Behavioral Questions for Coding Interviews

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We have presented the most common Behavioral Questions for Coding Interviews. These are asked in the final Interview at companies like Google and Amazon for the role of SDE (full-time + Intern).

These questions are asked in the final Interview once you have cleared all technical interviews. This is an important round as many take it lightly and fail. This Interview is taken by a Team Manager of the team you are supposed to join. Team Manager is a senior person with 10+ years of experience.

You will be tested on what your response will be in different situations at Office, what are your work ethics and so on.

Let us get started with Behavioral Questions for Coding Interviews. We have presented answers as well so you can prepare along the way.

Q1. Once we (company X) give you an offer at your desired salary but your current Employer (Y) counters it with increasing your salary. Which company will you choose?

Inform X and make a judgement

Company X

Company Y

Ask X to increase salary

The best way to tackle this situation is to inform the Company X that your current Company Y has increased your salary. This gives an opportunity to X to revise their offer if they want to. This will give you a clear picture and help you to make the correct judgement.
It is often, recommended to join X because it is seen that Y will make you resign in a few months and the intention of the increased salary is to get some time to find a new hire to fill your position.

Q2. If you are a Java Programmer and your Manager assigns you a task that requires you to work on Rust Programming Language. What will you do?

Inform Manager and do your best

Make a Rust Programming do it for you

Refuse to do the work

Give an excuse of another work

The best approach will be to inform your Manager that you code in Java and hence, it may take you some extra time to design and implement the solution in Rust. Following this, if the task is urgent, the Manager may decide to give it to another Engineer or ask you to do your best.

Q3. If you become the Team Leader of your team, what will you do first to make your Team productive?

Have 1 on 1 with Engineers

Fire useless Engineers

Hire Senior Engineers

Install AC

The first step should be to have 1 on 1 meetings with all Team Members so that you can understand the strengths, weakness and needs of every one. Based on this, you can make changes to improve efficiency by dividing tasks accordingly. Firing or Hiring should never be the first step or should wait at least 1 month to make a decision.

Q4. As COVID19 is back in control, Engineers are coming back to Office but the best Engineer in your team refuses to come back and insists on WFH (Work From Home). What will you do?

Inform HR / Manager

Replace the Engineer

Give special permission to WFH

Increase salary if he comes to Office

If an Employee refuses to follow a Company wide instruction, you shall inform the HR or Manager. Appropriate decision will be taken by them.

Q5. If you are stuck in a bug for 2 days, what will you do next?

Ask team member

Ask a freelancer

Try for a week

Give task to another team member

If you are stuck in a bug, you should inform other team members so that if they had encountered the same error before, they can help you instantly otherwise it will consume some of your time. You should never take help of a freelancer as it will leak Company sensitive information.

Q6. Is it fine to check your side online business on your Company laptop after work hours, provided you have completed all Office work?

Yes

Depends on business type

Depends on your position in Company

It is not fine to check your side online business on your Company laptop after work hours even if you have completed all Office work. This may raise a "Conflict of Interest" issue. If it fine to run your side business using your own machine and software provided it does not interfere with Office work where you work full-time.

Q7. What is your biggest weakness as a Programmer?

Dive into codebase directly

I take long time to write code

Cannot remember syntax

Do not like C++

One answer can be that you dive into codebase directly and in the process, refer documents when needed to understand the design. This is advantageous as it helps to get started quickly but may be disadvantageous in some cases. You are quick to identify bottlenecks and backtrack accordingly.

Q8. If you are given the task of writing an highly optimized code for a server client, which Programming Language will you choose?

Rust

C++

Java

GoLang

Rust is becoming the language of choice now-a-days. You must analyze the requirements of the task along with the skill set of your current team and based on it, you should make a decision on a Programming Language. If you can complete the task in C++ in 2 weeks but if you use Rust, it may take 6 weeks, then C++ may be the choice in most cases.

Q9. If two teams are working on the same task, what action will be take as a Project Manager?

Do Knowledge Sharing

Disolve other team

Merge both teams

Keep as it is

The best way to handle this situation is to do a knowledge sharing and then, do a new split of work and if possible, restructure the teams.

Q10. Tell me about a time when the feature you coded failed.

It was an experiment

It never failed.

Coded in wrong language

Segmentation fault

A good way to talk about a failure is to describe a situation when you planned to develop a prototype of a new idea quickly and test the performance. It may turn out the practical performance is not up to the mark.

Q11. Tell about a project that you did not like but had to work on.

Mention a project

Never did so

I do what I like

Cannot remember

The best way to answer this is to say that there were features you worked on previously which did not match your interests first but as you explored more, your interests grew. You must say that every project has an interesting idea behind it and the key is to understand it.

Q12. If you applied for a 2 weeks holiday after 2 years but your holiday request was rejected by your Manager. What will you do?

Apply long before

Apply again.

Complain to HR

Take 1 week holiday

For long pre-planned holidays, it is recommended that one apply at least 2 months before. This allows the team to reassign work accordingly so that your team can meet overall goal even with your absence.

Q13. Tell me about a time when you left work because of stress. What did you do?

Took rest for an hour

Applied for sick leave

Went out for a walk

Complain to HR

If you got stressed and the work is not urgent, it is recommended that you take a break and rest for some time. With a fresh mind, you can complete your work smoothly.

Q14. If you planned a leave 2 weeks back but you have no annual leave left expect sick leave. What will you do?

Inform Manager

Apply for sick leave

Make excuse on the day

Say no internet

If your leave is not related to a medical requirement, you should not take a sick leave. You may inform your Manager and he / she will definitely arrange a leave for you.

Q15. If your Sister needs to check her email on your Office Laptop urgently, what will you do?

Do not allow her

Allow her

Do it yourself for her

Ignore her

Ideally, you should not do anything else apart from Office work but in case of urgency, your office may not mind. Keep in mind that you should not leave your laptop open while you are away. It is your sister but someone may fool her and get their hands on your laptop.

Q16. If I as your Manager ask you to bring Coffee for me, what will you do?

Do it once

Report to HR

Refuse

Throw Coffee on face

You can do it the first time but make sure that it does not become a habit. Your job is to Program. If things go out of control, you make first talk to your Manager and still things does not improve, then report to HR. HR is your friend as they say.

Q17. If you team member presented your work as their, what will you do?

Inform Manager

Email CEO

Face the team member

Forget the event

If you team member presented your work as their, you should inform your manager first. Having proper credit of your work is important as it determines your salary increment and promotions. Always keep it clear what you did and what others did in your work.

Q18. Your Mother asks you to come to your home urgently but you have an important meeting with CEO. What will you do?

Go home

Attend meeting

Inform Manager

Take sick leave

Your rule should be "Family First". If your mother needs you urgently, go home and in the way if you get time, you should inform your manager or drop an email to CEO that you cannot attend. Everyone will understand.

Q19. Are you okay to work with Engineer with same pay but lower skill? They were hired to maintain diversity.

Yes, everyone has a skill

Yes, what can I do

No, if given a choice

This is a controversial topic and you should diverge it. You can make generic statements that they will be having a skill that will benefit the team and you have no problem to work with anyone. Put emphasis on the fact that you understand diversity is important and you are okay with it.

Q20. If you are working on programming an URGENT feature, how much time will you spend on documentation / comments?

10%

30%

90%

A good programmer will spend at least 10% of the time in documentation and in commenting. This helps keep the codebase manageable and maintain code standards. If undocumented and you face an error at the last moment, it may be difficult for other team members to help.

With this questions at OpenGenus, you must have a strong hold on Behavioral Questions for Coding Interviews. Best of luck for your Interview.