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Software Engineering Fundamentals Interview Questions
Practice 9403 coding, system design and machine learning questions from 546 companies, sorted by role, topic and interview round. Every question has step-by-step hints, a code runner that supports 8 languages and an AI mentor; members also get the full solution walkthrough.
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Showing 541–570 of 1208 results
- Hudson River TradingMediumSoftware EngineerLinux Host and Filesystem Fundamentals
Review practical Linux fundamentals: memory and swap interpretation, safe directory enumeration, process-versus-thread trade-offs, filesystem links, and option-safe file deletion. Also explain responsible recovery steps after an accidental recursive delete.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen - Hudson River TradingMediumSoftware EngineerMinimize Array Amplitude After Removing a Contiguous Block
Tests array manipulation and prefix/suffix extremum tracking to minimize the spread (max - min) of an array after removing a contiguous subarray of length k.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screenarraysprefix-suffixsliding-window - Hudson River TradingMediumSoftware EngineerPython Language and Runtime Fundamentals
Review core Python semantics through decorators, dictionary hashing, generators, unpacking syntax, and memory management. Distinguish language guarantees from CPython behavior while connecting edge cases to API design, debugging, and safe resource cleanup.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen - Hudson River TradingMediumSoftware EngineerQuery Order and Batch Lifetimes from Event Files
Design an event-driven tracker to query lifetimes for individual orders or order batches, correctly handling open orders and aggregate start/end timestamps.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screenhash-tablesystem-fundamentalsdata-structures - Hudson River TradingHardSoftware EngineerReason About C++ Inlining, Allocation, and Polymorphism
Tests deep C++ systems knowledge regarding the runtime and compiler-level impacts of dynamic dispatch, heap allocations, and function inlining within latency-sensitive pipelines.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screencppsystems-programmingmemory-management - Hudson River TradingMediumSite Reliability EngineerReason About Unix Signals, Zombies, and Process Reaping
Assess understanding of Unix process lifecycles, signal handling mechanics, zombie state accumulation, and process reaping responsibilities in parent processes and PID 1.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screenunixlinux-kernelsystems - Hudson River TradingMediumSoftware EngineerSplit a Message into Length-Limited Parts with Numbered Suffixes
This problem tests your ability to handle string manipulation, edge-case arithmetic, and iterative construction while adhering to dynamic length constraints imposed by mandatory metadata.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical ScreenStringsGreedySimulation - Hudson River TradingMediumSite Reliability EngineerTroubleshoot a Host That Rejects SSH Connections
Tests systematic Linux systems and networking troubleshooting methodology by designing an evidence-based diagnostic path for an unreachable or rejecting SSH service.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screenlinuxnetworkingtroubleshooting - Hudson River TradingHardSoftware EngineerWrap a Fixed-Chunk Stream Reader with Arbitrary-Length Reads
Implement an arbitrary-length stream reader on top of an underlying reader that only yields data in fixed-size chunks, managing internal buffering and end-of-stream state across successive calls.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical ScreenStreamsBufferingSystems Programming - IBMMediumSoftware EngineerDebug and Harden a Ticketing Backend API
Implement and harden an in-memory ticket service backend to handle deterministic cursor pagination, idempotent reservations, cache invalidation, and oversell prevention.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnline AssessmentAPI DesignCachingPagination - IBMEasySoftware EngineerExplain CI/CD, Kubernetes delivery, and troubleshooting
This question evaluates operational DevOps and cloud-native competencies, specifically CI/CD concepts and tools, GitOps delivery with Argo CD, Kubernetes deployment and troubleshooting (including Helm and StatefulSet vs Deployment), containerization rationale, Linux process and file inspection, network diagnostics, database deployment safety, and infrastructure concepts such as HPC and VPC. It is commonly asked in Software Engineering Fundamentals and DevOps interviews to measure production-readiness, troubleshooting ability, and tooling familiarity, emphasizing practical application while requiring underlying conceptual understanding of system behavior and reliability.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - IXL LearningEasySoftware EngineerDebug Kubernetes crashes and review Python ingestion script
This question evaluates operational debugging and system reliability skills — specifically Kubernetes pod/container troubleshooting, health-probe configuration, and practical Python ETL code review, focusing on observability, dependency management, and production-readiness.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen - ImcEasyHardware EngineerAnalyze an Instruction Trace with Latency, Throughput, Cache, and Roofline Constraints
Implement a pipeline simulation that calculates total execution cycles under RAW data hazards and computes roofline bottleneck metrics for a given instruction trace.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteComputer ArchitectureHardwareSimulation - ImcMediumSoftware EngineerAnalyze time complexity and threading trade-offs
This question evaluates understanding of worst-case time complexity for common data structure operations and the performance trade-offs between multithreading and single-threading, testing knowledge in the Software Engineering Fundamentals domain.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen - ImcMediumSoftware EngineerAnswer conceptual true/false and caching questions
This problem tests foundational knowledge of computer architecture (integer representation), memory management strategies (caching), and graph theory essentials.
