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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 211–240 of 448 results
- HubSpotMediumFrontend EngineerJavaScript Fundamentals: Prototype Chains and How 'this' Is Bound
A JavaScript fundamentals question that asks you to predict and explain how this is bound in method calls, detached calls, bound functions and arrow functions, trace property lookup through a prototype chain, and rewrite constructor-based inheritance with class syntax. It tests precise reasoning about core language behaviour.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - Hudson River TradingMediumSoftware EngineerCompare C++ Virtual Dispatch with CRTP
Compare C++ virtual dispatch with CRTP across runtime flexibility, object layout, separate compilation, heterogeneous collections, inlining, code size, diagnostics, ABI stability, and measured performance.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - Hudson River TradingMediumSoftware EngineerDesign a Fixed-Size Memory Allocator with Correct Alignment
Design a slab-backed fixed-size allocator with constant-time free-list operations, correct stride and alignment, separate object lifetime, corruption defenses, concurrency choices, and efficient handling of nine-byte payloads.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - Hudson River TradingMediumSoftware EngineerExplain Virtual Memory, MMUs, and TLBs
Trace a virtual-memory load through TLB lookup, page-table walking, MMU permission checks, cache and physical access, page-fault handling, context switches, huge pages, and cross-core shootdowns.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - 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 - 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 - 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 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 - 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 - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerSpecify the Lowest Price Across Percentage and Buy-X-Get-Y Discounts
Clarify percentage and buy-x-get-y pricing rules, then reason about the cheapest legal discount combination, quantity thresholds, interactions, and rounding.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - J.P. MorganMediumSoftware EngineerArchitecture and Data-Scaling Trade-offs
This question assesses the ability to articulate trade-offs between architectural styles (monolith vs. microservices) and data storage strategies (sharding vs. replication) in the context of a high-throughput financial system.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteSystem DesignMicroservicesDatabase - J.P. MorganMediumSoftware EngineerException Handling in a RESTful Service with @ControllerAdvice
This problem tests your ability to design a centralized exception handling mechanism in a Java Spring environment, ensuring consistent API error responses and proper abstraction of internal implementation details.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteSpring BootREST APIException Handling - J.P. MorganMediumData ScientistExplain C++ virtual dispatch and object lifetime
This question tests the candidate's understanding of C++ memory management, the mechanics of the virtual method table (vtable), and the importance of virtual destructors in polymorphic inheritance.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteC++Memory ManagementPolymorphism - J.P. MorganMediumSoftware Engineer IIExplain Python Concurrency, HTTP Update Semantics, Garbage Collection, and Deadlocks
Assess core backend engineering fundamentals including Python concurrency tradeoffs, RESTful update semantics, runtime garbage collection mechanisms, and deadlock prevention strategies.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsitepythonconcurrencyrest-api - J.P. MorganMediumSoftware Engineer IIExplain Stack Use Cases and Mutability in Python Containers
This problem tests the understanding of LIFO data structure applications, the implications of object mutability in Python, and the technical constraints imposed by hashability in container types.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsitePythonData StructuresMemory Management - J.P. MorganMediumSoftware EngineerJava Core Deep Dive: Concurrent Collections and Java 8 Features
This question tests your understanding of thread-safety in Java collections and your ability to refactor imperative code into functional Java 8 style streams.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteJavaConcurrencyCollections - J.P. MorganMediumSoftware Engineer IIReason About Concurrency, CAP Trade-Offs, and Kubernetes Scaling
This problem tests your understanding of fundamental concurrency concepts, distributed systems trade-offs under partition, and the practical application of Kubernetes scaling mechanisms in a high-throughput environment.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteConcurrencyCAP TheoremKubernetes - Jane StreetMediumQuantitative ResearcherFive Pumpkins Weighed in Every Pair: Find the Total Weight
This question evaluates combinatorial counting, algebraic reasoning, and mental-arithmetic skills by testing understanding of pairwise sums and how individual elements contribute to aggregate totals.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - Jane StreetMediumQuantitative ResearcherWhich Dice Game Wins More Often: One Six in 4 Rolls, or Double Sixes in 24 Rolls?
This question evaluates probabilistic reasoning and statistical intuition, focusing on independence of trials, event probability versus expected value, and the ability to compare probabilities of rare events.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - LatitudeaiMediumBackend EngineerDesign a Thread-Safe Bounded Blocking Queue
Tests your ability to design a concurrent, thread-safe bounded blocking queue using synchronization primitives, handle edge cases like spurious wakeups and timeouts, and cleanly coordinate shutdown across multiple threads.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteConcurrencyMultithreadingQueue - LegoraMediumBackend EngineerDesign a Cloud-Agnostic Upload Adapter
Design a provider-neutral object storage upload client that unifies cloud SDK behaviors while supporting streaming, multipart uploads, error normalization, and provider-specific escape hatches.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteapi-designcloud-storageobject-oriented-design - LegoraMediumSoftware EngineerDesign a Cloud-Provider Upload Adapter
Design a modular, provider-agnostic upload adapter interface that enables clients to perform direct uploads to cloud storage (e.g., S3, GCS, Azure Blob). The problem evaluates object-oriented API design, error normalization, capability negotiation, and idempotent verification workflows.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteapi-designobject-oriented-designcloud-storage - LiftoffMediumSoftware EngineerDesign and implement core Tetris game logic
This question evaluates practical implementation skills in game logic, real-time state and event management, piece rotation and movement handling, line-clearing algorithms, and clean, testable code organization.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - LilaMediumMachine Learning EngineerDebug a Transformer bug in an unfamiliar repo
This question tests your ability to identify and rectify a logical error in a Transformer's multi-head self-attention mechanism, specifically focusing on tensor dimensionality, causality masking, and numerical stability.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteTransformersDeep LearningDebugging - LinkedInMediumSoftware EngineerDesign a meeting scheduler API
This problem tests your ability to design a thread-safe scheduling system using interval management techniques and efficient data structures for range querying.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteObject-Oriented DesignConcurrencyIntervals - LinkedInMediumSoftware EngineerExplain a Project with a Diagram and Deep Dive into Your Design
Communicate a project through a simple data-flow diagram, then explain design choices, implementation ownership, failure behavior, and validation.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - LinkedInMediumSoftware EngineerExplain the Design of a Recent Feature
Tests your ability to communicate software design clearly by breaking down a production feature into its architecture, trade-offs, individual ownership, and verification strategy.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteSystem DesignTechnical CommunicationArchitecture - LinkedInMediumDevOps EngineerExplore an Unknown Grid and Return a Robot Path
This problem tests graph traversal, state-space representation, and pathfinding in an environment where the map must be discovered dynamically.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsiteGraph TraversalBFSState Machine - Luma AIMediumSoftware EngineerReverse-Engineer an App's Undocumented API and Rebuild It With Better UX
A take-home asks you to reverse-engineer the undocumented API behind an existing app and rebuild the app with a better user experience, then review its fragility and extend it with safe write support. Tests API discovery, schema inference, resilient client design, credential and legal judgment, and UX scoping.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
HubSpot
Hudson River Trading
IBM
Imc
Instacart
J.P. Morgan
Jane Street
Liftoff
LinkedIn
Luma AI