Software Engineer Interview Questions

Software Engineer interviews at top tech companies typically assess these competency areas:

These questions are drawn from real interview loops at FAANG and top-tier tech companies in 2025–2026. Click Practice now to run a full AI mock session for any question.

1. 1

   Reverse a linked list iteratively and recursively — discuss tradeoffs.

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2. 2

   Design a URL shortener like bit.ly. Walk through the schema, hashing, and rate limits.

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3. 3

   Given an array of integers, return indices of the two numbers that add up to a target.

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4. 4

   Explain the difference between processes, threads, and coroutines.

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5. 5

   Implement an LRU cache with O(1) get and put.

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6. 6

   How would you debug a production memory leak in a Node.js service?

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7. 7

   Tell me about a time you disagreed with a senior engineer. How did you handle it?

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8. 8

   Design Twitter's fanout — pull vs push, hot users, timeline storage.

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9. 9

   Find the kth largest element in an unsorted array without sorting.

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10. 10

    Walk me through what happens when you type a URL in the browser and hit enter.

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• ✓Solve 150+ LeetCode problems with focus on Top 75 patterns (sliding window, two pointers, BFS/DFS, DP).
• ✓Practice 5+ system design problems out loud — interviewers grade communication as much as correctness.
• ✓Prepare 6 STAR stories that cover conflict, ambiguity, leadership, failure, impact, and growth.
• ✓Mock with a real human or AI interviewer at least 5 times before the real loop.

Include these high-signal keywords in your Software Engineer resume to pass ATS filters at top companies.