Software Engineering FundamentalsHR ScreenFundamentalsComputer ArchitectureCaching - ImcHardQuantitative TraderCompute the Probability for Two Uniform Variables
This question evaluates understanding of continuous probability, joint distributions, and order statistics for independent uniform variables, focusing on comparing transformations of random variables.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen - ImcEasyData ScientistFind valid range of q for outcome probabilities
This question tests the ability to solve a system of linear inequalities derived from probability constraints, requiring an understanding of basic arbitrage-free pricing principles.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical ScreenProbabilityInequalitiesFinance - ImcHardSoftware EngineerWhen to use a dictionary vs an array?
This question tests your understanding of the underlying trade-offs between contiguous memory structures (arrays) and hash-based key-value stores (dictionaries), focusing on performance, memory usage, and structural requirements.
Software Engineering FundamentalsHR ScreenData StructuresMemory ManagementTime Complexity - IndeedMediumSoftware EngineerCompare Arrays and Linked Lists for Indexed Operations
Compare arrays, linked lists, and unrolled lists across indexed access, insertion, allocation, cache locality, and position-search costs.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerAdd Backend Search and Filters to the Items API of a Library Lending System
Implement and test backend search, multi-attribute filtering, sorting, and pagination logic for a library lending system's items catalog.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnline AssessmentAPI DesignData FilteringPagination - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerAdd Hold-Available and Loan Due-Date Notifications to a Library Lending System
Tests domain modeling, queue management, and idempotent notification triggering for an event- and time-driven library lending workflow.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnline AssessmentObject-Oriented DesignState ManagementData Structures - InstacartMediumBackend EngineerDebug Metrics Computed Before Filtering
Debug a metrics endpoint whose summary is calculated before user filters are applied even though its rows are filtered correctly. Trace the data lineage, aggregate over the full matched population before pagination, preserve security scoping, and add unit and endpoint regression tests.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnline Assessment - InstacartEasySoftware EngineerDebug Search and Stock Behavior in a Library Application
Debug a library application’s incomplete search and stock displays by reproducing symptoms, tracing API behavior, checking query semantics, and validating focused fixes.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnline Assessment - InstacartHardSoftware EngineerDesign a bus simulation metric
This problem tests your ability to design a telemetry metric for a simulation environment, requiring you to define efficiency, implement instrumentation within existing logic, and explain how to validate the metric's accuracy.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteSystem DesignInstrumentationSimulation - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerDesign a task system with assignments
This question tests your ability to design a flexible data model for a task-assignment system, focusing on efficient lookups and state management in an in-memory environment.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical ScreenSystem DesignData StructuresAPI Design - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerEvaluate a Target Variable from Assignments with Plus, Minus, Cycles and Conflicts
A three-part coding exercise that computes a target variable's value from a list of assignment equations. It starts with right-hand sides that are numbers or other variables, adds addition and subtraction with cross-references, and finally requires an empty string for cycles, undefined variables and conflicting assignments.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerEvaluate a Variable from Chained Assignments with +/- Expressions and Cycle Detection
A coding problem that evaluates a target variable from chained assignments such as T1 = T2 and T2 = 5, then extends to right-hand sides with plus and minus and to inputs that may contain cycles. It tests parsing, memoized dependency resolution and cycle detection that does not flag shared dependencies.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - InstacartHardSoftware EngineerLibrary Catalog and Lending System: Five-Phase Engineering Assessment
This problem tests the ability to design an extensible lending system, implement a search algorithm with concurrency constraints, and debug race conditions in a multi-threaded environment.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnline Assessmentconcurrencydata-structuressystem-design - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerMake a Variable Resolver Safe for Production Use
Analyze variable-resolution complexity and improve stack safety, validation, cycle detection, error reporting, caching, and update consistency.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerParse Pipe-Delimited Order Lines: Totals, Cheapest Promotion per SKU, Aisle Ordering
A three-part coding exercise that parses pipe-delimited order lines with prices in cents, applies the cheapest of several percentage and buy-X-get-Y promotions per SKU, and orders products by aisle with frozen items last. It tests input validation, exact money arithmetic, extensible pricing rules and composite sorting.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
Hudson River Trading
IBM
IXL Learning
Imc
Indeed
Instacart