Elsevier Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 51 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Elsevier.
Elsevier
Software Engineer
Mid Average Negative experience No offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Take home Recruiter call
Interview formats
Technical Behavioral
The interview process is very long and unprofessional. It starts with 3 online tests, two non-technical and one technical, that require hours to complete. After completing these tests, they completely ghost you and don't respond. A really bad experience, and I don't recommend this unprofessional company. They record your audio and video during the interview with the recruiter, and they only inform you at the end. Overall, it was a really bad experience.
Confirmed questions4 questions
- Basic HR questions
- Why are you interested in this company?
- What is your salary expectation?
Elsevier
Software Developer
Entry Difficult Neutral experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Take home Recruiter call
Interview formats
Other
So, apparently, there's this new thing happening around here where they give out an "IQ test" kind of assessment. I was told to take an online "programmer assessment test," but they didn't tell me anything about it. To my surprise, not a single question on the test had anything to do with programming. Instead, it was all about matching patterns, word analogies, interpreting poetry, and math problems up to algebra. I honestly thought maybe I'd received the wrong test. Then I figured it was some sort of "trick" test, and they actually wanted my feedback on it, which I provided. The next day, I was informed I wouldn't be considered further. I guess I was wrong about that. I've had another one of these tests since then, so maybe it's becoming pretty common. It really didn't test my programming skills at all.
Confirmed questions4 questions
- Read the provided literature and respond to questions regarding its content.
- Determine the subsequent image in a given sequence of four images.
- Calculate the speeds of the river and boat given their upstream and downstream travel times and distances.
Elsevier
Principal Software Engineer
Staff Difficult Positive experience No offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen Technical screen Onsite Offer
Interview formats
Technical Coding System Design Behavioral
Started with a phone screening with the lead, then an onsite coding exercise. For the onsite, they set up a project on my laptop with failing junit test cases that I needed to fix to make them pass. Then, I worked on the same project with a different test case focused on performance improvement, and we discussed how to achieve that. It was an interesting experience. Even though I didn't get this position, they were willing to offer me a slightly lower-level job they were considering.
Confirmed questions4 questions
- Can you describe your past technical experiences?
- Describe how you would construct a basic search engine.
- Make all the failing junit test cases pass for the provided project.
Elsevier Software Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Elsevier interview reports.
“Can you tell me what the last palindromic date was before 10/02/2002?”
Read reports →“Can you find the closest palindrome for a date given in year-month-day format?”
Read reports →“How would you sort a list without using built-in functions and then find the second highest element?”
Read reports →“Given a series of image transformations (90-degree clockwise rotation, vertical flip, horizontal flip, 90-degree counter-clockwise rotation), what is the final appearance of the image?”
Read reports →“What would be the consequence of running a 5-second function in a browser?”
Read report →“Given a variation of the Knapsack problem, how would you use different combinations of cents to achieve every possible combination to make $2?”
Read report →“Describe how to convert capital letters in a statement without using any built-in functions.”
Read report →“What would be required to simulate MongoDB transactions at the application level?”
Read report →“What exactly is unit testing, and how would you go about writing JUnit test cases?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 51 Elsevier interview reports.