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Home > Careers > Entry-Level Software Engineer Interview Questions (With
Answers)

Entry-Level Software Engineer Interview

Questions (With Answers)
Written by Zoe Kaplan
Edited by Emily Courtney — Reviewed by Jeanine Skowronski
Updated on August 11, 2023

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Table of Contents
 Coding Software Engineer Interview Questions
Technical SoftwareIncrease your chances
Engineer Interview of landing a job you love.
Questions
General Software Engineer Interview Questions
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As a software engineer, you’ll go through multiple rounds of interviews that each test a
different part of your skill set. There will be hands-on tests, technical interview
questions, and general interview questions. With a strong knowledge of coding and
software engineering concepts, you’ll be able to successfully answer software
engineer interview questions. Here are some of the top software engineer interview
questions for entry-level roles and how to answer them.

Coding Software Engineer Interview

Questions
One of the most important hard skills in software engineering is coding, which is why
initial software engineer interview questions focus on your coding skills. Hiring
managers will ask you to show off your coding skills in a live interview, called a
whiteboard test, or in a timed, take-home coding test.

Whiteboard Test
A whiteboard test, as the name suggests, are interview questions you do on a
whiteboard — virtual or physical — so the interviewer can see how you solve a
problem in real time. While you may feel pressure to get everything right on the first
try, the most important part is showing how you approach the problem. It’s OK if your
strategy doesn’t work out at first.

To approach whiteboard problems, try using the UMPIRE interview strategy:

U: Understand the problem

M: Match the problem with the interviewer

P: Plan your approach and solution

I: Implement your solution

R: Review your solution

E: Evaluate your solution

Avg. Time: 5-6 hours

Technical Interview Prep
Skills you’ll build: Coding
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Practice the skills you need to ace any coding interview whiteboard challenge, array,
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This approach structures your thought process and demonstrates your problem-
solving skills to your interviewer.

How can you know what problems to expect in a whiteboard interview? LeetCode has
hundreds of practice coding problems that can help build your skills and emulate
what your potential whiteboard questions will be like.

When practicing these questions before an interview, it’s crucial to walk through how
you’re thinking about the problem and working on the solution — and practice what
you’ll say as you complete the task, too.

Coding Test
Unlike whiteboarding, you’ll do these problems independently. You typically have a few
hours to complete the test and generally one to three problems to complete.

The hiring team will usually give you a link to a common code editor, like Codility or
HackerRank.
“These may be based on a specific framework or language,” Arun Godwin Patel,
director of Halo Technology Lab, CTO and co-founder of Audico, and Forage program
consultant, says. “Other times, they won’t fuss about the language but they’ll be more
interested in how you solve the problem. It is always a good idea to know in advance
what languages and frameworks the job you’re interviewing for uses and to brush up
your skills on these before the interview.”

Avg. Time: 5-6 hours

Know the Code
Skills you’ll build: Object
oriented programming,
Practice your coding skills in software development software development life
scenarios at Accenture. cycle, code refactoring

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Technical Software Engineer Interview

Questions
After you’ve demonstrated your coding skills, you may be asked technical software
engineering interview questions.

“For the fundamentals, you might be asked to define and explain various software
engineering concepts, revolving around things like object-oriented programming, data
structures, or language-specific concepts,” Becca Miller, freelance software and game
developer and Forage program consultant, says.

What programming languages do you use?

You should generally know multiple programming languages, having mastery of one
and strong knowledge of two more. The most popular languages are JavaScript,
HTML/CSS, Python, SQL, and TypeScript, according to a 2023 survey.

What software development tools do you use?

Be honest about what software development tools you do and don’t know. Some
common software development tools include:

Integrated development environments (IDEs): Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ

IDEA, PyCharm
Version control systems: GitHub, GitLab, Beanstalk
Package managers: Pip, Maven, Homebrew, Npm, Gradle
Debugging tools: Chrome DevTools, Xcode Instruments, Visual Studio Debugger
Testing frameworks: Selenium, Cypress, Playwright

Be sure to look in the job description to see what the company is looking for, and
share which of those tools you do know. It’s totally OK if you don’t know a ton of tools,
or even all of the tools in the job description. While hiring managers want you to have
basic technical knowledge, they don’t expect you to be an expert when you’re a junior
software engineer.

