Computer Science engineering deals with the designing, implementation and management of software and hardware systems. A computer scientist handles theory of computation and designing of computational systems. Their area of work expands into electrical and electronics engineering, information technology and software engineering. A degree in computer science engineering can be obtained at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The degrees pursued are B.E, BTech and MTech. With regards to placements, computer science engineering students can find good job opportunities in the IT industry.
Also read: Computer Science Engineering: Emerging Trends and Branches
Top Software Developer Interview Questions and Answers 2022
A significant part of bagging desired job opportunities is cracking the placement interview since it is a good chance for a candidate to tell the interviewer your skills and experience levels. It is important to understand the job profile, the responsibilities and the skills that will be required at this level. One good way of preparing is going through some of the common questions.
In this blog, we will go through 50 questions and answers that a computer science engineering student is likely to face in job interviews.
These questions include some general ones about your academic performance and professional experience. There will be a few situational and behavioural questions too to understand the technical skills and expertise of the candidate. The interviewers also assess the candidate’s soft skills, confidence in communication and problem-solving abilities.
Below are 50 sample questions that can be used as preparation for placement interviews:
1. What programming languages do you know well?
Ans: My proficiency for programming languages is in Java, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, Python and C++. I have some experience in designing applications using Java and creating operating systems using C++.
2. Have you worked on a project recently?
Ans: Yes, I had created an internal online learning program for my previous company’s employees. The program ensured that the employees received a uniform and effective training.
3. Which design patterns have you used the most?
Ans: I have been using the singlet for most of my complex projects. Otherwise, I stick to singleton and factory patterns.
4. Why should we debug a software development process?
Ans: Debugging is the process of removing errors in a process.
5. What are the different phases of software development?
Ans: The different phases of software development are – gathering, analysis, planning, development, testing, implementation, maintenance and documentation.
6. What is the role of a project manager in a software project?
Ans: A project manager is responsible for planning and monitoring a project. They also take care of the risk management, resource management, implementation of development activities and project delivery timeline.
7. What is the Scope of a software project?
Ans: A software project’s Scope is the information that forms the basis for creating an outline for designing, developing and producing a software product.
8. Can you talk about the estimation of a software project?
Ans: Project estimation is a method used to quantify costs, effort, time and resources.
9. What are functionality points?
Ans: These are used to calculate the size of a software product and the project completion date.
10. What is the baseline?
Ans: Project managers set up baselines to monitor the overall delivery. They are set up to track the tasks planned for the project.
11. How can you define Application Configuration Management?
Ans: Application configuration management deals with monitoring possible improvements in the distribution of software systems.
12. Name some project management tools.
Ans: The common project management tools used are Gantt Maps, PERT Charts, Achievement Checklists, Histograms and MS Project.
13. What is the difference between stubs and mocks?
Ans: A stub is a minimal interface implementation that returns hardcoded data. On the other hand, mock usually tests outputs against expectation.
14. What is the feasibility study?
Ans: This is carried out to assess the useful and practical characteristics of a software design. A feasibility study helps in analysing the business, operational and technical aspects of delivering software projects.
15. What is concurrency?
Ans: Concurrency is performing several tasks at the same time. This is achieved with the help of modules, activities and studies related to the implementation of software projects.
16. What is cohesion?
Ans: Cohesion is calculating the interdependence of different elements in a module.
17. Talk about some methods used to keep track of program requirements.
Ans: Two of the common ways used to keep track of program requirements are:
– Create a specification document in the form of a checklist
– Keep an excel sheet ready with a list of requirements, types and priorities.
18. How will you explain technical information to someone without technical knowledge?
Ans: The language can be kept simple and I will avoid using jargon and advanced technical terms.
19. Talk about a difficult bug that you had to fix in a large application.
Ans: I checked the logs to understand when the bug had started. Thereafter, I reproduced the bug on the latest piece of code in production. A git bisects helped me isolate the specific commit that had introduced the bug. Finally, I used the browser’s developer tools to debug the application.
20. What is inheritance in software development?
Ans: Inheritance is when an object or class is based on another object or class and uses the same implementation.
21. How do you differentiate between method overriding and overloading?
Ans: These are both examples of polymorphism. Method overloading is when the method remains the same but there is a change in signature, parameter and return type. In the case of method overriding, the method belongs to an extended class and the behaviour is changed.
22. What is the key difference between functional and object-oriented programming?
Ans: Functional programming relies on immutable objects and avoids mutating states. On the other hand, object-oriented programming depends on state mutation and in-place modification of objects.
23. What process do you follow for a programming task?
Ans: The steps to follow for a programming task are:
1. Requirement analysis
2. Specifying the software to be written
3. Understanding the required software architecture.
24. What is the software development life cycle?
Ans: SDLC is the process that produces software of the highest quality in the shortest time. SDLC has different stages like planning, design, building, testing and deployment.
25. What is a stack?
A stack is a linear data structure with two basic operations – push and pop. Push is the insertion of an element to the stack from the top. Pop is removing that latest element added to the stack.
26. Explain black box and white box testing.
Black Box Testing is a software testing method in which the internal structure or design of the item being tested is not known to the tester.
