Scale Engineer

Senior Engineer

Software EngineerL4Hard

This interview process is for a Senior Software Engineer (L4) position at Samsung. It is designed to assess a candidate's technical expertise, problem-solving abilities, system design skills, and cultural fit within the company.

Rounds·4

Timeline·~14d

Experience·5 - 10 yrs

Comp band·US$130000 - US$180000

Interview time·165 min

Evaluation

What they measure.

  • Problem-solving approach
  • Algorithmic thinking
  • Code quality and efficiency
  • Understanding of data structures

Preparation

How to prepare.

Tips

  1. Review fundamental data structures and algorithms.
  2. Practice coding problems on platforms like LeetCode, HackerRank, or AlgoExpert.
  3. Study system design concepts and common architectural patterns.
  4. Prepare to discuss your past projects in detail, focusing on your contributions and challenges.
  5. Understand Samsung's products, services, and company culture.
  6. Research common behavioral interview questions and prepare STAR method responses.
  7. Brush up on your knowledge of operating systems, databases, and networking fundamentals.
  8. Be ready to articulate your thought process clearly and concisely.

Study plan

Fig · Study plan — 04 phases

01 / 04
01

Phase 01 of 04

Data Structures and Algorithms

Weeks 1-2: Data Structures & Algorithms fundamentals. Practice 5-10 problems per topic.

Weeks 1-2: Focus on core data structures (Arrays, Linked Lists, Trees, Graphs, Hash Tables) and algorithms (Sorting, Searching, Dynamic Programming, Greedy Algorithms). Practice implementing these from scratch and analyze their time and space complexity. Aim for at least 5-10 problems per data structure/algorithm type.

Questions

Commonly asked.

  • Given an array of integers, find the contiguous subarray with the largest sum.
  • Design a system to store and retrieve user profiles for a social media platform with millions of users.
  • How would you implement a rate limiter for an API?
  • Describe a situation where you had to deal with a difficult stakeholder. How did you handle it?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of using microservices?
  • Explain the concept of eventual consistency.
  • How do you ensure the security of a web application?
  • Tell me about a time you failed. What did you learn from it?
  • Design a distributed key-value store.
  • What is the difference between a process and a thread?

Locations

Regional differences.

Fig · Regions — 03 locations

01 / 03

Location

USA

Interview focus

Deep dive into distributed systems and scalability.Emphasis on practical experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).Problem-solving approach for complex, real-world scenarios.Understanding of performance optimization techniques.

Common questions

  • How would you design a distributed caching system for a large-scale e-commerce platform?
  • Describe a challenging technical problem you faced and how you solved it.
  • Explain the trade-offs between different database technologies (SQL vs. NoSQL) for a specific use case.
  • How do you ensure code quality and maintainability in a large codebase?
  • What are your thoughts on microservices architecture and its challenges?

Tips

  • Be prepared to discuss your experience with cloud-native technologies.
  • Showcase your ability to design for high availability and fault tolerance.
  • Articulate your thought process clearly, especially during system design questions.
  • Highlight any contributions to open-source projects or significant technical leadership roles.

Rounds

Round-by-round.

Expand a step for evaluation criteria, sample questions, and prep notes.

DSA

Coding questions at Samsung.

Frequently reported on Samsung loops

View all at Samsung

Other guides

More at Samsung.