21 Software Engineering Interview Questions With Answers

21 Software Engineering Interview Questions With Answers was originally published on Springboard.

What should you expect in your first software engineering interview? That depends on the role you’ve applied for!

Software engineering jobs tend to fall under two categories: domain-specific or general programming. 

If you’re interviewing for a domain-specific role, expect the questions to center around the specific technology or programming language you specialize in, such as JavaScript, C programming or Angular. These highly technical interviews may also involve a take-home test that requires you to debug or build something. 

For a general programming or web development role, the process is fundamentally different. These interviews evaluate your problem-solving ability as well as your coding proficiency, so recruiters are likely to ask questions ranging from the technical to the behavioral. 

In this blog post, we’ve compiled a list of 21 most common questions in a software engineering interview, along with succinctly-written answers curated from authority sources around the web. 

Technical software engineering interview questions

1. Describe the process you use for writing a piece of code, from requirements to delivery. 

“The software development process or life cycle is a structure imposed on the development of a software product. There are several models for such processes, each describing approaches to a variety of tasks or activities that take place during the process.

1. Requirements Analysis

Extracting the requirements of a desired software product is the first task in creating it. While customers probably believe they know what the software is to do, it may require skill and experience in software engineering to recognize incomplete, ambiguous or contradictory requirements.

2. Specification

Specification is the task of precisely describing the software to be written, in a mathematically rigorous way. In practice, most successful specifications are written to understand and fine-tune applications that were already well-developed, although safety-critical software systems are often carefully specified prior to application development. Specifications are most important for external interfaces that must remain stable.

3. Software architecture

The architecture of a software system refers to an abstract representation of that system. Architecture is concerned with making sure the software system will meet the requirements of the product, as well as ensuring that future requirements can be addressed.”

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2. What programming languages do you use? Which three do you prefer, or are most familiar with?

“Interviewers are giving more attention to an engineer who has good experience with multiple languages like C++ and Java goes quite well, so is Python and Java.

I personally like Software Engineers who have strong experience in either C++ or Java and can write scripts in Groovy, Perl, or Python.”

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3. How do you make sure that your code can handle different kinds of error situations?

“I write tests that describe the expected error situations and check to see that they are handled appropriately. If the software is legacy and prone to generating exceptions, I’ll wrap it up to report the exceptions to get an idea of what needs attention first, and start attacking it there. Of course where required, we’ll use try/catch. Mostly I try to follow the rigorous WOMM development process.”

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4. What has your experience been like as part of an agile software development process, if any?

If you don’t have any, it’s still a good idea to demonstrate that you understand the concept. “Agile software development refers to  software development methodologies centered round the idea of iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. The ultimate value in Agile development is that it enables teams to deliver value faster, with greater quality and predictability, and greater aptitude to respond to change.”

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5. What is responsive design? What is the difference between fixed and fluid layouts? 

Responsive website design: Websites that are built with responsive design use media queries to target breakpoints that scale images, wrap text and adjust layout so that the website can ‘shrink to fit’ any size of screen.

Fluid website design: Websites that are built with fluid design use percentages for widths.

Fixed design: Websites that are built using fixed design rely on fixed pixel widths. While a design with fixed dimensions can sometimes be the quickest way to get up and running, it’ll provide a less user-friendly across multiple devices.”

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6. What is the software development life cycle? What are the differences between them? 

“SDLC or the Software Development Life Cycle is a process that produces software with the highest quality and lowest cost in the shortest time. SDLC includes a detailed plan for how to develop, alter, maintain, and replace a software system.

SDLC involves several distinct stages, including planning, design, building, testing, and deployment. Popular SDLC models include the waterfall model, spiral model, and Agile model.”

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7. What is your process to test and find bugs in an application?

Software testing is not a unique approach, but it is a set of tests and assessments that can be conducted at different stages. In fact, testing should be carried out at all stages of development, including after your main launch. Things change, platforms are updated, and errors in mobile apps that were not visible earlier can suddenly appear and wreak havoc…

Usually, this means viewing the application as a whole and setting priorities in any areas that you think are more at risk than others. Tests are then performed to either prove or disprove the functionality, and the detected defects are subsequently recorded. These defects can then be prioritized depending on their impact and severity.”

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Quiz-style software engineering interview questions

1. Explain AJAX (JavaScript) in as much detail as possible. How does it work? What have you used it for in the past?

“AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. AJAX is a new technique for creating better, faster, and more interactive web applications with the help of XML, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.”

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2. What are some of the building blocks of HTML5?

“HTML5 is the latest version of Hypertext Markup Language, the code that describes web pages. It’s actually three kinds of code: HTML, which provides the structure; Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which take care of presentation; and JavaScript, which makes things happen… HTML5 has been designed to deliver almost everything you’d want to do online without requiring additional software such as browser plugins. It does everything from animation to apps, music to movies, and can also be used to build incredibly complicated applications that run in your browser.”

