
TrueCar Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 15 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at TrueCar.
Software Developer
It took around 5 weeks to get through the whole thing with 4 interviews. Since I didn't live nearby, it was mostly done remotely over the phone or Skype. First, I spoke with the recruiter for a quick chat and to see if I was a good fit. Then, I talked to a product dev manager who asked me some questions to check my knowledge. After that, I got a programming assignment that was pretty open-ended, so you could really show off if you wanted to. The next interview was a Skype call with some developers from the product development team where we went over the assignment. The last interview was on-site, and it was with pretty much the same people from the third interview. It felt like a tough but fair process. If you want to work with the best, be patient and put in the effort.
- Can you explain the HTTP request-response cycle in really deep detail?
Software Engineer
My interview process included four stages: a recruiter chat, a hiring manager discussion, a coding assessment, and a system design interview. The coding interview at TrueCar was particularly impressive. I was tasked with writing three functions, which I completed with time left over. I even had time to refactor the code, consolidating the functionality of the three functions into one, which could then be called by the others. Despite this, I received a rejection, with the reason given being insufficient knowledge of Ruby and React. Curiously, I wasn't asked any questions about React during the interview. When I inquired about how I could have improved, they declined to provide feedback.
- Write a function that accepts arrays of restaurant votes and identifies the winning restaurant.
Software Engineer
So, first I had a phone screen that was about 30 mins to an hour where they asked me about my background. Then, I went in for an in-person interview at my University's career center, which was about an hour long. The recruiter was super nice and let me know what the next steps would be.
- Tell me about your technical background.
- Can you share an example of a cool project you've done?
- Describe a challenging coding problem you encountered and how you solved it.
TrueCar Software Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from TrueCar interview reports.
“Write a function that accepts arrays of restaurant votes and identifies the winning restaurant.”
Read reports →“Design a tic tac toe game considering all win and tie conditions.”
Read reports →“Can you build a website to search VINs in a database using wildcards? For instance, would 'XXXXXX123456' match 'X****YY1***56' in the database?”
Read reports →“Can you explain how to check if a string is a palindrome?”
Read reports →“Could you print the Y pattern in a matrix?”
Read report →“Can you explain the HTTP request-response cycle in really deep detail?”
Read report →“Describe your approach to searching a file for a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN).”
Read report →“If TrueCar didn't have a system for suggesting card dealers, how would you build one and what factors would influence your design?”
Read report →“Can you outline a typical production system architecture?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 15 TrueCar interview reports.