# Software Engineer
**Role:** Software Engineer · **Level:** L4
**Company:** [Verily](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/verily)
**Difficulty:** Medium to Hard
**Salary:** US$130000 - US$175000
**Experience:** 3 - 7
**Timeline:** ~14 days
This interview process is for a Software Engineer (L4) position at Verily. It is designed to assess a candidate's technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit within the company.
Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/interviews/verily/l4-software-engineer
---
## Overall evaluation

- Technical Proficiency
- Communication and Collaboration
- Cultural Fit and Behavioral Aspects

## Questions asked

- Given a stream of user activity logs, design a system to detect fraudulent patterns in real-time.
- How would you design a URL shortening service like bit.ly?
- Explain the difference between concurrency and parallelism.
- Describe a time you had to deal with a difficult stakeholder. How did you handle it?
- Write a function to find the k-th largest element in an unsorted array.
- How would you design a system to handle millions of concurrent users for a social media platform?
- What are the trade-offs between SQL and NoSQL databases?
- Tell me about a project you are particularly proud of.
- How do you stay updated with new technologies?
- If you were to build a recommendation engine for Verily's health products, what approach would you take?

## Preparation tips

### lists

- Review fundamental computer science concepts (data structures, algorithms).
- Practice coding problems on platforms like LeetCode, HackerRank, or similar.
- Study system design principles and common architectural patterns.
- Understand distributed systems concepts (e.g., consensus, fault tolerance, CAP theorem).
- Prepare for behavioral questions using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
- Research Verily's mission, products, and recent news.
- Be ready to discuss your past projects in detail, highlighting your contributions and learnings.
- If interviewing for a specific domain (e.g., healthcare, genomics), brush up on relevant concepts.
- Practice explaining complex technical concepts clearly and concisely.
- Prepare thoughtful questions to ask the interviewers.

### studyPlan

- {"title":"Data Structures and Algorithms","longDescription":"Weeks 1-2: Focus on core data structures (arrays, linked lists, trees, graphs, hash maps) and algorithms (sorting, searching, dynamic programming, graph traversal). Practice implementing these from scratch and analyze their time and space complexity. Aim for at least 5-7 problems per data structure/algorithm type.","shortDescription":"Weeks 1-2: Data Structures & Algorithms fundamentals. Practice 5-7 problems per topic."}
- {"title":"System Design","longDescription":"Weeks 3-4: Dive into system design. Study common design patterns (e.g., load balancing, caching, database sharding, message queues). Work through at least 5-10 system design case studies, focusing on scalability, reliability, and trade-offs. Understand concepts like CAP theorem and eventual consistency.","shortDescription":"Weeks 3-4: System Design principles and case studies. Focus on scalability and reliability."}
- {"title":"Behavioral and Company Research","longDescription":"Week 5: Prepare for behavioral and situational questions. Reflect on your past experiences and prepare examples using the STAR method for common questions related to teamwork, conflict resolution, leadership, and handling failure. Also, research Verily's mission, values, and recent projects.","shortDescription":"Week 5: Behavioral questions (STAR method) and company research."}
- {"title":"Advanced Topics and Domain Knowledge","longDescription":"Week 6: Focus on distributed systems concepts and any domain-specific knowledge relevant to the role (e.g., healthcare data, genomics). Review topics like concurrency, parallelism, fault tolerance, and consensus algorithms. If applicable, study relevant biological or medical concepts.","shortDescription":"Week 6: Distributed Systems and domain-specific knowledge."}

## Location differences

- {"location":"South San Francisco","differences":{"tips":["Familiarize yourself with common biological data formats (e.g., VCF, BAM).","Understand the basics of genomics and molecular biology.","Be prepared to discuss projects involving healthcare or life sciences.","Highlight experience working with data scientists or domain experts."],"interviewFocus":["Emphasis on understanding biological data and its implications.","Ability to translate complex biological problems into technical solutions.","Collaboration and communication skills with non-technical stakeholders."],"commonQuestions":["How would you design a system to handle real-time patient data monitoring?","Describe a challenging debugging experience you had with a large-scale distributed system.","What are your thoughts on the ethical implications of using AI in healthcare?","How do you approach collaborating with cross-functional teams (e.g., biologists, clinicians)?"]}}
- {"location":"Mountain View","differences":{"tips":["Review common cloud services and their use cases.","Practice system design problems focusing on scalability and distributed architectures.","Be ready to discuss your experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).","Understand concepts related to data warehousing and big data processing."],"interviewFocus":["Scalability and performance of distributed systems.","Proficiency in cloud computing and related services.","Data engineering and pipeline design.","Security and privacy best practices."],"commonQuestions":["Design a scalable data pipeline for processing large volumes of sensor data.","How would you optimize a distributed system for high throughput and low latency?","Discuss your experience with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure) and their services.","What are your strategies for ensuring data privacy and security in a cloud environment?"]}}

