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INTERVIEW PREP · STAFF SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Staff Software Engineer interview questions and process

For staff, principal and senior staff engineers (also called staff engineer, principal engineer, SDE 4). The rounds at 17 companies, what interviewers expect at this level, and the questions candidates report, most widely asked first.

Staff Software Engineer interviews at 17 companies

CompanyTitleInterviews after screeningDesign round
GoogleL6 Staff, L7+ Senior Staff and aboveAbout 5Yes
AmazonPrincipal SDE (L7) and aboveAbout 5Yes
MicrosoftPrincipal Software Engineer (65–67) and aboveAbout 5Yes
MetaE6 Staff, E7+ Senior Staff and aboveAbout 5Yes
AppleICT5 / ICT6 and aboveAbout 7Yes
NetflixL6 Staff, L7 PrincipalAbout 7Yes
UberL5B Staff, L6 Senior StaffAbout 5Yes
LinkedInStaff, Senior Staff, Principal StaffAbout 6Yes
AirbnbG10 Staff and aboveAbout 7Yes
StripeL4+ Staff Software EngineerAbout 6Yes
AtlassianP60 Principal, P70 and aboveAbout 5Yes
Goldman SachsVice President / Managing DirectorAbout 5Yes
SalesforcePMTS (Principal), ArchitectAbout 5Yes
OracleIC5 Consulting MTS, IC6 ArchitectAbout 5Yes
AdobePrincipal Scientist and aboveAbout 4Yes
Walmart Global TechStaff Software Engineer and aboveAbout 0Usually not
SwiggySDE-IVAbout 0Usually not

What each round expects at Staff Software Engineer

Online assessment (OA)Almost never used.Phone screenFrequently a hiring-manager conversation about scope and impact instead of pure coding.Coding round (DSA)One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.AI-assisted coding roundWhere used, scored on design decisions and how you verify, not on speed.Low-level design and machine codingRare as a standalone round; folded into design discussions.System design round (HLD)Two rounds at many companies. Expected to handle ambiguity, cost, operations and cross-team trade-offs, and to change the design when the interviewer pushes.Team-specific roundsPresentations or deep dives on multi-quarter work that crossed teams.Behavioral roundExpected scope: org-wide impact, setting direction, hard trade-offs with leadership.Hiring manager roundStrategy, influence without authority and the biggest bets you have made.Bar raiser roundOrg-level impact and judgment.Team match and hiring committeeStaff packets get extra scrutiny on design and behavioral scope.

Coding questions for Staff Software Engineer interviews

Pick companies to see only their questions. Each links to a problem with an editor, hidden tests, a walkthrough video and solutions in four languages.

