Landing a coveted software engineering role at LinkedIn can be a game-changer for your career. Working at one of the world’s largest professional networking platforms provides unparalleled opportunities to build innovative products using cutting-edge technologies.
However, getting hired is no cakewalk. You’ll need to ace a rigorous technical interview that aims to assess both your hard and soft skills. This article will help you prepare by highlighting the 25 most common LinkedIn software engineer interview questions along with sample responses.
Why Ask These Questions?
LinkedIn interviews tend to focus on data structures, algorithms, system design, object-oriented programming, and debugging skills Questions also evaluate your agile experience, collaboration abilities, and communication style
Interviewers want to gauge how you
- Approach complex engineering problems
- Optimize systems for efficiency, scalability, and performance
- Write high-quality, maintainable code
- Make data-driven product decisions
- Handle challenges in dynamic, fast-paced environments
Preparing relevant stories and crisp thoughtful answers to these behavioral and technical questions will showcase your fit for the role and company.
Top 25 LinkedIn Software Engineer Interview Questions and Answers
1. How would you ensure LinkedIn’s platform remains scalable as its user base grows?
LinkedIn needs robust infrastructure to support millions of users. Discuss strategies like:
- Database sharding to distribute load
- Load balancing to prevent server bottlenecks
- Auto-scaling cloud infrastructure
- Monitoring systems to identify issues proactively
Example: “I would optimize the database architecture via sharding and improve server efficiency with load balancing. Auto-scaling cloud services like AWS easily scale capacity based on demand. Monitoring tools help catch performance issues early.”
2. How did you resolve a critical bug in production?
Share a story highlighting your debugging skills and calm under pressure.
Example: “I replicated the bug locally, traced it to a faulty recursion, fixed the code, thoroughly tested it, then deployed at off-peak hours to minimize impact.”
3. Which languages are you proficient in and why are they a good fit for LinkedIn?
Match your skills to LinkedIn’s tech stack (Python, Java, JavaScript, etc.).
Example: “Python for data processing, Java for building robust enterprise apps, JavaScript for creating engaging front-end experiences on LinkedIn’s site.”
4. How could you improve LinkedIn’s recommendation engine?
Demonstrate your understanding of algorithms and enhancing user experience.
Example: “Incorporate more contextual data like interactions and search history to make suggestions more personalized and accurate.”
5. Discuss your experience developing multi-platform mobile apps.
Highlight your expertise with React Native, Flutter, responsive design, encryption, testing, etc.
Example: “I have built cross-platform, user-friendly e-commerce apps. My focus is crafting intuitive interfaces and incorporating robust security across iOS and Android.”
6. How have you used A/B testing to improve products?
Share examples of how you used data to inform design decisions.
Example: “A/B testing validated that our new UI was causing lower engagement. We iterated on the design based on these insights, significantly improving key metrics.”
7. What data security measures have you incorporated into projects?
Demonstrate your understanding of encryption, access controls, penetration testing, and other security best practices.
Example: “I’ve implemented encryption, access controls, penetration testing, and audits to ensure sensitive data remains fully secured throughout its lifecycle.”
8. How would you troubleshoot performance issues in a large, complex codebase like LinkedIn’s?
Highlight your skills in debugging bottlenecks, optimizing inefficient code, and using tools like profiling.
Example: “I would profile to pinpoint bottlenecks, analyze problematic sections, review logs for issues, test fixes before deploying, and leverage good coding practices like reviews.”
9. How have you applied machine learning in past projects? How could it enhance LinkedIn?
Share ML application examples and ideas for improving recommendations, search, etc.
Example: “ML algorithms improved predictive analytics in previous roles. Similarly, LinkedIn’s recommendations and job matching could be enhanced via refined ML models.”
10. How have you collaborated with UX and product teams?
Demonstrate your agile experience and cross-functional partnership ability.
Example: “When building an e-commerce platform, I partnered closely with UX designers and the product manager to translate wireframes into high-quality, usable code.”
11. How would you optimize LinkedIn’s search function?
Suggest ideas like ML personalization, semantic analysis, and user feedback systems.
Example: “Incorporate ML to serve personalized results based on profile and activity. Enhance semantic understanding and implement user ratings to keep improving relevance.”
12. How have you used CI/CD pipelines in past projects?
Highlight your expertise with automation, continuous testing, deployment tools like Jenkins, and Kubernetes.
Example: “I’ve set up CI/CD pipelines to automatically build, test, and deploy code changes. This sped up development cycles and reduced bugs.”
13. How would you ensure high availability and low latency for LinkedIn’s global user base?
Discuss distributed systems, load balancing, CDNs, and monitoring.
Example: “Using globally distributed servers, load balancing, and CDNs reduces latency. Robust monitoring and rapid failover to backup systems boost availability.”
14. Share an example of solving a complex problem with data structures and algorithms.
Demonstrate your technical aptitude and understanding of LinkedIn’s need for efficiency.
Example: “I optimized slow search by implementing a Trie data structure for faster prefix lookups, drastically improving performance.”
