Staff Software Engineer Interview Questions

2,635 staff software engineer interview questions shared by candidates

The two interviews were a technical interview and a system design interview. The technical interview has a deliberately badly written react/nextjs program. Just study up on how to differentiate between client and server code (they have 'use client') at the top of the main code, and what useTransition is. The system design interview asks you to design a simple system for a common business that only has a few hundred customers.
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Staff Software Engineer

Interviewed at NerdWallet

3.5
Jun 14, 2025

The two interviews were a technical interview and a system design interview. The technical interview has a deliberately badly written react/nextjs program. Just study up on how to differentiate between client and server code (they have 'use client') at the top of the main code, and what useTransition is. The system design interview asks you to design a simple system for a common business that only has a few hundred customers.

1. Programming screen involved basic data structures (no need for heaps, BSTs, etc., all I required was hash tables and lists). The interview did the typing in Typescript, I just had to tell him what algorithm to type. 2. Devops - terraform, kubernetes, system design 3. Behavioural - it was a friendly discussion, not a "grilling" with trick questions. 4. CTO interview - he came into the interview and asked 2 questions to test if I was a job hopper or not, and then when I later asked questions to understand the diametrically opposite worry I had as a candidate (i.e. business prospects, layoff risks, differentiation of the technology versus competitors going forward), he seemed to visibly get more and more offended/angry.
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Staff Devops Developer

Interviewed at MappedIn

3.7
Sep 19, 2024

1. Programming screen involved basic data structures (no need for heaps, BSTs, etc., all I required was hash tables and lists). The interview did the typing in Typescript, I just had to tell him what algorithm to type. 2. Devops - terraform, kubernetes, system design 3. Behavioural - it was a friendly discussion, not a "grilling" with trick questions. 4. CTO interview - he came into the interview and asked 2 questions to test if I was a job hopper or not, and then when I later asked questions to understand the diametrically opposite worry I had as a candidate (i.e. business prospects, layoff risks, differentiation of the technology versus competitors going forward), he seemed to visibly get more and more offended/angry.

Gusto has a payroll to distribute. Given the amount of current funds to distribute and a hash table of recipients your task is to calculate the even distribution of the funds. No need for an OOP solution, just code a function to do it, Note: Order of distribution does not matter. amount - total funds to distribute recipients - {recipient: money owed} Examples. amount = 40 recipients = {a: 10, b: 5, c: 10, d: 8} output = {a: 10, b: 5, c: 10, d: 8} amount = 30 recipients = {a: 10, b: 5, c: 10, d: 8} output = {a: 9, b: 5, c: 9, d: 7} or output = {a: 9, b: 4, c: 9, d: 8} amount = 20 recipients = {a: 10, b: 5, c: 10, d: 8} output = {a: 5, b: 5, c: 5, d: 5} amount = 10 recipients = {a: 10, b: 5, c: 10, d: 8} output = {a: 2, b: 2, c: 3, d: 3}
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Staff Software Engineer

Interviewed at Gusto

3.1
Jul 12, 2025

Gusto has a payroll to distribute. Given the amount of current funds to distribute and a hash table of recipients your task is to calculate the even distribution of the funds. No need for an OOP solution, just code a function to do it, Note: Order of distribution does not matter. amount - total funds to distribute recipients - {recipient: money owed} Examples. amount = 40 recipients = {a: 10, b: 5, c: 10, d: 8} output = {a: 10, b: 5, c: 10, d: 8} amount = 30 recipients = {a: 10, b: 5, c: 10, d: 8} output = {a: 9, b: 5, c: 9, d: 7} or output = {a: 9, b: 4, c: 9, d: 8} amount = 20 recipients = {a: 10, b: 5, c: 10, d: 8} output = {a: 5, b: 5, c: 5, d: 5} amount = 10 recipients = {a: 10, b: 5, c: 10, d: 8} output = {a: 2, b: 2, c: 3, d: 3}

Build a Parking Lot. Parking lots have cars. A car should be able to enter and exit the parking lot. Write in the capability to get the number of cars in the parking lot. How would you add a ticketing system, like a parking garage?
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Staff IOS Developer

Interviewed at Brightwheel

3.5
Feb 5, 2025

Build a Parking Lot. Parking lots have cars. A car should be able to enter and exit the parking lot. Write in the capability to get the number of cars in the parking lot. How would you add a ticketing system, like a parking garage?

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