Difficulty
Topic
Company
84 questions
  1. LRU Cache Medium Design Data Structures also Amazon, Microsoft, Apple +4
  2. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree Medium Trees & BST also Google, Meta, Netflix +2
  3. Number of Islands Medium Graphs also Amazon, Microsoft, Meta +2
  4. Course Schedule Medium Graphs also Google, Amazon, Netflix +2
  5. Trapping Rain Water Hard Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs +1
  6. Two Sum Easy Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Microsoft, Atlassian +1
  7. Merge Intervals Medium Intervals also Netflix, LinkedIn, Atlassian +1
  8. Coin Change Medium Dynamic Programming also Google, Airbnb, Goldman Sachs +1
  9. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock Easy Dynamic Programming also Amazon, Apple, Netflix +1
  10. Minimum Window Substring Hard Arrays & Hashing also Google, Meta, LinkedIn +1
  11. Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree Hard Trees & BST also Amazon, Meta, LinkedIn +1
  12. Alien Dictionary Hard Graphs also Amazon, Meta, Airbnb
  13. Cheapest Flights Within K Stops Medium Graphs also Google, Airbnb, Swiggy
  14. Group Anagrams Medium Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Meta, Oracle
  15. Next Greater Element I Easy Monotonic Stack also Oracle, Adobe, Walmart Global Tech
  16. Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters Medium Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Netflix, Adobe
  17. Word Ladder Hard Graphs also Google, Amazon, LinkedIn
  18. Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum Hard Trees & BST also Google, Amazon, Adobe
  19. Copy List with Random Pointer Medium Linked List also Amazon, Microsoft, Meta
  20. Evaluate Division Medium Graphs also Uber, Stripe
  21. Longest Repeating Character Replacement Medium Arrays & Hashing also Uber, Adobe
  22. First Missing Positive Hard Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft, Walmart Global Tech
  23. Valid Word Abbreviation Easy Arrays & Hashing also Meta, LinkedIn
  24. Time Based Key-Value Store Medium Binary Search also Apple, Netflix
  25. Max Stack Hard Design Data Structures also LinkedIn, Salesforce
  26. Merge k Sorted Lists Hard Heaps also Amazon, Microsoft
  27. Odd Even Linked List Medium Linked List also Apple, Adobe
  28. Valid Palindrome II Easy Arrays & Hashing also Meta, Apple
  29. Valid Parentheses Easy Stack also Apple, Netflix
  30. Spiral Matrix Medium Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft, Adobe
  31. Top K Frequent Words Medium Heaps also Amazon, Goldman Sachs
  32. Container With Most Water Medium Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft, Goldman Sachs
  33. Product of Array Except Self Medium Arrays & Hashing also Meta, Oracle
  34. Implement Queue using Stacks Easy Stack also Goldman Sachs, Walmart Global Tech
  35. Decode String Medium Stack also Google, Microsoft
  36. Meeting Rooms II Medium Intervals also Amazon, Meta
  37. Koko Eating Bananas Medium Binary Search also Amazon, Goldman Sachs
  38. Diameter of Binary Tree Easy Trees & BST also Meta, Adobe
  39. Binary Tree Zigzag Level Order Traversal Medium Trees & BST also Amazon, Walmart Global Tech
  40. Reverse Nodes in k-Group Hard Linked List also Amazon, Microsoft
  41. Reconstruct Itinerary Hard Graphs also Amazon, Airbnb
  42. Kadane's Algorithm - Simple Medium Arrays & Hashing also LinkedIn, Adobe
  43. Median of Two Sorted Arrays Hard Binary Search also Microsoft, Adobe
  44. Longest Palindromic Subsequence Medium Dynamic Programming also LinkedIn, Goldman Sachs
  45. Continuous Subarray Sum Medium Arrays & Hashing also Oracle, Adobe
  46. Gas Station Medium Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Microsoft
  47. Implement Trie (Prefix Tree) Medium Tries also Google
  48. Reverse Words in a String Medium Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft
  49. Word Search Medium Recursion & Backtracking also Microsoft
  50. Decode Ways Medium Dynamic Programming also Goldman Sachs
  51. Maximum Frequency Stack Hard Design Data Structures also Salesforce
  52. Asteroid Collision Medium Stack also Swiggy
  53. Min Stack Medium Design Data Structures also Salesforce
  54. Subarray Sum Equals K Medium Arrays & Hashing also Meta
  55. Combination Sum (repeating elements) Medium Recursion & Backtracking also Airbnb
  56. Search a 2D Matrix II (Young Tableau) Medium Binary Search also Oracle
  57. Surrounded Regions Medium Graphs also Uber
  58. Shortest Path in Binary Matrix Medium Graphs also Oracle
  59. Longest Substring with At Most K Distinct Characters Medium Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft
  60. Top K Frequent Elements Medium Heaps also Apple
  61. Missing Number Easy Bit Manipulation also Oracle
  62. N-Queens Hard Recursion & Backtracking also Walmart Global Tech
  63. Kth Largest Element in an Array Medium Heaps also Netflix
  64. Burst Balloons Hard Dynamic Programming also Goldman Sachs
  65. Maximum Profit in Job Scheduling Hard Dynamic Programming also Airbnb
  66. Swap Nodes in Pairs Medium Linked List also Microsoft
  67. Kth Largest Element in a Stream Easy Heaps also Goldman Sachs
  68. House Robber Medium Dynamic Programming also Adobe
  69. Sort List Medium Linked List also Microsoft
  70. Kth Smallest Element in a BST Medium Trees & BST also Goldman Sachs
  71. Construct Binary Tree from Preorder and Inorder Traversal Medium Trees & BST also Microsoft
  72. Permutations Medium Recursion & Backtracking also LinkedIn
  73. 01 Matrix Medium Graphs also Oracle
  74. Validate Binary Search Tree Medium Trees & BST also Microsoft
  75. Linked List Cycle Easy Linked List also Oracle
  76. 0 - 1 Knapsack Problem Medium Dynamic Programming also Goldman Sachs
  77. Longest Common Subsequence Medium Dynamic Programming also Google
  78. Maximal Square Medium Dynamic Programming also Google
  79. Daily Temperatures Medium Monotonic Stack also Amazon
  80. Sort Colors Medium Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft
  81. Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation Medium Stack also Google
  82. Flood Fill Easy Graphs also Amazon
  83. Basic Calculator Hard Stack also Meta
  84. Distribute Coins in Binary Tree Medium Trees & BST also Amazon

System design questions at Staff Software Engineer

From the 15 companies that run a design round at this level.

How to answer any design question: the LADDER method · How the design round is scored

Questions people ask

What is asked in a Staff Software Engineer interview?

Most companies run about 5 interviews after the screening at this level. One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.

Is system design asked for Staff Software Engineer?

15 of the 17 companies here run a design round at this level (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Netflix, Uber, LinkedIn, …). Two rounds at many companies. Expected to handle ambiguity, cost, operations and cross-team trade-offs, and to change the design when the interviewer pushes.

Which coding questions are asked most in Staff Software Engineer interviews?

Asked at the most companies: LRU Cache (7), Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree (5), Number of Islands (5), Course Schedule (5), Trapping Rain Water (4), Two Sum (4).

All companies · Behavioral questions · Track an interview