White Box Testing in which the internal structure being tested is known to the tester.
27. What is the estimation of a software project?
Project estimation is used to quantify construction costs, effort, time and resources needed to execute the project.
28. What are functionality points?
Functional points are used to calculate the size of a software product. Scenarios play a crucial role in monitoring and forecasting project completion.
29. What are tech metrics?
Tech metrics are used to guide the delivery of software products as per business standards. Statistics can also be used to calculate the features of software product delivery. Metrics are classified as specifications, product metrics, output metrics and process metrics.
30. What is modularization?
Modularization is the splitting of the functions of a software framework into different modules. These are independent of other modules and the tasks are also performed independently.
31. What is coupling?
Coupling is used to calculate the interdependence of different elements in a module.
32. What are some of the ways to make websites work faster?
Some of the ways in which websites can be made to work faster are:
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Using adaptive images
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Clearing cache
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Evaluating the plugins
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Combining images into CSS sprites
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Enabling HTTP to keep response headers alive
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Compressing content.
33. What is the difference between functional and non-functional requirements?
Functional requirements are some features that a software product performs. Non-functional requirements measure the usability of an application.
34. When do you need to declare the class abstract?
The class abstract needs to be declared when a class is inherited with an abstract class. All abstract methods need not be overridden if a minimum of one of the study’s ways is declared abstract.
35. What qualities should software engineers have?
The key qualities that a software engineer needs to have are:
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Ability to learn and adapt
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Good business acumen
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Ability to manage time
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Good interpersonal skills
36. What do you consider the key principles of software engineering?
The principles of software engineering are:
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Manage using a phased life-cycle plan
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Perform continuous validation
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Maintain disciplined product control
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Maintain clear accountability
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Utilise full staff strength.
37. What are the types of software maintenance?
The four types of software maintenance are:
The four types of software maintenance are – Corrective Software Maintenance, Preventive Software Maintenance, Perfective Software Maintenance and Adaptive Software Maintenance.
38. Tell me about the general challenges in software.
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Lack of communication during different stages of development
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Missing documentation
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Diversity in testing environments
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Inadequate testing.
39. What is risk management in software engineering?
It is identifying, addressing and eliminating problems before they can damage a software project.
40. What is software prototyping?
Software prototyping is creating prototypes of software applications. It is becoming quite popular as a software development model.
Non-technical and general questions
41. Talk about an instance in your professional career when you were unable to come up with a solution.
Ans: It is good to be ready with a few such instances. You can talk about the possible solutions that you tried, why you failed and how it was finally resolved.
42. Have you identified a business issue while implementing software?
Ans: You can talk about how you handled and resolved unexpected work situations. This is an opportunity to show how you developed solutions on your own.
43. What has been your biggest professional success?
Ans: You should be ready to explain some or at least one of your recent projects that you successfully worked upon and how you met the requirements for that task.
44. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Ans: This is an opportunity for you to tell the interviewers about your goals and to show that you are confident of your abilities in software development and related job profiles.
45. How do you stay updated about the changes in the industry?
Ans: Here you talk about your exposure to publications, portals and other types of forums that deal with the developments in the software industry.
46. Have you contributed to open-source projects?
In this answer, you can express your interests in various kinds of projects and your ability to take up different projects and contribute to each of them.
47. What web technologies do you think will survive for a few more years?
This question again is meant to identify your awareness about the industry and your knowledge about the key features and specifications of the web technologies.
48. When can we consider that a product has been completed?
The software development process is actually never-ending since there are some additional features and bug fixes that are always waiting to be designed and deployed.
49. Explain any of the concepts in computer software for the next 10 minutes.
The trick is to pick up a topic that is simple and can be explained easily. This is a question where the interviewer tests your understanding of the basics and your innovativeness in terms of coming up with quick solutions.
50. What about this role interests you the most?
This is when you present your case as to why you are suitable for this role and why it is of interest to you. Here is a good opportunity for you to convince the interviewers that you are a suitable candidate.
Summary
The interview round during the appointment for a software engineer’s role is an opportunity for you to prove your acumen in the field. You stand a chance to impress the company executives, if you feel that your previous rounds have not been up to the mark. Moreover, it is also a chance for you to know what they have to offer.
It is, therefore, important for you to prepare well for this round. It helps if your institute conducts mock interview rounds. That is a good way to prepare. This brings us to NIET as it has emerged as one of the best colleges in terms of placement opportunities and assistance.
NIET has an exclusive Career Management Cell that gets highly experienced people to train students in functional capabilities, leadership skills, and strategic and cognitive thinking. These are key attributes that are required to successfully take part in placement interviews.
Also read: The Importance of Best B. Tech Engineering College for a Prosperous Career
Enroll with NIET now
Here’s why you should get your Computer Science degree from NIET:
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NIET offers a 4-year undergraduate course in Computer Science Engineering.
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It has a tie-up with several big industry names for placement opportunities like Capgemini, TCS, Samsung, Accenture, HCL, Wipro and many more.
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NIET ensures that academic teaching is kept innovative.
Check out the other course features and apply now.
Also read: Private Institute in UP to Get Autonomous Status by UGC