INTERVIEW PREP
Software engineer interview prep by company
How 20 companies interview software engineers at each level: the rounds in order, what each one scores, the behavioral principles, and the questions candidates report. Every question links to one AlgoRung problem with an editor, a walkthrough video and solutions in four languages, so a question asked at five companies is practised once.
Your level
Companies
Region
Has
- Google US and India AI-assisted coding 4 values CodingSystem design
- Amazon US and India LLD / machine coding Bar raiser 16 values CodingSystem design
- Microsoft US and India 4 values CodingSystem design
- Meta US and UK AI-assisted coding 6 values CodingSystem design
- Apple US and India LLD / machine coding CodingSystem design
- Netflix US 8 values CodingSystem design
- Uber US and India LLD / machine coding Bar raiser 9 values CodingSystem design
- LinkedIn US and India AI-assisted coding 5 values CodingSystem design
- Airbnb US and India 4 values CodingSystem design
- Stripe US, Europe and India 6 values CodingSystem design
- Atlassian Australia, US and India LLD / machine coding 5 values CodingSystem design
- Goldman Sachs India and US LLD / machine coding 4 values CodingSystem design
- Salesforce India and US LLD / machine coding 5 values CodingSystem design
- Oracle India and US LLD / machine coding Bar raiser CodingSystem design
- Adobe India and US LLD / machine coding 4 values CodingSystem design
- Flipkart India LLD / machine coding CodingSystem design
- Walmart Global Tech India and US LLD / machine coding 4 values CodingSystem design
- PhonePe India LLD / machine coding CodingSystem design
- Swiggy India LLD / machine coding 11 values CodingSystem design
- Razorpay India LLD / machine coding 6 values CodingSystem design
More companies are added regularly. Information comes from public candidate reports and company careers pages; AlgoRung is not affiliated with these companies.
Asked at three or more companies
Start here: each of these counts for several interviews at once.
- LRU CacheAmazon, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Goldman Sachs, Oracle, Walmart Global Tech, PhonePe
- Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary TreeGoogle, Meta, Netflix, Atlassian, Walmart Global Tech
- Number of IslandsAmazon, Microsoft, Meta, Goldman Sachs, Swiggy
- Trapping Rain WaterAmazon, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Salesforce, Flipkart
- Course ScheduleGoogle, Amazon, Netflix, Uber, Oracle
- Longest Substring Without Repeating CharactersAmazon, Netflix, Adobe, Flipkart
- Cheapest Flights Within K StopsGoogle, Airbnb, Flipkart, Swiggy
- Two SumAmazon, Microsoft, Atlassian, Swiggy
- Merge IntervalsNetflix, LinkedIn, Atlassian, Oracle
- Coin ChangeGoogle, Airbnb, Goldman Sachs, Salesforce
- Best Time to Buy and Sell StockAmazon, Apple, Netflix, Walmart Global Tech
- Minimum Window SubstringGoogle, Meta, LinkedIn, Oracle
How each round works
What is scored at SDE 1, SDE 2, SDE 3 and staff, how to prepare and the usual mistakes.
- The online assessment (OA)A timed, auto-graded coding test that filters candidates before any human interview. Hidden test cases decide the score, so a solution that works on the examples but times out on large inputs still fails.
- The phone screenThe first live conversation: either a recruiter call about your background and the role, or a 45 to 60 minute technical screen with one or two coding problems in a shared editor.
- The coding round (DSA)A 45 to 60 minute live interview where you solve one or two data-structures-and-algorithms problems while explaining your thinking. Interviewers score problem solving, code quality, testing and communication.
- The AI-assisted coding roundA newer round (Meta since late 2025, LinkedIn, and pilots at Google and others) where you work in a multi-file project with an AI assistant available. You are scored on judgment: what you ask the AI, how you check its output and whether you understand the final code.
- Low-level design and machine codingYou design and build a small working system in code: classes, interfaces, data structures and how they change when a new requirement arrives. In India, the 90-minute machine coding round (Flipkart, PhonePe, Swiggy, Razorpay) is often the first filter for SDE 2.
- The system design round (HLD)A 45 to 60 minute discussion where you design a large system such as a news feed or a payment service. It usually starts at SDE 2 or SDE 3 and decides the level for senior candidates.
- Team-specific roundsRounds a team adds for its own needs: fixing bugs in an unfamiliar codebase (Stripe Bug Bash), reviewing a pull request (Airbnb), integrating with an API from its docs, a language deep dive, or a no-code walkthrough of a past project.
- The behavioral roundA conversation about how you have worked: conflict, failure, ownership, ambiguity and impact. Companies like Amazon, Netflix and Airbnb treat it as seriously as coding, and a weak result can block an offer on its own.
- The hiring manager roundA conversation with the manager of the team you would join, mixing your past work, behavioral questions, motivation and often a design or coding question. At Apple and many India product companies it carries the most weight.
- The bar raiser roundA round with a trained interviewer from outside the hiring team whose job is to keep the hiring bar high. At Amazon the bar raiser can veto a hire and runs the debrief; Uber and some Oracle teams use the same idea.
- Team match and hiring committeeAfter the interviews, some companies (Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Atlassian, Airbnb) send your packet to a committee that decides hire or no-hire and the level, and match you with a team through short calls with managers.
- Behavioral question bankQuestions grouped by what they test, mapped to each company's values and principles, with a STAR tip for each theme.