Software Engineering Fundamentals interview questions

Showing 811–840 of 1208 results

• Model Infection, Immunity, Delayed Death, and Burn Interventions on a GridMedium

  Design and implement a discrete grid simulation modeling a five-stage disease progression with state countdowns, immunity, delayed mortality, and external burn interventions.

  OpenAIMachine Learning EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Model particle hits on a screenHard

  This question evaluates geometric reasoning and probability theory skills, specifically transformation of random variables and derivation of CDF/PDF from angular sampling, together with practical competence in Monte Carlo simulation and interpretation of numerical and visualization artifacts; domain: Software Engineering Fundamentals.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Plant Infection Grid Simulation: Days to Stabilize, Immune Plants, Expiring ImmunityHard

  A progressive grid simulation: infection spreads daily between adjacent plants, and you compute how many days the garden takes to stabilize, then add permanently immune plants and immunity that expires after a countdown. It tests multi-source breadth-first search, Dijkstra-style waiting times and precise day counting.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Print Shop Job Queue: Retries, a Poison Queue and Job PrerequisitesHard

  Implement an in-memory job queue for a print shop where workers reserve, complete, or fail jobs, failed jobs retry up to a limit before landing in a poison queue, and a second part adds job prerequisites with cascading failure.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Reactive Budget Notebook With Live Formulas and Cycle RejectionMedium

  Build a small reactive calculator where named variables hold integers or formulas that reference other variables, values stay correct as inputs change, and any definition that would create a circular dependency is rejected. Tests graph modeling, cache invalidation, cycle detection, and writing tests live.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Reason About Binary Search with One-Call-Delayed FeedbackHard

  Implement and analyze binary search under a 1-step delayed-feedback protocol where each query response evaluates the previous guess.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Refactor a Chatbot into Clean Object-Oriented ComponentsMedium

  Tests object-oriented design and refactoring skills by decoupling a monolithic chatbot script into modular, testable, and extensible components adhering to SOLID principles.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Serialize and Restore an In-Memory Key-Value StoreMedium

  Design and implement a deterministic binary serializer and strict deserializer for a string key-value store, ensuring robust input validation against corruption, truncation, duplicate keys, and trailing data.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Sliding-Window Chat Analytics: Recent Counts, Live Sessions, Out-of-Order EventsMedium

  A three-part coding exercise: build an in-memory chat analytics service that counts each chat's interactions in a closed 15-minute sliding window, tracks each user's live sessions from touch and close events, and stays correct when events arrive out of order. It tests bounded-memory eviction, efficient updates and queries, and exact window and ordering semantics.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Sliding-Window Forklift Telemetry: Pings, Shifts, Late EventsMedium

  Build an in-memory telemetry service that counts a forklift's recent pings in a 15-minute window, tracks which forklifts are currently on an active shift, and stays correct when pings arrive late and out of order. Tests bounded-memory eviction and exact window semantics.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Social Graph with Follow/Unfollow, Snapshots, History Queries and RecommendationsMedium

  A software engineer phone-screen coding problem: build an in-memory social graph that supports follow and unfollow, point-in-time snapshots, queries of who followed whom as of an earlier snapshot, and recommendations of users to follow. It tests data-structure choice, versioned history, and deterministic ranking.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Spreadsheet engine with setCell/getCell, cell references, and cycle detectionMedium

  Build a small spreadsheet engine with setCell and getCell, where formulas reference other cells and a write that would create a circular dependency must be detected. The exercise also asks for live unit tests, probing data modeling, dependency graphs, cache invalidation and test design.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Text Editor in Four Stages: Buffer, Undo/Redo, Trie Autocomplete, Collaborative OTHard

  Build a text editor in four stages: a buffer with insert, delete and read, undo and redo with two stacks, trie-based autocomplete ranked by word frequency, and real-time collaborative editing with operational transformation. It tests data structure choice, reversible operations, top-k retrieval and concurrency correctness.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Three-Card Game: Deal Hands, Rank Them, Then Add a Flush CategoryMedium

  A two-part card game coding exercise: deal three cards to each player from one deck, show every hand and pick the winner using three of a kind, pair and high card, then add a flush category between them. It tests hand representation, within-category comparison, tie handling and code that extends cleanly when a rule changes.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Toy Language Types: Render Types and Signatures, Infer Generic Return TypesHard

