Director Engineering Interview Questions

9,634 director engineering interview questions shared by candidates

You're the captain of a pirate ship, and your crew gets to vote on how the gold is divided up. If fewer than half of the pirates agree with you, you die. How do you recommend apportioning the gold in such a way that you get a good share of the booty, but still survive?
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Google.com Engineering Manager

Interviewed at Google

4.4
May 10, 2009

You're the captain of a pirate ship, and your crew gets to vote on how the gold is divided up. If fewer than half of the pirates agree with you, you die. How do you recommend apportioning the gold in such a way that you get a good share of the booty, but still survive?

A IQ question: I have 9 coins and 8 have the same weight and the last one is heavier. I also have a balance beam to weigh the coins with. I can only use the balance beam 2 times to find the heavier coin. How do you find the heavier coin?
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Software Engineering Manager

Interviewed at NetApp

3.8
Mar 19, 2009

A IQ question: I have 9 coins and 8 have the same weight and the last one is heavier. I also have a balance beam to weigh the coins with. I can only use the balance beam 2 times to find the heavier coin. How do you find the heavier coin?

I was interviewed for DoE role and the process went for roughly 2 months. All the 5 rounds were taken by senior people but I was asked the same questions in all the 5 rounds on tell me about your teams and challenges. I am not sure if they have any process whatsoever about hiring as I have seen similar feedback at a junior level. When you are interviewing any candidate you want to explore various aspects at that level and each panelist is designated to cover one aspect so that the interview rounds are not repeated. In fact in my last round with the CEO I had asked the question that why there have been no questions on problem solving, design and architecture and I didn't get any convincing answer. After 2-3 weeks of follow up after the last round I was given reasons for delay like change in hierarchy etc etc. I was finally informed that they won't go ahead with the case for some very very vague reason on "leadership".. The interviews were so shallow in nature that it is hard to reject anyone. There were no follow up questions or in depth grilling on answers given by me. To be very honest I am not at all bitter with the rejection because I am pretty sure the reason for the rejection is not lack of leadership skills. And I say that confidently because if that was the reason for me to get rejected they would have rejected me earlier as all the interviews were just repeat. And if that was true won’t it be better to cut the loop earlier instead of wasting everyone’s time? I believe my questions around the location of Bangalore office, commute and attracting top talent in that location were the main reasons for them to not pursue with my case. My reasons for asking those questions was my belief that every org is run by top talent and since most of the startups (read talent) are present in South Bangalore and due to Bangalore traffic many of them may not want to commute long distance and how would Skylo hire top talent when they are located in North Bangalore. May be they thought I would not join and hence they didn’t offer. I believe with every reject you introspect and see where you can improve. Sadly I have nothing to introspect in this case… One last thing please hire some senior folks in the TA team who are professional and not call candidates on Sunday morning 8:30 am to schedule interviews. Also if they give an ETA on updates to candidate they must get back to them whether they have an update or not instead of candidates chasing them for updates. Please ask them not to give vague response like change in hierarchy and other confusing reasons for delay. Hiring is an extremely important area for a company so please treat it seriously
avatar

Director of Engineering

Interviewed at Skylo Technologies

3.8
Feb 15, 2021

I was interviewed for DoE role and the process went for roughly 2 months. All the 5 rounds were taken by senior people but I was asked the same questions in all the 5 rounds on tell me about your teams and challenges. I am not sure if they have any process whatsoever about hiring as I have seen similar feedback at a junior level. When you are interviewing any candidate you want to explore various aspects at that level and each panelist is designated to cover one aspect so that the interview rounds are not repeated. In fact in my last round with the CEO I had asked the question that why there have been no questions on problem solving, design and architecture and I didn't get any convincing answer. After 2-3 weeks of follow up after the last round I was given reasons for delay like change in hierarchy etc etc. I was finally informed that they won't go ahead with the case for some very very vague reason on "leadership".. The interviews were so shallow in nature that it is hard to reject anyone. There were no follow up questions or in depth grilling on answers given by me. To be very honest I am not at all bitter with the rejection because I am pretty sure the reason for the rejection is not lack of leadership skills. And I say that confidently because if that was the reason for me to get rejected they would have rejected me earlier as all the interviews were just repeat. And if that was true won’t it be better to cut the loop earlier instead of wasting everyone’s time? I believe my questions around the location of Bangalore office, commute and attracting top talent in that location were the main reasons for them to not pursue with my case. My reasons for asking those questions was my belief that every org is run by top talent and since most of the startups (read talent) are present in South Bangalore and due to Bangalore traffic many of them may not want to commute long distance and how would Skylo hire top talent when they are located in North Bangalore. May be they thought I would not join and hence they didn’t offer. I believe with every reject you introspect and see where you can improve. Sadly I have nothing to introspect in this case… One last thing please hire some senior folks in the TA team who are professional and not call candidates on Sunday morning 8:30 am to schedule interviews. Also if they give an ETA on updates to candidate they must get back to them whether they have an update or not instead of candidates chasing them for updates. Please ask them not to give vague response like change in hierarchy and other confusing reasons for delay. Hiring is an extremely important area for a company so please treat it seriously

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