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Software Engineer 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 2701–2730 of 5874 results
- IXL LearningMediumSoftware EngineerIdentify and prevent code-breaking inputs
Identify and prevent code-breaking inputs evaluates algorithm design, data structures, correctness, complexity, edge cases, and implementation details in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen - IXL LearningHardSoftware EngineerMaintain a Stream Median
This question tests the ability to maintain dynamic order statistics in a streaming context, requiring an efficient way to insert elements and compute the median in logarithmic time.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenHeapsData StructuresAlgorithms - IXL LearningMediumSoftware EngineerSolve snake game, peak search, and task scheduling
Solve snake game, peak search, and task scheduling evaluates algorithm design, data structures, correctness, complexity, edge cases, and implementation details in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen - IllumioMediumSoftware EngineerCount Regions in a Binary Grid
This problem tests your ability to navigate a 2D grid and identify connected components using graph traversal techniques like Depth-First Search (DFS) or Breadth-First Search (BFS).
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteDFSBFSGraph - IllumioMediumSoftware EngineerDesign Multicloud Publishing and API Gateway
This question tests the ability to design a distributed system that reliably replicates data from a primary database to multiple cloud providers while exposing a unified, secure API gateway for external consumers.
System DesignOnsiteDistributed SystemsAPI GatewayCDC - IllumioHardSoftware EngineerDesign a Time-Series Database
This problem tests the ability to architect a high-throughput, horizontally scalable system for time-series data, balancing ingest performance with efficient range-query capability.
System DesignOnsiteTime-SeriesDistributed SystemsIndexing - IllumioMediumSoftware EngineerSolve Matrix Traversal and Pair Sum
This problem tests your ability to manipulate 2D matrix indices for spiral traversal and apply efficient hash-based lookups to solve the two-sum problem within a specific sequence.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteMatrixArrayHash Table - ImbueHardSoftware EngineerMax Score of an Alternating Left-Right Walk Over a Row of Signed Cells
A token walks a row of up to 50 signed cells, alternating right and left moves, and each move adds the sum of the cells it covers while the score must never drop below zero. Find the best score within up to 400 million moves, testing state design, the non-negative score constraint, and speed when the move count is huge.
Coding & AlgorithmsHR Screen - 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 - ImcHardSoftware EngineerChoose container set to minimize waste
An IMC software engineer take-home asking you to pick the single container set that fulfills all medicine orders with minimum total waste. It tests ceiling-style binary search, per-set validity checks, smallest-index tie-breaking, and efficient handling of inputs up to 10^5 to avoid an O(n*T) timeout.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment - ImcMediumSoftware EngineerDesign an in-memory hotel booking system
This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design in-memory data models, concurrency control mechanisms, and temporal reservation logic for booking systems.
System DesignTechnical Screen - ImcMediumSoftware EngineerFind k-th recipient in command propagation order
This question evaluates understanding of tree traversals, subtree indexing, and order-statistics on rooted trees, focusing on DFS-preorder propagation when children are visited in ascending id.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment - 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 - IndeedMediumSoftware EngineerImplement Get and Insert in an Unrolled Linked List
Implement indexed get and insert in an unrolled linked list, preserving block capacity, occupancy, sequence order, and split behavior.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical 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 - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerAnswer standard behavioral questions
How to answer the standard behavioral and leadership questions in an Instacart Software Engineer onsite using the STAR framework. Covers tell-me-about-yourself, end-to-end ownership, high-severity incidents, conflict and disagreement, failure and learning, tight deadlines with ambiguous requirements, prioritization, influencing without authority, process improvement, and your most impactful accomplishment — each with a quantified model answer.
Behavioral & LeadershipOnsite - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerBuild a Progressive Banking System
This problem tests your ability to manage state transitions, handle expiring reservations, and maintain consistent ledger balances across multiple accounts.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenHash MapState ManagementTransaction Processing - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerCalculate a Basket Total from Delimited Product Records
Parse pipe-delimited shopping cart records to compute the total basket cost in integer cents, properly accumulating repeated SKUs and handling zero-quantity items.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsitestringsparsinghash-table - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerCompute and optimize average wait time
This question evaluates skills in scheduling and queueing algorithms, simulation of service systems, and reasoning about time and space complexity when computing average waiting times.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerCompute average customer waiting time
Compute average customer waiting time evaluates algorithm design, data structures, correctness, complexity, edge cases, and implementation details in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerCompute delivery wait times
This question evaluates competence in event-driven simulation, scheduling and queueing concepts, and algorithmic analysis by requiring computation of average customer waiting time for single and multiple shoppers.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - 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 EngineerDecode a password string into letters
This problem tests your ability to parse and reconstruct a string based on specific numeric encoding rules, requiring careful index tracking and stack-based or recursive logic.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenStringsStackRecursion - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerDecode an encoded string
This question evaluates string parsing and manipulation skills, particularly handling nested repetition encodings and managing state when expanding bracketed substrings.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerDescribe your most complex end-to-end project
Describe your most complex end-to-end project evaluates behavioral evidence, ownership, communication, trade-offs, and measurable outcomes in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.
Behavioral & LeadershipHR Screen - InstacartMediumSoftware EngineerDesign Idempotent In-App Availability and Due-Date Notifications
Design asynchronous in-app availability alerts and due-date reminders with Celery, Redis, durable idempotency, versioned schedules, and crash recovery.
System DesignOnline 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
IXL Learning
Imc
Indeed
Instacart