  Model the types of a toy programming language, with primitives, generic type variables and nested tuples, render types and function signatures as strings, then infer a call's concrete return type by binding generics consistently across arguments. It tests recursive data modeling, exact formatting and type inference with clear errors.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Wildfire Grid: Days Until Quiet with Expiring FirebreaksHard

  Simulate a wildfire spreading through a forest grid to find how many days until it stops spreading, then extend the model with fire-resistant trees and firebreaks that only hold for a limited number of days before the protected tree becomes flammable.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• eSIM Data Wallet with Expiring Bundles and Late Usage RecordsMedium

  Implement a prepaid data wallet where usage draws from the soonest-expiring bundle first and records arrive out of timestamp order, then add checkpointing so balance queries do not replay the full history. Tests event-sourced thinking, heap-based priority consumption, and cache invalidation.

  OpenAISoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Design a Multi-Level Expiring Item StoreMedium

  Design an in-memory multi-level key-value store where items are stored at specific priority levels with individual expiration timestamps, supporting query fallback and expiration cleanup.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnline Assessment
• Design a News Subscription Processing EngineHard

  Design and implement an in-memory news subscription processing engine that supports attribute-based filtering, deduplication, unsubscription, and unacknowledged delivery tracking.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnline Assessment
• Design an object-oriented queue and compare implementationsMedium

  Design an object-oriented queue and compare implementations evaluates engineering fundamentals, trade-offs, examples, pitfalls, and operational implications in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Implement Expiration-Aware Retrieval Across Storage LevelsHard

  Design and implement a multi-level storage system that purges expired items, filters for under-utilized storage tiers, and deterministically retrieves the highest-weight item.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsHR Screen
• Optiver Beat The Odds: Five Rapid-Fire Probability Brainteasers (Dice, Cards, Coins, Pigeonhole)Medium

  This collection of rapid-fire probability brainteasers evaluates probabilistic reasoning, combinatorics, symmetry-based thinking, conditional probability, and fast mental arithmetic to gauge quantitative intuition under time pressure.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnline Assessment
• Prove a Tight Lower Bound on a Latin Square's Lower-Triangle SumMedium

  This question evaluates combinatorial reasoning and discrete optimization skills—specifically understanding permutations in Latin squares, triangular-sum inequalities, and construction of extremal examples—within the Software Engineering Fundamentals domain for a Data Scientist position, and it primarily probes conceptual understanding with a constructive application component. Such problems are commonly asked to assess the ability to derive global bounds from local constraints and to exhibit matching constructions, signaling mathematical maturity and facility with combinatorial identities.

  OptiverData ScientistSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Reviewing a Freight-Scheduler Codebase: Bugs, Data Structures, and ConcurrencyHard

  This question evaluates a candidate's ability to perform code review and debugging on a large codebase, testing understanding of data structures, algorithmic complexity, deterministic allocation policies, capacity accounting, and concurrency correctness.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Apply operations efficiently using Command patternMedium

  This problem tests the application of the Command design pattern to encapsulate, track, and optimize a series of state mutations on a shared object.

  OracleSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Explain Java String Storage and Construction ChoicesMedium

  Tests deep understanding of Java string memory representation, the string constant pool, immutability, and construction performance trade-offs.

  OracleSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Explain a Team-Owned System ArchitectureMedium

  This question tests your ability to articulate the high-level architecture of a complex system you have worked on, focusing on data consistency, system scalability, and the rationale behind specific design choices.

  OracleSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Extend and optimize an existing CLI toolMedium

  This problem tests your ability to refactor legacy CLI code, implement modular features, and optimize performance for large-scale data processing.

  OracleSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Implement a Key-Value Cache with Fixed TTL, Renewal and a Live-Entry CountEasy

  Implement an in-memory key-value cache whose entries expire a fixed time-to-live after their last write, with put, get, renew and a count of live entries, and write your own tests for it. It tests expiry boundary semantics, renewal rules, efficient cleanup of expired entries and test design.

  OracleSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Implement a Paginated Medical-Record Filter Without Guessing an Ambiguous RuleEasy

  This problem tests your ability to handle ambiguous business logic through requirement clarification and implement a robust, paginated filtering system for sensitive data.

  OracleSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen