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Software Engineering Manager Interview Questions

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1,793 software engineering manager interview questions shared by candidates

Team fit interview: This was my biggest gripe with the whole process. No one in the above sections is actually on or related to the team you'll be interviewing for. If you pass all of those, you then talk to a potential hiring manager and they decide if you're a fit for the role. As I said above, I still very much consider this part of the interview process because hiring managers can and will pass on you for little things or things out of your control -- e.g. my first one passed on me because I admitted Java/Spring isn't my preferred tech stack; my second one passed on me because they were actually looking for a tech lead and not a manager; my third apparently liked me enough and I did get an offer. If that didn't happen, I'm sure I could have eventually run out of potential hiring managers.
avatar

Software Engineering Manager

Interviewed at Capital One

3★
Feb 23, 2023

Team fit interview: This was my biggest gripe with the whole process. No one in the above sections is actually on or related to the team you'll be interviewing for. If you pass all of those, you then talk to a potential hiring manager and they decide if you're a fit for the role. As I said above, I still very much consider this part of the interview process because hiring managers can and will pass on you for little things or things out of your control -- e.g. my first one passed on me because I admitted Java/Spring isn't my preferred tech stack; my second one passed on me because they were actually looking for a tech lead and not a manager; my third apparently liked me enough and I did get an offer. If that didn't happen, I'm sure I could have eventually run out of potential hiring managers.

Case interview: I expect these vary depending on your interviewer, but mine was a simple business case and they gave me a code snippet that was meant to be a partial solution to that business case. The interviewer and I discussed what the code was currently doing, if it solved the use case, and what changes we might make to improve it (and also actually making some changes to the code). So it was a combination of code comprehension, code editing, understanding the use case, and critical thinking.
avatar

Software Engineering Manager

Interviewed at Capital One

3★
Feb 23, 2023

Case interview: I expect these vary depending on your interviewer, but mine was a simple business case and they gave me a code snippet that was meant to be a partial solution to that business case. The interviewer and I discussed what the code was currently doing, if it solved the use case, and what changes we might make to improve it (and also actually making some changes to the code). So it was a combination of code comprehension, code editing, understanding the use case, and critical thinking.

Behavioral interviews: Each of these consist of three standard "describe a time where you..." manager questions. The caveat here is that you have to answer in the SAR format (Situation, Action, Result). They tell you this up front and they mean it. Stick to the script and say: The situation was (...) My actions were (...) The results were (...) If you deviate from that, your interviewer will get lost very quickly.
avatar

Software Engineering Manager

Interviewed at Capital One

3★
Feb 23, 2023

Behavioral interviews: Each of these consist of three standard "describe a time where you..." manager questions. The caveat here is that you have to answer in the SAR format (Situation, Action, Result). They tell you this up front and they mean it. Stick to the script and say: The situation was (...) My actions were (...) The results were (...) If you deviate from that, your interviewer will get lost very quickly.

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