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ADOBE · SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER (SDE 3)

Adobe senior engineer interview

The senior software engineer (SDE 3) level at Adobe is Computer Scientist II, Senior Computer Scientist / SDE 4–5, for senior engineers with about 5 to 10 years of experience. The rounds at this level, how each one is scored, and the questions to practise first.

From public candidate reports and Adobe's careers pages, checked November 2026. Processes vary by team. AlgoRung is not affiliated with Adobe.

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Adobe titleComputer Scientist II, Senior Computer Scientist / SDE 4–5
ExperienceSenior engineers with about 5 to 10 years of experience
Interviews after screeningAbout 6
System design roundYes

The Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3) rounds, in order

  1. Phone / recruiter screen · 30 min

    A recruiter or HR call on your current role and next steps.

    At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Often a coding problem plus questions about your past systems; some companies (Uber) use it to set your level.

  2. Coding (DSA) × 2 · 60 min

    DSA rounds with one or two medium-to-hard problems, plus DBMS, OS and sometimes SQL questions.

    At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Usually two rounds. Same difficulty, but interviewers expect quick, confident problem solving and production-quality code.

  3. Low-level design / machine coding · 60 min

    Schema design and modular code for a booking-style system, with queries against your schema.

    At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Same as SDE 2 plus concurrency (two users booking the same seat) and a clean extension story.

  4. System design (HLD) · 60 min

    Senior loops alternate DSA and design rounds, e.g. a serverless media-processing service.

    At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): One or two rounds that set your level. Expected to lead, size the system and go deep on two or three hard parts.

  5. Hiring manager · 70 min

    A managerial round mixing a project deep dive, concurrency and API questions, a design question, and usually one DSA problem.

    At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Technical leadership, mentoring, and how you choose what to work on.

  6. Hiring manager · 60 min

    A director round: why you are moving, plus one or two classic algorithms coded fully.

    At Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3): Technical leadership, mentoring, and how you choose what to work on.

What Adobe interviewers look for

Behavioral rounds are based on the Company values: Create the future, Own the outcome, Raise the bar, Be genuine. Questions for each one.

Coding questions to practise for Adobe Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3)

Usually two rounds. Same difficulty, but interviewers expect quick, confident problem solving and production-quality code.

Difficulty
Topic
11 questions
  1. Longest Repeating Character Replacement Medium Arrays & Hashing also Uber
  2. Odd Even Linked List Medium Linked List also Apple
  3. Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters Medium Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Netflix, Flipkart
  4. Diameter of Binary Tree Easy Trees & BST also Meta
  5. Next Greater Element I Easy Monotonic Stack also Oracle, Walmart Global Tech
  6. Kadane's Algorithm - Simple Medium Arrays & Hashing also LinkedIn
  7. Spiral Matrix Medium Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft
  8. House Robber Medium Dynamic Programming also Flipkart
  9. Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum Hard Trees & BST also Google, Amazon
  10. Median of Two Sorted Arrays Hard Binary Search also Microsoft
  11. Continuous Subarray Sum Medium Arrays & Hashing also Oracle

How the coding round is scored · The online assessment

System design at Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3)

MTS-1 loops mostly test DSA and fundamentals. MTS-2 and Computer Scientist loops add an LLD round on schema and modular code. Senior Computer Scientist and above alternate DSA with HLD rounds, often on media or cloud services.

All Adobe system design questions

Questions people ask

How many rounds are in the Adobe Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3) interview?

About 6 interviews after the screening: phone / recruiter screen, coding (dsa), low-level design / machine coding, system design (hld), hiring manager.

Is there a system design round for Adobe Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3)?

Yes. MTS-1 loops mostly test DSA and fundamentals. MTS-2 and Computer Scientist loops add an LLD round on schema and modular code. Senior Computer Scientist and above alternate DSA with HLD rounds, often on media or cloud services.

What coding questions does Adobe ask at Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3)?

The same question pool is used across levels; the bar rises with level. Most reported: Longest Repeating Character Replacement, Odd Even Linked List, Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters, Diameter of Binary Tree, Next Greater Element I.

What does Adobe expect in coding rounds at Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3)?

Usually two rounds. Same difficulty, but interviewers expect quick, confident problem solving and production-quality code.

Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3) interviews at other companies

Senior Software Engineer (SDE 3) interview questions across all companies · Behavioral questions