How have you handled obstacles that you've faced during information gathering processes in your time as a technical writer?

"Because the information gathering phase is a vital step in my finished projects, I take the time to meet as many credible sources as possible. This includes design engineers, automation engineers, product designers and many other folks and the biggest hiccup that I usually come across is coordinating time with folks that have busy schedules. To help minimize the total time frame for info gathering, I am very direct in my communications to key leaders that I want to meet with to finish a project and my directness is always taken well. Like any obstacle we face in our work, I find that being upfront and direct is the best manner for handling them."

To successfully document and write about software products, information gathering from subject matter experts will be a key part of your process if hired for this role at F5 Networks. As you have likely experienced during your career, the information gathering process can be one of the most painstaking processes within the life of a project. For this question, your interviewer is looking to hear what obstacles you have faced in this situation in the past and how you handled those situations. This will give them insight on how you will work as part of a larger team in handling these perceived obstacles if hired for this position.

"I'd say that one of the more common obstacles that I have faced in my current role as a technical writer is a lack of expectations from the experts that I consult with through the process. To better this over time, I have created a set of general expectations that I provide to people ahead of our meetings that help them prepare information ahead of time. This approach not only helps me get more relevant information up front, but also helps speed the information process up significantly."

F5 Networks embraces an Agile environment. Explain your experience in Agile methodologies and why you think it is important.

"The majority of my experience has been in an Agile environment. For ten years I have been personally responsible for leading agile teams, and I have helped define team goals and milestones. This approach is important to me as I see how Agile methodology helps employees deliver better products in less time. In my current role, team productivity increased by 34% once we introduced an Agile environment, and our on-time project rate skyrocketed another 18%."

The interviewer would like to understand the depth of your knowledge in Agile. The interviewer would also like to know if you work well with team collaboration, are responsive to stakeholder needs, and can work well with team defined milestones. Give a specific example of your experience.

"I especially want to work for F5 Networks because I have friends who have worked here before with really positive feedback on their experiences. I am looking for a positive work environment where I can stay for a long time to come."

"I am trained and practiced in Agile and SAFe 5.0. I have a SAFe 5.0 Product Owner/Product Manager certification. I have been the TMM PO since the beginning of Modular for the Data Plane. I led two Agile scrum teams defining our goals and priorities for 6 PIs in the delivery modular VE and SPK.Agile helps F5 deliver value to the customer and the business more quickly. Agile helps F5 better support our cloud-based customers through CI/CD. It provides the organization with the flexibility to adapt quickly to customer needs and requirements and changes in customer needs and requirements. We (F5 and our customers) also benefit and can make adjustments, from customer feedback much more quickly than if we were still on a waterfall methodology.The recent shift in priorities to VELOS from VE is one example of F5 benefitting from this flexibility."

What do you consider to be a good litmus test for when you would automate a test process for a new system versus testing manually?

"Having been in automation in both manufacturing for many years and now software for the last three years, a common misconception among people is that automation can help improve any situation and that couldn't be further from the truth. The amount of time, effort and resources that goes into an automation process makes it ideal for repetitive tasks and tests that have multiple data sets. If a testing process calls for unique and one time process, it would make the most sense to run that process manually."

As your role with F5 Networks will look to help further their automate testing processes for new systems, you will need to have a good sense for when automation makes sense and when it does not. Reiterate your sense for this to your interviewer by sticking to the high level response that repetitive tasks, as are common with large software companies, are prime candidates for automation whereas one time test cases are not.

"I"n my current position, most of the automation testing that I design is in program sanity testing. These automated tests work great because they run on similar systems following changes in code to ensure that no bugs remain in the system. If our group of engineers are working on unique, one off type projects, my automation processes are not utilized."

"Repetitive testing with multiple variations - AutomateOne time tests - manual"

Give an example of a time that you used a universal design practice in your work as a UI or UX designer. Why was it important to do this?

"From a very high level, the business success of a program really relies on being universally designed. If we pigeon hole ourselves, a product will only reach a very limited group of end users. But taking that a step further, universal design is the morally right thing to do to help reach people that may not have access to the average program design. Last year, I was part of a project that utilized a voice user interface for users that were deaf or hard of hearing. This simple yet effective design was a huge win for our current customers and in helping drive new business with our groundbreaking software."