Describe the software development process.

Software development is a lifecycle that breaks up the development into smaller
parts, including:

Requirements: Determining the client’s expectations, needs, and requirements.

The team strategizes, plans their work, and allocates resources.
Design: Designing the software’s algorithm design and high-level architecture
design to map out how the software will work.
Development/Building: The actual coding that makes the software.
Testing: Testing the software to ensure it works as intended.
Deployment: Installing the software and making it available to the client and
users.
Maintenance: Regularly updating and debugging the software to ensure it
continues running as intended.

What different software development life cycle (SDLC)

models are available?
Like there are different leadership styles, there are different approaches to the SDLC.
SDLC models include:

Waterfall
Continuous integration
Incremental development
Rapid application development
Agile

What is agile software development?

A majority of software developers — 86%, to be exact — use agile methodology. Agile
software development, also known as agile, is an incremental, collaborative approach.
Agile is a method focused on continuously delivering work rather than waiting to
deliver one big product. Because of how this process works, teams can improve the
software as it’s developed, making it a more efficient delivery process.

Even if you don’t have experience in this work environment, hiring managers may
expect you to understand agile methodology and workflow — as it’s a vital part of
many current software engineers’ roles.

Cognizant Ready, Set, Agile! Avg. Time: 5-6 hours

Learn about agile methodology and practice using it in a Skills you’ll build: Scrum,
real-world project scenario. user story, product definition,
teamwork, addressing
Enroll Now challenges

What is DevOps?
DevOps (a combination of development and operations) is another approach to
software development as well as a workplace practice. Like agile, this methodology
prioritizes continuously delivering and iterating software. However, DevOps expands
on this process into a workplace philosophy. Companies that use DevOps are highly
collaborative and everyone involved in the process takes ownership for the outcome
of the software.

>>MORE: Applying for DevOps engineer roles or a company that uses DevOps? Learn
how to answer entry-level DevOps engineer interview questions.

Explain the difference between verification and

validation.
Both verification and validation are about ensuring your software does what it needs
to do, but they focus on different aspects of the software. Verification ensures a
function of the software works correctly; validation ensures the entire software works
as the client wants it to.

Explain the difference between computer programs

and computer software.
A computer program is written code that performs a specific task to achieve a
particular result. Computer software is a collection of programs, instructions, and
documentation.

What is debugging?
Debugging is the process of finding bugs (problems or errors) in your software. If a
user or another team member reports the bug, you should first reproduce the issue to
understand when and where it’s happening. Once you’ve figured out where in the code
the bug is coming from, you can fix it — and test it again to ensure your fix didn’t lead
to further bugs.

Avg. Time: 2-3 hours

Accenture Developer Program
Skills you’ll build: Debugging,
unit testing, user acceptance
Learn how to debug algorithms and other realistic tasks testing, software testing
that software developers do on client projects.

Enroll Now
What is software re-engineering?
Software re-engineering is a process used to update software, where engineers may
add new features or functionality or amend or alter the software to improve it.

What is software scope?

Software scope is the project’s boundaries, meaning everything software will be able
to do (and limitations on what it won’t be able to do). Software scope can help
determine the needed resources, budget, and development timeline.

What is SRS?
SRS stands for software requirements specification. An SRS is a full description of
software, from what it’s supposed to do, to what you’re going to build, to who’s going
to build it, to what resources you’ll need, to when you expect the software to be
developed.

Companies use an SRS to help save time and money when it comes to software
development. By requiring software engineers to write out all the details of the
software first, they can foresee any issues they need to address, get the team aligned
on a clear plan, and ensure what they’ll build is what their client or company is looking
for.

What are CASE tools?

CASE tools are computer-aided software engineering tools. They make the software
development lifecycle more efficient by storing information and providing helpful tools
to make a software engineer’s life easier. Examples of CASE tools include analysis tools
— that can identify errors or inconsistencies in diagrams, reports, or forms — and
coding generators that can help autogenerate code.

How would you explain API to a non-technical person?

