Garmin Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I got the interview at a career fair and it was conducted by two Garmin employees. They asked me questions about my projects and some of my coding experiences, like to discuss a coding challenge I've faced. Then there was a technical part where I had to code and they asked about Bitwise Operators. They also asked about my thought process during the technical part. I advanced to the next round, which was a 15-minute phone interview where they asked some basic behavioral questions. The technical interview was definitely harder than the behavioral one, and it felt like a real interview. The technical questions themselves were not too difficult.

First round was mainly introducing myself to the managers. They asked about my past projects and also asked questions about those projects. They also introduced the department's job. Garmin does have a simple English test, since the job needs you to communicate with overseas colleagues. So, if you prepare an English self-introduction or feel comfortable having a casual chat in English, you should be fine. The second round was focused on technical questions. There was a written test on Java, OOP, and SQL. It was online, so no screen recording, it was basically on the honor system if you looked up references. After a short break, the interview with the managers started. They reviewed the test paper question by question and asked me to explain my answers to make sure I wasn't cheating. Then came the coding questions. I got a sorting problem, which kind of surprised me because I usually just use the built-in sort() function. I managed to code something, but I realized later that I actually made some mistakes. On top of that, there was a system design-type question: they gave me a scenario and asked me to design the classes and methods for it. I found this part more challenging, unless you've practiced system design before. Finally, I had about an hour-long chat with HR, mostly covering behavioral questions and HR-related professional topics. The third round was with senior executives. It was mostly about whether I had any questions for them. I had a good chat with the manager about Garmin's products and the company's background, and I even asked a fun question about choosing between an Apple Watch and a Garmin watch.

So, I had a pretty standard interview process at first. It involved a screening, and then a group technical assessment with two interviewers. They seemed pretty sure I'd get an offer after I passed everything, but they mentioned needing to hire a senior engineer first. I agreed and kept in touch. About a year later, they had me do an onsite interview in Montgomery, TX, which is pretty remote. It was the exact same technical interview as the year before, with similar questions and the same assessment. Unfortunately, they told me I didn't pass this time. The senior software developer who interviewed me onsite was also quite dismissive, and his attitude made it clear it wasn't a great work environment. I asked for feedback since we all put in a lot of time, but they never responded. Ironically, I was actually going to decline the job due to the long commute, the requirement to be in the office, the low salary, and the poor attitude of the onsite lead. It's baffling how they expect to retain anyone, but that's their issue. Definitely a bad interview experience!