Stack Overflow Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 17 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Stack Overflow.
Stack Overflow
Software Engineer
Senior Difficult Positive experience Accept offer 5 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Technical screen Onsite Onsite
Interview formats
Behavioral Technical Technical Behavioral
I went through 5 interviews in total. First, I talked to a recruiter. Then, I had a chat with a director that covered both technical and non-technical topics. After that, there were two interviews that were purely technical. To wrap things up, I met with a manager and a product owner. I really liked the whole process; everyone was professional, but also nice and approachable. The recruiter was great at keeping me in the loop about everything. The technical interviews felt like a collaboration where I was the one typing and guiding the solution. It felt like they genuinely wanted to see me succeed and find the right fit. No weird tricks or surprises.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Can you share your experience and insights on tackling projects within an established codebase?
- What are your strategies for implementing gradual enhancements to an existing codebase?
Stack Overflow
Software Engineer
Mid Average Negative experience No offer 4 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Technical screen Technical screen
Interview formats
Behavioral Coding Coding Technical System Design Coding
Got contacted for an interview a whopping 4 months after applying. Went through 4 interviews total. Had a great time talking to one interviewer for the algorithm part, we even went over the scheduled time. Another interviewer for the architecture part was not so great, seemed like they didn't want to be there, and they were training other interviewers during my interview. Too many stages in my opinion. Also, I think the tests should be more like the actual work, not coding algorithms in Google Docs that you'd rarely use. I admit I could have been better at the SQL part.
Confirmed questions4 questions
- First interview: Basic personality and passion check.
- Second Interview (Easy): Could you implement Run Length Encoding?
- Third Interview (Algorithms) (Average): Implement Sequential Numbers, Intersection and Union algorithms, and finish with an inverted list lookup (conceptually based on their tag engine).
Stack Overflow
Software Engineer
Entry Average Negative experience No offer 1 round
Interview process
Recruiter call
Interview formats
Behavioral
Overall, I found the communication and interview with the recruiter to be unprofessional and unfriendly. I'd suggest looking up the company culture and reviews before applying.
Confirmed questions1 question
- What's your motivation for wanting to join Stack Overflow?
Stack Overflow Software Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Stack Overflow interview reports.
“Create a method to track time spent in methods, given a list of method calls with start/stop timestamps, making sure to subtract time spent in nested calls.”
Read reports →“Write code to remove vowels from a string.”
Read reports →“Write a function to output CSS from a custom, pre-parsed LESS-like structure, focusing on parsing styles into child elements.”
Read reports →“Write an algorithm to remove 2 or more vowels from words like "see", "boat", "toast".”
Read reports →“Given a minefield with blast radii, figure out which mine, when detonated, would trigger the largest number of other mines.”
Read report →“Design an API endpoint for this system.”
Read report →“Write a CSS compiler for a basic LESS style, with added complexity.”
Read report →“Design Twitter's retweet feature.”
Read report →“Design a system for retweets.”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 17 Stack Overflow interview reports.