Software Engineer (IC3) Interview Experience

Why are you looking for a new role?

What experience and technologies have you been working with?

Complete an open-ended Python take-home assignment for a system-style problem within 24 hours.

I treated it like a very open-ended Python exercise where the point was less about one exact answer and more about how I structured the problem, made assumptions, and justified my design choices.

Walk me through the take-home you submitted and explain your design decisions.

I walked through the project I had submitted and explained why I made the design decisions I did. Since the assignment was intentionally open-ended, I focused on my assumptions, how I structured the solution, and why I chose that approach.

Solve this Python palindrome-style coding question.

I solved a palindrome-style Python question that felt pretty standard, basically a LeetCode-type screen. It went well and I got through it cleanly.

This was the hardest behavioral for me. I gave an example of a conflict with a teammate, explained how I handled it, and also talked about what I would have done differently in hindsight. I thought the example was sufficient, and he seemed receptive to it.

I ended up treating it like a system design interview and drew boxes and arrows on the WebEx whiteboard instead of actually using an AI tool. I talked through how I would use an AI agent in the testing flow, what guardrails I'd add for hallucinations, how I'd reduce human review without removing it completely, and how I'd handle monitoring, observability, failure alerts, and coverage. The interviewer redirected me a few times, and it felt like he was mainly checking whether I understood AI agents end to end.

Solve a Python string-manipulation problem involving phone numbers.

I solved a Python string-manipulation question around phone numbers. The main extra requirement was writing tests, so I made sure to come up with my own edge cases and cover invalid inputs that were hinted at in the prompt.

Here is a large Python file with three bugs. Find where the bugs are coming from and fix them.

I had to slow down first and understand a pretty big Python file before I could even start isolating the bugs, so I got off to a slow start. This was my first debugging interview, and it was definitely harder for me than standard coding. The interviewer was very interactive though and gave me hints on the first and third bugs about where in the file to look, which made it feel fair even though it was tough.

Design a class that aggregates data and results, then supports sorting and filtering based on certain fields.

I designed a class that aggregated results and supported sorting and filtering across different fields. The twist was that the data and sorting logic were tied to hardware-style concepts like device types and configurations, so it felt much more team-specific than a generic interview question.

Design a class that manages devices and how they interact.

I spent most of this round on a more open-ended class design problem about managing devices and their interactions. It was another question that felt pretty tied to the team's hardware domain, and it took up most of the interview.

Find the bug in this piece of code.

The second part was a smaller debugging exercise. That one was pretty straightforward and mostly just tested whether I could quickly spot and fix the issue in the code they gave me.

Parse a large string and return the data from it.

The last part was a practical parsing question where I had to extract and return data from a big string. I was not told upfront that the round had three parts, so it felt like I would finish one thing and then immediately get another.