Interview: Software engineer

Eight questions for a software engineer interview.

  • Note
  • Interview kits by role
  • 2 blanks to fill

Fill in the blanks

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Interview: Software engineer (Candidate)

**Candidate:** Candidate
**Date:** today

1. Walk me through a system you designed. What trade-offs did you make?
   - 
2. Tell me about a bug that took you a long time to find.
   - 
3. How do you decide when code is ready to ship?
   - 
4. How do you review someone else's pull request?
   - 
5. Describe a time you disagreed with a technical decision.
   - 
6. How do you keep a codebase maintainable as it grows?
   - 
7. What would you do in your first week on an unfamiliar codebase?
   - 
8. How do you test code that talks to external services?
   - 

**Overall:** Strong yes

Orange words are blanks you have not filled yet. Blue words fill in by themselves, such as today’s date or a random pick.

About this template

Eight questions for a software engineer interview.

Category
Recruiting
Pack
Interview kits by role
Type
Note, a longer document
Asks for
Candidate, Verdict

Use it anywhere you write: email, chat, a document or a support tool. If you send it often, save the finished text as a snippet in ClipBuddy and paste it again from your clipboard history with ⌘⇧V.

Template source

The template as written, with its blanks in double braces, such as {{Name}}.

Interview: Software engineer ({{Candidate}})

**Candidate:** {{Candidate}}
**Date:** {{date}}

1. Walk me through a system you designed. What trade-offs did you make?
   - {{cursor}}
2. Tell me about a bug that took you a long time to find.
   - 
3. How do you decide when code is ready to ship?
   - 
4. How do you review someone else's pull request?
   - 
5. Describe a time you disagreed with a technical decision.
   - 
6. How do you keep a codebase maintainable as it grows?
   - 
7. What would you do in your first week on an unfamiliar codebase?
   - 
8. How do you test code that talks to external services?
   - 

**Overall:** {{choice:Verdict|Strong yes|Yes|No|Strong no}}

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