In the technology, software and mobile app fields today, accessibility is a huge topic. As a designer with F5 Networks, you will be expected to help create products that are as accessible as possible to as many end users as possible. In this two part question, talk about why you feel that universal design is important in the work that you will be doing with F5 Networks and then really sell your ability to do this by giving an example of a time you used a universal design in your previous work.

"Early in my career, the best piece of advice that I receive was from an experience designer and she said that when UX doesn't consider all potential users, we are no longer working on the user experience. We live in a very diverse world and the programs that I've designed for in the past have certainly had the goal to reach a wide audience. With your financial products here at F5 Networks, this same philosophy applies. Last year, based on some feedback from current customers, we switched our design to include a strong color contract to make the system much more user friendly to color blind users. This was both a simple and very effective change to enhance the look of the program."

"Not relevant to the position for which I'm applying"

Talk about a time when things didn't go as planned on the job. What was the situation and what allowed your to persevere in that situation?

"A couple of years ago in my first role as a UI designer out of college, my team was tasked with coming up with a very short notice proposal for a potential high end customer. With a week turnaround time, I set right to spending my time gathering information on the company to build a mock design. When the proposal was submitted, I found out that the potential customer scoffed at my idea and the customer went with another organization's proposal for their use. The biggest piece of feedback that I got was that the UI design just wasn't conducive to the type of customers they were expecting. From that point forward, whether it has been with short notice or long-term products, I take the time to communicate with key decision makers from clients to gather information for making my design as user friendly as possible."

As a professional in the tech industry, you have likely had a project that failed, a promotion that passed you over or a meltdown occur at some point in time. Realizing that your interviewer fully understands and expects that failure happens, talk openly and honestly about a situation where you experienced failure or failed plans. Most importantly in your answer, focus on how you overcame the particular situation and discuss lessons that you learned moving forward that you can bring to this role at F5 Networks.

"Last year, I was working on a large scale project that put me face to face with a key customer. After traveling onsite with the customer to spend time with them, I exchanged contact information with two of the key decision makers. In the weeks following, I was sending them follow up emails with our business proposals and was getting frustrated at the lack of response from the clients. After my manager had questioned the viability of the potential customer, I picked up the phone and called them directly. It turns out that their responses back to me were being sent to a junk email folder that I neglected to consider. I apologized for the mistake, took action quickly and we came to a great agreement on future business together. After having a laugh about it with my boss, I now incorporate diligent communication follow ups both by phone and email with customers while also regularly checking all email inboxes."

In SQL, how do you explain the differences between clustered and non-clustered indexes? Can you name a time that you used each?

"In the simplest of terms, a clustered index order records in a table the way that they are physically stored. There can only be one clustered index per table. Non-clustered indexes do not store data to match the physical order that it is stored. Rather, it can hold up to 249 indexes per table. Both types come with their own benefits over the other. In my experience, clustered indexes are suited best for programs that use primary key as an identity integer column. On the other hand, non-clustered make the most sense for programs that need JOIN and WHERE clauses within them."

F5 Networks uses indexes to improve query performances within their software and for this question, your interviewer is looking to hear that you have a basic understanding of both clustered and non-clustered indexes. Explain the differences between the two types of indexes and be sure you can either speak to relevant times that you've used each or when would be the appropriate application to use each.

"In my experience, clustered indexes are faster to read but very slow when it comes to update data within. Non-clustered indexes are just the opposite in that they are slower to read but much fast to insert new data into them. In my current role, I mostly use clustered indexes when large numbers of rows need to be retreived and when insert operations are important. Most other times, I will use non-clustered as the standard."

What unique values can you bring to F5 Networks in your user experience design skills?

"I have really taken pride in my ability to add value to the business needs of the customers that I work with. During any design project, I take the time to work with end users to find their wants and needs out of the program. Then, as I create the UX design, I keep their needs at the forefront and do anything possible to exceed their expectations."

While your interviewer has shown confidence in your technical abilities to succeed at F5 Networks as a UX designer, this question is helping them gain insight into your ability to see the big picture in the work that you do. As you think about the unique personal values that you would bring to the role, try and paint a picture of your work tying to the end user and how you can help make it more productive, enjoyable and satisfying for them.

"As you can see from my resume, I have formal training and experience in user experience research and I know that this would benefit the work that I would be doing here at F5 Networks if hired for this position. I pursued this additional training in my career because of my passion for the customer journey in the programs that I design."

What do you see as the top benefits of moving to a cloud based computing platform?

