INTERVIEW PREP · US AND INDIA
LinkedIn software engineer interview
The rounds at each level, what interviewers score, the Culture & values, and the questions candidates report, linked to problems you can solve here with the editor, walkthrough video and solutions in four languages.
Levels
| AlgoRung level | LinkedIn title | Experience | Interviews after screening | Design rounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDE 1 | Software Engineer (entry) | New grad to about 2 years | about 3 | Usually not |
| SDE 2 | Software Engineer / Senior Software Engineer | About 2 to 5 years | about 6 | Yes |
| SDE 3 | Senior Software Engineer | Senior, about 5 to 10 years | about 6 | Yes |
| SDE 4 | Staff, Senior Staff, Principal Staff | Staff, principal and above | about 6 | Yes |
The rounds, in order
Pick your level above to see only your rounds. Each step links to a guide on how that round is scored.
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Phone / recruiter screen · 30 min
A recruiter call to confirm level and track (applications vs. infrastructure) and which skills the onsite will cover.
All levels
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Online assessment · 75 min
Some entry-level pipelines start with a two-question online assessment.
SDE 1
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Coding (DSA) · 60 min
The technical phone screen has one or two DSA problems with a main interviewer and a shadow.
All levels
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Coding (DSA) · 60 min
A traditional onsite coding round, often with two interviewers, where code quality and testing count.
All levels
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AI-assisted coding · 60 min
An AI-enabled round has replaced one traditional coding round; you are scored on prompt quality, checking the AI's output and production thinking.
SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
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System design (HLD) · 60 min
System design, often product or backend style, such as typeahead.
SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
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Team-specific round · 60 min
Technical communication: a no-code walkthrough of a past project's architecture, decisions and impact.
SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
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Hiring manager · 60 min
A behavioral and culture round on ownership, influence, career growth and handling hard migrations.
All levels
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A committee decides hire and level, and team matching follows before the offer.
All levels
ScreeningCodingDesignBehavioralDecision
What interviewers look for
- Communication of approach and past work
- Coding correctness
- Craftsmanship: clean, tested, maintainable code
- Design and architecture trade-offs
- Leadership and influence across teams
- Effective, verified use of AI tools in the AI round
Topics to focus on
Weighted by what candidates say comes up and by the reported questions below.
Behavioral: Culture & values
The manager round looks for collaboration, ownership and constructive candor that match these values; the technical communication round checks how clearly you explain and defend real past decisions.
We put members firstCustomer focus
Start from a real user problem and show how your decision changed something for them.
- Describe a time you changed a plan because of what you learned about the user.
- Tell me about a time you had to balance a customer need against a technical constraint.
We trust and care about each otherIntegrity and trust · Collaboration and inclusion
Show you were honest when it was uncomfortable, and how you earned trust back.
- Describe a decision you argued against but then had to carry out.
- Describe a mistake you made that reached production. How did you handle it?
- Tell me about a time you helped a teammate succeed.
We are open, honest and constructiveDisagreement and candor
Disagree with data, respectfully, then commit fully once the decision is made.
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager. What happened?
- Describe a decision you argued against but then had to carry out.
- Tell me about the hardest feedback you have given or received.
We act as One LinkedInCollaboration and inclusion
Show how you helped others succeed and made people feel they belonged.
- Describe a decision you argued against but then had to carry out.
- Tell me about a time you helped a teammate succeed.
- Describe a project that needed several teams. How did you get them aligned?
We embody diversity, inclusion and belongingCollaboration and inclusion
Show how you helped others succeed and made people feel they belonged.
- Describe a decision you argued against but then had to carry out.
- Tell me about a time you helped a teammate succeed.
- Describe a project that needed several teams. How did you get them aligned?
All behavioral questions · Write your STAR stories in the story bank
Coding questions candidates report
Each links to the AlgoRung problem: write-up, animated walkthrough, solutions in Java, Python, C++ and JavaScript, and an editor with hidden tests. Shared questions show the other companies that ask them.
- Max Stack Hard Design Data Structures also Salesforce
- Merge Intervals Medium Intervals also Netflix, Atlassian, Oracle
- Word Ladder Hard Graphs also Google, Amazon
- Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree Hard Trees & BST also Amazon, Meta, Oracle
- Minimum Window Substring Hard Arrays & Hashing also Google, Meta, Oracle
- Kadane's Algorithm - Simple Medium Arrays & Hashing also Adobe
- Permutations Medium Recursion & Backtracking
- Longest Palindromic Subsequence Medium Dynamic Programming also Goldman Sachs
- Valid Word Abbreviation Easy Arrays & Hashing also Meta
No questions match.
LinkedIn coding questions by topic · LinkedIn SDE 1 interview · LinkedIn SDE 2 interview · LinkedIn senior interview · LinkedIn staff interview
Also reported, not on AlgoRung yet (6)
Nested List Weight Sum · Find Leaves of Binary Tree · Shortest Word Distance II · Find the Celebrity · Insert Interval · Repeated DNA Sequences
Design questions
Mid-level and senior candidates get one HLD round, usually product or feed style. Staff candidates get design-flavored coding plus deeper architecture discussion, and the technical communication round tests how much scope they owned.
- Reported: Typeahead / autocomplete Search autocomplete · walkthrough
- Reported: Home feed News Feed · walkthrough Practise on the board
- Reported: Notification system Notification system · walkthrough
- Reported: Search system Google Search · walkthrough
Also reported: Feature-flag / experiment ramp service · Recommendation system with sparse data
LinkedIn system design questions in detail · How to answer any design question: the LADDER method
Worth knowing
- An AI-enabled coding round now replaces one traditional coding round; the AI cannot edit the code directly.
- The technical communication round has no code: it is a deep dive into one recent project.
- Onsite rounds often have two interviewers; level is decided by a committee and team matching comes after.
- Outside the AI round, AI is not allowed unless the recruiter says otherwise.
Interviewing at LinkedIn?
Add the date and your level. AlgoRung builds a plan back from the interview day, schedules revisions before it, and counts problems you have already solved for every company that asks them.
Sources
Written in our own words from these public pages and candidate reports, checked November 2026. Company names are trademarks of their owners.