Nest Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 18 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Nest.
Nest
Software Engineer
Mid Average Neutral experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Phone screen
Interview formats
Technical Coding Behavioral
I submitted my resume online and about a month later, I got an email to schedule an interview. A manager asked me some questions based on my resume and also gave me a simple coding question. Then, an engineer had me debug some code and solve a problem. Each interview lasted around 45 minutes.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Can you reverse a string?
- Please debug this code.
Nest
Software Engineer
Intern Difficult Positive experience Accept offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen
Interview formats
Technical Coding
I applied through an internal recruiter after my internship at Google. My resume was looked at by the iOS team at Nest, and I got picked for an interview. I had two 45-minute technical interviews, one right after the other. I can't share exact details because of Alphabet's NDA on interviews, but it's really important to know the language you'll be interviewing in super well. Of course, regular interview questions about data structures are important, but also make sure you understand *why* certain things work the way they do in your chosen language. For example (not from the actual interview), how are pointers actually stored in memory for C?
Confirmed questions3 questions
- Due to the NDA, know your interview language inside and out.
- Prepare for quiz-style questions.
- Explain how pointers are stored in memory in C.
Nest
Software Engineer
Entry Average Positive experience No offer 4 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen Onsite
Interview formats
Coding Technical System Design Coding Coding
I wanted to share my Nest interview experience for others. Even though the paperwork has Google branding, Nest is a separate part of Alphabet. Unlike Google's general hiring process, Nest typically hires for a specific role with a particular manager. After a one-hour phone screen, the interview day starts with a brief recruiter chat. You might get some info on interviewers and their focus areas (like concurrency, design, algorithms). I met the hiring manager, several iOS engineers (including a technical lead), and a UX designer. The interviews were in a meeting room, and I didn't get a great look at the open-plan office, which seemed like it might lack privacy. The mobile team currently sits together but might split into functional groups soon. Arrive early because parking is difficult; use the valet at building 1. The interviewers felt friendly and collaborative, unlike some past Google experiences. Despite feeling positive afterwards, I received a rejection email two days later with no specific feedback. I suspect the hiring manager or the algorithms interviewer might have been the reason for the rejection, as I struggled with the last algorithm problem.
Confirmed questions4 questions
- Using Xcode, write a simple browser application that employs substitution or regular expressions to replace all occurrences of the word "Nest" with a chosen arbitrary word.
- How would you implement an algorithm to create a mirror image of a given tree structure, including its root and all child nodes?
- For a device bring-up process involving authentication, retrieving home and device data, checking weather, and interacting with a third-party service using tokens, what is the optimal sequence and dependency structure for the fastest possible startup?
Nest Software Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Nest interview reports.
“Given an array, swap two specified elements within it.”
Read reports →“How would you print all permutations of a string?”
Read reports →“Can you reverse a string?”
Read reports →“Describe a method for identifying a single duplicate integer within an array of length N containing numbers from 1 to N-1.”
Read reports →“Write a Program for Star printing.”
Read report →“Explain how pointers are stored in memory in C.”
Read report →“How would you implement an algorithm to create a mirror image of a given tree structure, including its root and all child nodes?”
Read report →“Can you implement an LRU cache?”
Read report →“Could you write a program that takes two arrays, like [1,2,3,4,5] and [1,3,4,5,7], and outputs a specific format, such as [1-5] and [1-1,3-5,7-7]?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 18 Nest interview reports.