"Over the past couple of years in my current position, we have greatly benefited from the vast amount of testing and staging servers that available on the cloud. In developing new programs, our testing and delivery has greatly increased our team's productivity to new levels. Add on the simple cost savings of the cloud and a move to the cloud was a no brainer for us in the end. If hired for this role here at F5 Networks, I'd be able to bring new cloud computing ideas to your team from day one on the job."

While cloud based computing has certainly had its positive impacts across many different industries, the field of software and technology development has its own unique benefits. For this question, your interviewer will be looking to hear that you understand just how a cloud based platform benefits the field. In your answer, focus on resources that impact both the work that the team at F5 Networks performs and the end users of the software.

"As with any of the work that I have done in this field, I focus on the consumer and the benefits that they can reap from my work. In the cloud, updates to existing software are made available almost instantaneously and end users have access to those updates with the simple click of a button. Rewind to years prior, these software updates took time and manpower that are almost unthinkable by today's standards."

Talk about a recent successful project that you worked on that required you to navigate some troubled waters during the project. What were the roadblocks and how did you overcome them?

"A couple of years ago, I was the lead architect on a new software package that we were developing. As in any project, I was tasked with reviewing and approving the code the would be enveloped in the software. Because the final code impacted our potential clients and this was certainly a unique package we were developing, I proposed putting together a focus panel of existing clients to discuss potential needs out of a new system. My senior leaders were very reluctant to do this as they didn't want any word getting out about the program in its infancy. Knowing that we really wanted their feedback to start the coding process, I worked with our sales staff to build a list of our most dedicated customers. Then, I approached out leadership with this group and they approved without reluctance. After putting together the focus panel and gathering their thoughts, we built a phenomenal program that exceeded all of our sales and performance expectations."

While your resume and your past experiences can easily show your interview that you have the technical abilities for this position with F5 Networks, your interviewer needs some insight on your problem solving skills. This question allows your interviewer a chance to see how you handle adversity by using resources available to you. In your answer, talk about your ability to think critically and leverage people and resources to the advantage of beating a roadblock in your work. Make sure that your answer provides an example of a project that ended in success.

"I know that a large part of my success in the software architecture field is due to my ability to work collaboratively with others and provide mentorship to those on my team. On a recent project, I faced a design engineer that was very rigid in their ways and was unable to conform with new requirements for a system we were designing. In one of our first planning meetings, it became very evident that he would be unwilling to change in his ways. Being a person that wants to talk things out before escalating things further, I invited him to my office to talk one on one. I used a very educational approach to explain why we would be using the process we would be and I encouraged his participation in that approach. He hesitantly agreed. As we moved from design phase to the implementation phase, the engineer went right back to his old way of doing things and not embracing our new process. Rather than upsetting the entire project time, I immediately approached the engineer with a your either on board the ship or off the ship approach. Rather quickly, he asked that his seat on the team be reassigned to another engineer. In doing that quickly, our project was back up and running with success."

If hired for this position at F5 Networks, what leadership skills would you bring to our team?

"I would say that my credibility is my best leadership skill. My openness and honesty suits me well when working among a team of individuals and this helps them gain trust in following my lead when working on projects. Another skill I would bring here to F5 Networks would be my ability to lead by example. I'm not afraid to take a risk in seeking innovation and I've been commended for this trait many times by my current manager."

While this position at F5 Networks may not hold the title of manager, supervisor or director, the organization firmly believes that employees that demonstrate key leadership qualities are better set for future career success. Aside from that, leadership skills help you work better as part of a larger team and with potential customers as well. Prior to your interview, think about one or two leadership qualities that you possess and talk in detail about how you've exemplified those qualities in the past.

"If you were to offer this position to me, you'd quickly find that my positive attitude is an inspiration to those that I work closely with. In my current job, we work under the constant stress of tight deadlines and my positivity can be infectious to help others maintain their focus when negativity can easily take over in most situations. I would say that my other strong suit as a natural leader is my ability to be fluid on a day to day basis. Sometimes our world can be monotonous and when change comes, most resist that change. For me, change is a chance to break the current mold and grow as an employee."

Here at F5 Networks, we subscribe to the domain-driven design approach for our customers. If hired for this role, what will you do in your first 90 days on the job to ensure you can sustain in this job with that approach?

"In my current role, I've worked with large plastics and metals manufacturers in a domain-driven design approach and this required me to step outside of my comfort zone to learn manufacturing processes along the way in designing great products for that industry. If hired here at F5 Networks, the financial industry would become my new passion in life to learn and understand. I know that my role as a software architect would require that I have a great working knowledge of the industry and I am willing to do what is necessary to get there."

