# Conflict with a manager: interview question and experiences Aced (formerly Exponent) publishes a public search API over its indexed pages; the guide is at https://www.aced.io/agents/agent-access. Source: https://www.aced.io/questions/4877/manager-conflict Source observed: 2026-11-04T22:50:03.687Z Last checked: 2026-11-04T22:50:03.687+00:00 Indexed: 2026-11-06T00:53:10.8+00:00 --- # Tell me about a time you had a conflict with your manager. We provide interview preparation through Aced (formerly Exponent). This behavioral interview question is tagged **Behavioral** and is associated with **Software Engineer** and **Data Engineer** roles. The page includes five shared interview experiences, no community answers yet, related questions, related courses, and an option to practice with AI. ## Question details - **Reported last asked:** 7 months ago - **Shared interview experiences:** 5 - **Roles:** [Software Engineer](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=swe), [Data Engineer](https://www.aced.io/questions?role=data-engineer) - **Companies represented:** [Meta](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=meta-facebook), [Microsoft](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=microsoft), [Apple](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=apple), [Persona](https://www.aced.io/questions?company=persona) - **Category:** [Behavioral](https://www.aced.io/questions?type=behavioral) - **Detailed company statistics:** available through [Upgrade](https://www.aced.io/upgrade?src=questions) ## Interview experiences ### Microsoft — Software Engineer, Mid Level / L4 [Read the full Microsoft experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/microsoft-software-engineer-interview-ca84de) Shared 7 months ago. The candidate described an SDE II process beginning with a HackerRank, followed by a one-hour recruiter screen focused on motivation and culture fit, then three back-to-back interviews covering coding, system design, and low-level design. Several prompts were vague, so the candidate had to ask questions to uncover requirements. In coding, the interviewers appeared to value reasoning through a binary-tree problem more than using exact BFS or DFS terminology. The candidate considered the overall difficulty similar to Google or Amazon, with more emphasis on logical thinking and culture. ### Apple — Software Engineer, Mid Level / L4 [Read the full Apple experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/apple-software-engineer-interview-c85e6b) Shared 7 months ago. The candidate applied online for a mid-level IC3 software-engineering role in Apple’s hardware organization. After a recruiter conversation, the process included a 24-hour Python take-home and a 45-minute technical screen covering a walkthrough of the project and a palindrome-style coding question. The remote final loop was split across two days and had six interviews: a hiring-manager conversation, an AI/system-design round, and four Python rounds covering coding, class design, and debugging. The candidate found debugging hardest, described the final round as more intense, and received a rejection the following Monday without final-round feedback. ### Meta — Software Engineer, Senior / L5 [Read the full Meta experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/meta-facebook-senior-software-engineer-interview-dd0a91) Shared 9 months ago. The process began with a phone screen containing one tree-traversal coding problem, followed by a four-round virtual loop with two coding rounds, one system-design round, and one behavioral round. The candidate encountered a new AI-coding section whose format felt flexible; the expectation remained that the candidate perform the coding and use AI only in a limited way. The candidate found the process challenging and would have spent more time preparing for behavioral interviews. ### Meta — Software Engineer, Senior / L5 [Read the full Meta experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/meta-facebook-senior-software-engineer-interview-99496e) Shared 10 months ago. After a recruiter call, the candidate completed a coding screen with two common problems in one session and then a full loop spread across multiple days, with several weeks available for preparation. The candidate felt underprepared for behavioral questions, especially conflict-related work stories, and believed system-design performance suffered from not controlling time or setting scale assumptions. The candidate received a rejection after the final round. ### Meta — Data Engineer, Mid Level / L4 [Read the full Meta experience](https://www.aced.io/experiences/meta-facebook-data-engineer-interview-6679f7) Shared a year ago. The candidate entered through a referral. The five-round process included a recruiter call, a 60-minute technical screen split into 30 minutes of SQL and 30 minutes of Python, a 30-minute behavioral interview, and three loop rounds. Each loop round combined product sense, data modeling, SQL, and Python rather than testing them separately. The candidate found interviewers helpful when thinking aloud and asking clarifying questions, and received preparation material from recruiters. ## Community answers No community answers have been contributed yet. You can [log in or sign up](https://www.aced.io/signup?src=nav&returnPath=/questions/4877/manager-conflict) to answer the question. Submitting an answer marks the question complete. ## Related questions - [Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement with your manager.](https://www.aced.io/questions/241/disagreement-manager) - [Tell me about a time when you had to mediate a conflict.](https://www.aced.io/questions/1508/mediating-conflict-experience) - [Tell me about a time you had a moral conflict with work you are assigned to do.](https://www.aced.io/questions/5785/moral-conflict-work) ## Related courses ### [Data Engineering Interview Prep](https://www.aced.io/courses/data-engineering) ![Data Engineering Interview Prep](https://images.ctfassets.net/x78yjrjc11pq/5XoOCgXlGqN2fa1zaroNWd/9a2e23df48a212bc00d352873feb2d6a/Data_Engineer_Interview_Prep_Hero_Image.jpg?w=800&h=800&fm=webp&q=75) We cover mock interviews, frameworks, and advice from senior candidates for roles at Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, DoorDash, and other top companies. Practice areas include data modeling, pipeline design, SQL, coding, behavioral interviews, and more. ### [Software Engineering Interview Prep](https://www.aced.io/courses/software-engineering) ![Software Engineering Interview Prep](https://images.ctfassets.net/x78yjrjc11pq/4VkuYewBHUFIVUS5oJDW5h/02e833439b1289f25f38f13f81cbdca3/adobe_stock_optimized.jpeg?w=800&h=800&fm=webp&q=75) We cover mock interviews, frameworks, and advice from senior candidates for roles at Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and other top companies. 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