API stands for application programming interface. It acts as a messenger that allows
two programs to talk to each other. For example, if you’re looking to go on a vacation,
you might try to use a site that lists all available and cheapest flights on the days you
want to travel. An API connects that site to airline flight information so you can quickly
and easily get an aggregate list without combing through all the airline flight
information.

When explaining a technical term to a non-technical person, explain any field-specific

jargon you use. Adding an example of how the technical process, term, or system
applies to something they may already be familiar with can be helpful, too.

General Software Engineer Interview

Questions
After questioning your coding skills and knowledge of technical software engineering
principles, a hiring team member may ask general, more standard interview questions.
These software engineering interview questions may involve your practical experience,
projects you’ve worked on, and your work style.

Why do you want to go into software engineering?

Talk about what interests you in the field! For example, why are you passionate about
software engineering — is it because of a project you’ve worked on, technology that
fascinated you, or because you love problem-solving? Try to keep your answer
personal rather than generic, and pull in any relevant experience or learnings that have
motivated your search for a job in software engineering.

Talk about a project you completed successfully.

Interviewers ask this question to understand your workflow and what you’ve worked
on before. You probably won’t need to focus on the technical details here. Instead,
summarize the project’s purpose, how you approached it — including who you worked
with, how you managed time, etc. — and what the outcome was.
Tell me about a time you overcame a problem in your
software development.
This question helps the interviewer understand how you approach roadblocks in the
development process. Show off your problem-solving skills by explaining your
challenge, the steps you took to address it, and what you learned. For example, did
you call on others for help? Did you test and test again until you found the solution?
Be specific about your actions and how they helped achieve the right outcome.

How do you keep your skills sharp and up to date?

Mention any personal or open-source projects you’re working on, courses you’re
taking, or other upskilling work you’re doing to keep your skills sharp. Especially in the
software engineering field, hiring managers are looking for people who are
continuously learning to keep up with new methodologies, applications, and changes
in technology. Even senior software engineers upskill to keep up with adapting
technology!

>>MORE: The Most Important Skills for a Job in Tech, According to Forage Data

What are you working on right now?

Like the last question, you’ll want to answer this one with any projects you’re working
on, including personal and open-source projects as well as any academic work you’ve
been doing. In this answer, you can focus more on how you’re contributing to the
project and the project outcome.

>>MORE: Learn how to talk about your impact on a project in an interview by using the
STAR method.

Why do you want to work at this company?

Show off the research you’ve done on this company when they ask you this question.
What about their mission and values aligns with what you’re passionate about? What
projects or products are they working on that strike your curiosity? Be specific about
what uniquely makes you interested in this company. Explain how your background
and values can help contribute to the company’s work and company culture.

Software Engineering Interview Question

Tips
As you’re expected to show off both technical and soft skills, software engineering
interview questions can be daunting — but it’s possible to crush the interview process
when you’re prepared for what’s coming.

Practice your coding skills. Coding is a highly valuable and integral part of
software engineering, especially for entry-level roles. Use practice problems to
help refresh and strengthen your skills, and get comfortable explaining your
problem-solving process.
Know your technical terms. Some interviewers will ask technical questions to
see how familiar you are with software engineering concepts. You’re not
expected to know everything. However, it’s crucial to understand the software
development lifecycle, including how to ensure quality software development.
Knowing how to explain technical concepts in simple terms is also a plus. It
shows your soft skills in communicating with non-technical coworkers and
stakeholders.
Show why you’re uniquely interested in the role. There’s a lot of opportunity
in software engineering, so you should show the hiring team why you’re
specifically interested in their company. Do your research and talk about how
their mission and work align with your values and goals.

Ready to practice your general interview skills? Try BCLP’s Interview Success program.

We asked students who got hired at JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wayfair, and Walmart
to share their top tips on what actually works to get a finance or software engineering
internship:

Log in to Forage (it's free!) to read these hired students' exclusive top tips.
 Login Signup

Image credit: EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA / Pexels

Written by
Zoe Kaplan →
Senior Writer

Zoe Kaplan is a Senior Writer at Forage. Prior to joining Forage, she wrote and edited career and
workplace content for Fairygodboss, the largest career community for women.

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