Simply put, domain-driven design is the concept of utilizing the business needs of the end user in designing and creating software for them. To do this, the software architects at F5 Networks need to have a firm understanding of the problems that their customers face and how the software they develop will help tackle those problems. For this question, be sure to do your research on F5 Networks and the products they put to market and discuss how you will take the time to learn about the industries necessary to implement the domain-driven design approach.

"If I were lucky enough to be offered this position, my work would be dedicated to learning the property and casualty insurance industries inside and out. I would do this through talking with colleagues and customers to learn how our products help our end users succeed. If needed, I would also take the time to read more on the industry as well."

At F5 Networks, we rely on a full team effort to deliver top quality products to our customers. Tell me about a time that you worked well as part of a team. Are you comfortable in a similar role here?

"Throughout my career, I've always enjoyed working as part of a larger team on the job and this personal enjoyment started with my love of and participation in team sports like baseball and basketball. Growing up playing sports, I learned that each team member brought a unique skill set that could help us achieve our goals. Through a great coaching staff that knew how to make these individual skills shine, this same philosophy holds true for a team that is looking to design a new software system. I know that my skills as an engineer are just part of the final product and I work very well with designers, architects, analysts and sales to help build the greatest system possible."

While this potential role with F5 Networks will require your to be an independent worker that can think on your feet, you will also need to work as part of a larger team that is working toward one common goal. Because of this fact, your interviewer will want to hear that you thrive in an environment where you work with team members from other disciplines than you are trained in. In your example, stress to your interviewer that you have excellent communication skills and that you fully understand that every person on a team plays a vital role in the organization's success.

"I am a people person by nature and my current role has me working very closely with our engineering and design staff on writing technical manuals for our products. While I certainly can handle long days at my computer in solitude, my desire to work hand in hand with others really sets me apart from my peers in this field. I have excellent verbal, listening and written communication skills that, if hired here at F5 Networks, your entire team would appreciate from my first day on the job."

What SDLC models are you familiar in working with?

"During my training in software engineering and in my early career, the waterfall model was the standard. In this model, each phase of the development process happens in a set order and projects using this model are easily managed. But over time, as the development projects that I have led have become more complicated and intricate, I have implemented the spiral model. This model has allowed the ability of end users to give feedback early on and often during development and helps to build a more customized product to our customers."

As a software engineer, you are very familiar with the software development life cycle. For this question, your interviewer is looking to hear what models you have worked on in the past. While there isn't necessarily a right or wrong answer to this question, try to show your flexibility to working with different SDLC models by bringing up your past experiences. Then, show you have knowledge of different models like the waterfall model or agile model. It is also a good idea to use this question as an opportunity for you to learn more about F5 Networks by asking your interviewer which model they work off of.

"In my current position with XYZ Company, my department utilizes the agile model in development life cycle. Since our products are so tailored to the needs of our customers, we get a working product very early on in the process and then I work hand in hand with customers to fine tune the software moving forward. It is a very effective model that has built a great reputation for our software among customers. I also have familiarity working with the iterative model and it has similar advantages to the agile model. If I were hired here at F5 Networks, can you expand on what models you use here in your software development life cycle?"

What software analysis and design tools do you have familiarity working with?

"As my career and experience in software engineering has grown over the years, I've come to really appreciate and utilize these tools that are available. A great example of this would be my recent education and use of Structured English for designing insurance claim software for a large auto insurer. The simplicity of the structured decisions in the program were a perfect example of a program that could utilize the tool and the end product ended up very functional for our customer."

As a software engineer for F5 Networks, your interviewer wants to hear that you have experience in utilizing tools that you make you more proficient in your work. Dig back on your past experiences and talk openly about your experiences with the different analysis and design tools that are available to help you be better in the work that you do. In the end, make sure that your interviewer understands that you are proficient in the use of these tools and open to learning and using new tools as well.

"I have great working knowledge in creating and reading data flow diagrams. To help with both our own sales staff and with customers, DFD's have been super helpful and I consider myself very proficient in creating them. I've also recently been introduced to decision tables to aid in product testing. I was working on a new system that involved some very complicated business rules and the decision table helped outline everything perfectly for our testing."

What publication tools do you have experience working on during your time as a technical writer?