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3. How do you organize CSS files? What are the pros and cons of this approach? 

“Splitting your CSS across files makes it easier to parcel tasks out to teams. One developer can work on typography-related styles, while another can focus on developing grid components. Teams can split work sensibly and increase overall productivity.

So what might a good file structure that splits the CSS across files look like?

  • reset.css: reset and normalization styles; minimal color, border, or font-related declarations
  • typography.css: font faces, weights, line heights, sizes, and styles for headings and body text
  • layouts.css: styles that manage page layouts and segments, including grids
  • forms.css: styles for form controls and labels
  • lists.css: list-specific styles
  • tables.css: table-specific styles
  • carousel.css: styles required for carousel components
  • accordion.css: styles for accordion components.”

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4. What is the purpose of a sandbox? What are some potential alternatives?

“A sandbox is a type of software testing environment that enables the isolated execution of software or programs for independent evaluation, monitoring or testing. In an implementation, a sandbox also may be known as a test server, development server or working directory.”

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5. What is black box testing? What is white box testing?

Software Testing can be majorly classified into two categories:

Black Box Testing is a software testing method in which the internal structure/ design/ implementation of the item being tested is not known to the tester

White Box Testing is a software testing method in which the internal structure/ design/ implementation of the item being tested is known to the tester.”

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6. What are some ways to make websites faster? Name as many different techniques as you can.
  1. Implement your own content delivery network (CDN). 
  2. Use adaptive images. 
  3. Cache, cache, cache.
  4. Evaluate your plugins.
  5. Combine images into CSS sprites. 
  6. Enable HTTP keep-alive response headers.
  7. Compress your content. 
  8. Configure expires headers. 
  9. Minify JavaScript and CSS. 
  10. Review your hosting package.

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7. What is the difference between functional requirements and non-functional requirements?

“Functional requirements are the features that a developed software product is expected to perform. For example, adding a payment option at an eCommerce website will be a functional requirement. Non-functional requirements measure the usability of the application such as User Interface look and feel, Security, Performance, Interoperability, Reliability, etc.”

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Behavioral/culture fit software engineering interview questions

1. Tell me about a tough software development problem and how you solved it.

“Give a brief description. Make the assumption the other person doesn’t know any specialized vocabulary, or industry-specific challenges. You can also ask the interviewer about their familiarity with the topic you’re about to describe and mold your answer based on the other person’s level of context (a more or less technical answer). Example:

“Three years ago I was working on a small engineering team at a startup and we had an important deadline approaching. Are you familiar with the Agile workflow? We were approaching a sprint deadline, and it was clear our team was behind with only 2 days left to deliver.”’

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2. Do you have any personal projects? Tell me about them.

Software developers need to practice coding all the time and stay up-to-date on new programming languages and frameworks. Recruiters look for candidates that have a genuine passion for programming and personal projects, however big or small, are one of the best ways to demonstrate your dedication to your field. 

3. Explain the concept of cloud computing to my older (not-very-technical) mother.

This question is a test of your communication skills. One of the most important traits in a successful software developer is the ability to explain technical concepts to non-techies, which is essential when interfacing with a client and gathering the requirements for a project. 

“In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer’s hard drive. The cloud is just a metaphor for the Internet.”

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4. Have you ever disagreed with your boss or manager? What did you do?

Conflict management is an important skill in any teamwork-oriented role. The ability to diplomatically disagree with someone — especially your superior or direct report — is especially valuable in a startup, where recruiters are likely to prefer candidates with experience of “managing up.” When answering this question, be sure to report the facts of the situation in a neutral fashion, without placing blame on the dissenting party. 

5. Why do you want to work at [company name]? Have you used our products?

Empathy and customer focus are qualities recruiters value in software engineering candidates. If you have experience with the company’s products and services, you’re more likely to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and understand their pain points. 

“How can you help the company succeed? Read up on what’s happening with the company and its industry. What stage of growth is the business in? Has it recently changed its product or service offerings? What competitive pressures is it facing? Consider this landscape and think, “What knowledge and experience do I have that would be especially useful to this employer in this time of growth and/or change?”’

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6. When do you consider a product to be finished?

In software development, a product is never really “finished.” What the recruiter really wants to know is your level of dedication and attention to detail. It’s acceptable to mention some level of software testing or verification as the point where the buck stops. 

7. Teach me about something for the next 10 minutes.

Select a topic in which you possess a deep knowledge. It needn’t be technical; you just need to be able to explain it in a way that is engaging and devoid of jargon. 

The post 21 Software Engineering Interview Questions With Answers appeared first on Springboard Blog.

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