comes first. Season can also be given like this: W = Winter Sp = Spring Su = Summer F = Fall Years can be given without their prefix of "20". So if you're given Fall14, you should be able to extract a year of 2014. Subject and course number come as they are. You are guaranteed that subjects are purely alphabetical. Examples: Input: F 13 ENGR 110 Season: Fall Year: 2013 Subject: ENGR Course #: 110 Input: Su2015 BIO340 Season: Summer Year: 2015 Subject: BIO Course #: 340

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