## Round 1: Coding and Algorithms
**Type:** Technical Interview (Coding) · **Difficulty:** Medium · **Duration:** 45 min
Assess coding skills and fundamental CS knowledge through coding problems.
This round focuses on your fundamental computer science knowledge. You will be asked to solve coding problems, typically involving data structures and algorithms. The interviewer will assess your ability to understand the problem, devise an efficient solution, write clean code, and explain your reasoning. Expect to write code in a shared editor or on a whiteboard.
**Interviewers look for:** Clear and structured approach to problem-solving; Correct implementation of algorithms and data structures; Ability to analyze time and space complexity; Clean and readable code
**Evaluation criteria:** Problem-solving skills; Data structures and algorithms knowledge; Coding proficiency; Logical thinking
**Common rejection reasons:** Inability to articulate thought process; Poor problem-solving approach; Lack of fundamental CS knowledge; Inefficient or incorrect code
## Questions

- Given an array of integers, return indices of the two numbers such that they add up to a specific target.
- Implement a function to reverse a linked list.
- Find the median of two sorted arrays.

## Preparation tips

- Practice coding problems on platforms like LeetCode (Easy to Medium difficulty).
- Review common data structures (arrays, linked lists, trees, graphs, hash maps) and algorithms (sorting, searching, dynamic programming).
- Practice explaining your thought process out loud as you solve problems.
- Be prepared to discuss edge cases and optimize your solutions.

## Round 2: System Design
**Type:** System Design Interview · **Difficulty:** Hard · **Duration:** 60 min
Assess ability to design scalable and reliable software systems.
This round evaluates your ability to design complex, scalable, and reliable software systems. You will be presented with a high-level problem (e.g., design Twitter, design a ride-sharing service) and expected to break it down, identify components, define APIs, choose appropriate technologies, and discuss trade-offs. Focus on scalability, availability, latency, and consistency.
**Interviewers look for:** Ability to design scalable and reliable systems; Understanding of distributed system concepts; Knowledge of various architectural patterns; Ability to justify design choices and trade-offs; Consideration for security, availability, and maintainability
**Evaluation criteria:** System design capabilities; Scalability and performance considerations; Trade-off analysis; Understanding of distributed systems; Database knowledge; API design
**Common rejection reasons:** Lack of understanding of system design principles; Inability to handle scale and performance requirements; Poor trade-off analysis; Not considering failure scenarios
## Questions

- Design a distributed key-value store.
- Design a rate limiter.
- Design a notification service.

## Preparation tips

- Study common system design interview questions and patterns.
- Understand concepts like load balancing, caching, database scaling (sharding, replication), message queues, and CDNs.
- Practice designing systems for scale.
- Be prepared to discuss trade-offs between different design choices.
- Familiarize yourself with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS) and their services.

## Round 3: Behavioral and Managerial
**Type:** Behavioral Interview · **Difficulty:** Medium · **Duration:** 45 min
Assess past experiences, work style, and cultural fit.
This round focuses on your past experiences, work style, and how you handle various workplace situations. You'll be asked behavioral questions designed to understand your strengths, weaknesses, how you collaborate, handle conflict, and your motivation for joining Verily. Use the STAR method to structure your answers with concrete examples.
**Interviewers look for:** Honesty and self-awareness; Ability to provide specific examples using the STAR method; Positive attitude and enthusiasm; Evidence of collaboration and leadership; Cultural fit with Verily
**Evaluation criteria:** Behavioral competencies; Teamwork and collaboration skills; Problem-solving in past situations; Adaptability and learning; Alignment with Verily's mission and values
**Common rejection reasons:** Lack of self-awareness; Poor communication of past experiences; Negative attitude towards past roles or colleagues; Inability to demonstrate alignment with company values
## Questions

- Tell me about a time you faced a significant technical challenge and how you overcame it.
- Describe a situation where you had a disagreement with a colleague. How did you resolve it?
- Why are you interested in working at Verily?

## Preparation tips

- Prepare examples for common behavioral questions (teamwork, leadership, conflict resolution, failure, success).
- Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your answers.
- Be honest and reflective about your experiences.
- Research Verily's mission, values, and culture.
- Think about why you want to work at Verily specifically.