Software Engineer Position Overview

Designing, developing and implementing software solutions makes the key roles of a software engineer. These questions will help you discover the candidates with excellent coding skills and understanding of software development lifecycle.

Computer science background is the primary requirement for this job. You must not ignore the importance of candidate’s hands-on experiences either. Ask them about the programming languages and specific design tools that they are familiar with.  

Gauge their desire to learn and evolve as they have to deal with continuous development and acquirement of new knowledge. To better evaluate your candidates’ skills, incorporate an assignment to your interview process.

Along with programming skills, keep an eye for contenders with a strong passion for their profession. Ask them about related books or blogs they like to read, or you can ask how they stay up-to-date with latest technology trends. Know about their participation in seminars or hackathons and any open source software projects. Add these software engineer interview questions to your next hiring, and you will get the right candidate for sure.

Computer Science Interview Questions

• What do you know about test-driven development?
• Where to use abstract class and where to use interface?
• In which cases do you use polymorphism and delegates?
• Differentiate object-oriented from component-based design.

Role-Specific Interview Questions

• Explain the process of writing a piece of code from requirements to delivery.
• What is your way to prioritize program requirements? Do you know any different techniques?
• Mention your favorite programming languages. How do you ensure that your code can handle different kinds of error situations?
• Explain some limitations of a web environment vs. a windows environment.
• What do you do to ensure your program runs smoothly and fast?
• Name some tools that you used for testing your code quality.
• How would you debug a program and make sure it will not affect any other parts of the product?
• Do you know design patterns? Name some design software that you have used?
• You are reviewing somebody else’s code. What will you focus the most?

Behavioral Interview Questions

• Recall the last thing you have learned about programming from a book, magazine or website.
• What do you think is your field of expertise and what would you like to learn more?
• Describe the problems that you encountered most often in your programs after deployment?
• Have you ever reduced user’s perception of waiting? How did you do that and what features did you use?