15. How have you handled large-scale data processing?
Highlight your experience with big data tools like Hadoop, Spark, Hive, Cassandra, etc.
Example: “I’ve used distributed systems like Hadoop and Spark for efficiently processing huge datasets. Cassandra and Hive aid analytics and data integrity.”
16. How would you increase user engagement on LinkedIn?
Suggest creative ideas like personalized notifications, activity rewards, improved messaging, etc.
Example: “Consider gamification through badges for completing profiles. Improve notifications and messaging to foster user connections and engagement.”
17. Discuss balancing feature delivery and technical debt.
Showcase strategic planning abilities and coordinating simultaneous priorities.
Example: “I split the team into two tracks focusing on the new feature and technical debt respectively. Tracked progress closely across both streams to balance delivery.”
18. How can LinkedIn comply with data regulations like GDPR?
Demonstrate your understanding of data protection best practices.
Example: “Implement security measures like encryption by default. Conduct regular audits. Have breach notification procedures in place.”
19. How do you maintain code quality in a fast-paced environment?
Highlight strategies like test-driven development, reviews, linting, automation, and adherence to standards.
Example: “Employing test-driven development, peer reviews, linting, and sticking to style guidelines are key, along with automating routine tasks.”
20. Share an example of using system design principles to improve performance.
Demonstrate how you’ve applied concepts like caching, microservices, horizontal scaling in real-world scenarios.
Example: “I boosted load times by migrating from a monolith to microservices architecture. This distributed the database load and enabled independent scaling.”
21. How have you leveraged APIs in past work?
Highlight API usage for enriching capabilities, like integrating Stripe for payments.
Example: “I’ve integrated various services via APIs – from Google Maps to the LinkedIn API itself to enable sharing platform updates. APIs streamline connectivity.”
22. How do you handle updating legacy code?
Showcase strategies like incremental changes, ample testing, refactoring, and stakeholder communication.
Example: “I take an incremental approach – add tests, refactor for readability, frequently validate impact of changes, and keep stakeholders looped in.”
23. How do you incorporate user feedback into development?
Share examples of utilizing surveys, analytics, A/B testing, agile iterations, etc.
Example: “User interviews inform initial priorities. Post-launch, in-app analytics and feedback drive agile iterations and improvements to align with evolving user needs.”
24. How did you prioritize features under project constraints?
Demonstrate analytical thinking and stakeholder partnership.
Example: “Using techniques like MoSCoW, we identified must-haves through close collaboration with stakeholders. This minimized trade-offs in meeting critical needs.”
25. How can LinkedIn build accessibility into all stages of development?
Highlight the importance of inclusive design through standards, testing, audits, and user research.
Example: *”Incorporate accessibility across design
Step 2: Technical Phone Screen
The technical phone screen takes an hour, and at this point and later on, interviews usually have two people: the main interviewer and a trainee interviewer who is watching.
You’ll be given 2-3 algorithms and data structures questions, structured as follows:
- If you’re applying for a niche role (e. g. , mobile), you’ll get a 10-minute domain-specific question. This question is meant to quickly see how knowledgeable you are about your niche topic and weed out people who aren’t interested in it.
- 15-minute small problem
- 30-minute medium problem
Step 1: Recruiter Call
The first recruiter call lasts 30 minutes. Its goal is to find out what you want from LinkedIn and in general, as well as to check your qualifications and hear about past projects. It’s also a culture fit check, so they’ll want to see how well your writing and personality fit with theirs. Make sure you’re up to date on LinkedIn features, blog posts and news. Finally, your recruiter will make sure you know what the job is and what the next steps are in the process.
It’s very important not to talk about your salary history, what you want to be paid, or where you are in the process with other companies at this point. We wrote an in-depth post about negotiating salaries that tells you exactly what to say when recruiters push you to give them the first number. Please do not do it. If you share information this early on, you are putting future you in a tough spot.
Job Searching Tutorial – Software engineering interview question
FAQ
What questions are asked in LinkedIn interview?
Is LinkedIn good for software engineers?
Is LinkedIn interview hard?
How to prepare for an interview on LinkedIn?
What is the LinkedIn software engineer interview process?
The first round of the LinkedIn Software Engineer Interview is a 15-minute interview with a recruiter over call, in which they will inquire about your background, experiences and discuss your projects. The recruiter will be in constant touch with you and will share resources before the interviews.
What is the second round of the LinkedIn software engineer interview?
The second round of the LinkedIn Software Engineer interview is the technical phone screen. It is a video call that is generally conducted on Coderpad. In this round, you’ll be interviewed by two people who will take 5-10 minutes to discuss your experiences and projects, and then move onto the coding part.
How do you interview a software engineer?
Finally, you should also try to practice software engineer mock interviews with expert ex-interviewers, as they’ll be able to give you much more accurate feedback than friends and peers. If you know a software engineer who has experience running interviews at LinkedIn or another big tech company, then that’s fantastic.
Are there any LinkedIn system design interview questions?
There are not many LinkedIn system design interview questions publicly available, so as a substitute we’ve compiled some common Microsoft system design questions which can be found on Glassdoor or on relevant forums (like the Leetcode forum).
