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Principal Software Engineer Interview Questions

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2,045 principal software engineer interview questions shared by candidates

One of the interviewers was very curious about my life outside of working in software. He spent some time probing my hobbies and what gets me excited. It was the first time a professional interviewer took some time to learn who I was as a person.
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Principal Software Engineer

Interviewed at Anduril

4★
Sep 10, 2023

One of the interviewers was very curious about my life outside of working in software. He spent some time probing my hobbies and what gets me excited. It was the first time a professional interviewer took some time to learn who I was as a person.

The most difficult AND unexpected question was what is my current pay rate (I am a contractor at another major medical device company). I di not want to give his the exact number but asked what is the salary range for the job position. His response was from $100 to $130K. I replied that my rate lies exactly in the middle of this range. However he insisted that I need to give his the exact number. I tried to give him a range what I would be interested in. Again he insisted I give him the rate otherwise I will have a problem getting the next interview.
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Principal Software Engineer

Interviewed at St. Jude Medical

3.2★
Aug 19, 2012

The most difficult AND unexpected question was what is my current pay rate (I am a contractor at another major medical device company). I di not want to give his the exact number but asked what is the salary range for the job position. His response was from $100 to $130K. I replied that my rate lies exactly in the middle of this range. However he insisted that I need to give his the exact number. I tried to give him a range what I would be interested in. Again he insisted I give him the rate otherwise I will have a problem getting the next interview.

Sr.Director focused so much on White papers and Patents giving the impression that it felt like most of the CA employees have White papers/Patents which is not true. He asked why I didn't have White papers/Patents till now and grilled as if that is the minimum requirement for this position...which is not true again.
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Principal Software Engineer

Interviewed at CA Technologies

3★
Jul 1, 2014

Sr.Director focused so much on White papers and Patents giving the impression that it felt like most of the CA employees have White papers/Patents which is not true. He asked why I didn't have White papers/Patents till now and grilled as if that is the minimum requirement for this position...which is not true again.

Given an arbitrary list of components and their dependencies, both direct and transitive, describe an algorithm to compute a flat, ordered list of components such that when installing any one component, all dependent components will have been installed.
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Principal Software Engineer

Interviewed at MapR Technologies

3.4★
Dec 15, 2015

Given an arbitrary list of components and their dependencies, both direct and transitive, describe an algorithm to compute a flat, ordered list of components such that when installing any one component, all dependent components will have been installed.

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