Qualtrics Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The whole process took about 1.5 months after applying. First, there was a Recruiter Screening Call, then a Hiring Manager interview that covered tech signals and behavioral questions based on TACOS. After that, I had two back-to-back interviews: a 1.5-hour coding session with two interviewers where I had to solve a Leetcode Medium problem involving sliding windows and palindrome search, and a 1-hour system design session where I had to design a booking service for events. Unfortunately, I was rejected five days later because I didn't do well on the coding part. It was a good experience talking to the hiring team though, they were nice, helpful, and open about everything. I'd like to reapply in about six months.

Its 4 stage process - screening, coding and two system design interviews. Screening is mostly to check if you fit the company values and if you have required work experience for the role - I did not have any specific technical questions but this may depend on candidate. Lots of questions where STAR technique is expected to be used - how you dealt with technical challenge, with conflict etc. focus on individual qualities and not teamwork effort - interview is about you and not other people. Coding is two problems two solve, first harder, second easier - the problems are typical medium to hard leetcode problems but usually with extra steps and long detailed descriptions which makes it harder to decompose problem to known patterns. Expect something non trivial like dynamic programming for first problem. System design is like any other system design - they seem to put focus on overall scalability and database design but that is just my impression based on failed attempt. There is only 1h for it but it is expected to cover a lot during that 1h so dont try to spend too much time in requirements part or basic design choices because that wont give them enough input from your side to give you a good grade. The interview process is tough but expectations are very clear, lot can be learned even when failed. Got very good extensive feedback after interview.

So I had this online assessment thing that took about 90 minutes, and it was pretty easy actually. Then I had two interviews back to back. The first one was also 90 mins and involved two medium LeetCode problems. The second one was 60 minutes and had a 15-minute chat about personal qualities followed by another medium LeetCode problem. I aced the OA because I've been doing LeetCode mediums a lot. But honestly, the interviews felt way harder than expected for a junior role, and the problems were totally different from the OA. The first problem in the first interview was so confusing, I couldn't even understand it for the first 15 minutes, and the interviewer was like, "so, wanna start coding or what?". For the second problem, I wanted to use a heap but got stressed and missed that a stack would have been better. In the second interview, we started with the interviewer asking a lot about my past experiences, so definitely be ready to talk about your work history. Then I got a problem I actually understood and had a plan for (bucket sort, not perfect but would have worked). But the interviewer kept interrupting, giving me hints to switch to a method I didn't know. It's weird because they say the main thing is for the code to run and pass tests, but they didn't let me finish my working solution. I checked later, and bucket sort would have worked. Bottom line: if you enjoy being told exactly what to do, Qualtrics is the place for you!