"For document processing, I would consider myself on expert on both Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker. I have received extensive training on both programs. I also would consider myself very fluent in Microsoft Visio for creating robust diagrams within my projects. A newer system that I have been learning over the past two years is Calameo. My current organization utilizes the site to share my departments online through interactive publications."

On top of the basic word processing tools, your interviewer will be looking to hear that you have familiarity with some of the various diagramming tools, online content management tools and other digital publishing tools. Be open and honest with what you are experienced with and don't hesitate to point out where you may be inexperienced, as long as you can point out that you are willing and able to learn new tools of the trade.

"Having been in the technical writing trade for almost 20 years now, I sure have seen an array of great advancements in technology that has bettered my work over time. Other than the basic processing tools, one of the unique tools that I have mastered is Sublime Text. This HTML editor is used to write the basis of our website and technical documents online and I have received a lot of training on utilizing the system. With my experience on this system, I feel like I could flawlessly learn and master other HTML editors here at F5 Networks."

What would you say is your top non-technical skill that will help you succeed in this role here at F5 Networks?

"As I grew in the software development field over my career, I was best suited to be a architect because of my ability to be a great project manager. If hired for this role here at F5 Networks, you'll quickly find that I have the ability to lead others, negotiate, budget and oversee a project from idea to final delivery."

As a software architect at F5 Networks, you will be relied upon to be the bridge to between the business and technical side of the organization. Your work my be relied upon to work within many silos of the organization. Because of this need, your interviewer is asking you to dig deep inside of yourself and talk about what you feel is your greatest skill to help you do this that is outside of your technical ability. As you prepare for this question, there are many ways that you can answer. No matter how you answer, be sure that your answer relates to your ability to work with other people in some way, shape or form.

"From a self introspection point of view, I think that my ability to be empathetic towards others that I work with has led to a huge amount of my success in the software architecture field. While I do have the technical skills to do great things here at F5 Networks, my ability to learn from others, see their point of view and become a great teach to them when needed will really set me apart from others that you are interviewing for this position. If given the opportunity to work here, this skills will greatly improve the team atmosphere."

Our cloud computing at F5 Networks requires our experts to take proper security measures in their work. What security measures are you familiar with utilizing in a cloud platform?

"For me, the planning stage of the cloud deployment process really sets the groundwork for security in a project. In my current role, each project adopts a cloud framework that suits the project the best. This framework is the base for our security measures in the cloud. From there, I always look to utilize a cloud service that encrypts our data and take all measures to steer away from storing sensitive information within the cloud. Last, as with any project, I help implement strict testing measures to check on the security of our cloud operations."

As with any server or database storage, unique security risks are posed to organizations that have moved their data and applications to the cloud. At F5 Networks, part of your role will be to ensure that all security measures are in place with the organizations data in the cloud and your interviewer is looking to hear that you are familiar with diagnosing security risks and taking action to prevent them with this question. Talk about your knowledge of the different cloud service providers and other security measures that you are familiar with taking in your work.

"In my current role, the biggest security risks that we face are loss of sensitive data and malware infections. To take all security measures possible, our first plan of attack for security is to ensure that all of our data is backed up locally with electronic copies of data. To prevent malware in all ways possible, we have implemented a strict password strength policy and we install anti-virus software in our own equipment and recommend that customers do the same as well."

In your current work, what are the important steps you take in the data validation process?

"As I embark on a data validation process in my current role, my first step is to roadmap a detailed plan to keep on task. I utilize benchmarks and the expectations of key stakeholders as my guide. Once underway, I validate the database and the data formatting to ensure that data is properly screened for its overall health. Then, by finishing with sampling, tests are performed to hopefully show that the data is useful within the system."

Depending on your training and your past roles prior to interviewing at F5 Networks, you may be familiar with one or two of the many trains of though regarding the steps of a data validation. Whatever formal process you are familiar with, be sure to check the boxes of discussing data screening and data verification as part of your process. Your interviewer will be looking to hear that you check those boxes as they are imperative in the software field.

"The most important steps in a data validation process are determining the data to sample, scouring the existing database and validating the final data format. My first step is to use my best judgment to determine if I will validate a sample or the entire data set. This determination is based on overall size of the set and the timeframe that I have to work on the project. Then, I take the time to screen data in the existing database to calculate the number of unique ID's and records to come into the system. Last, I have to verify that the source data matches the schema within the targe"

"Before division operations, ensure denominators are non-zero. Before using pointers, especially pointers passed into functions as parameters, check that the pointer is not 0 and is greater than the upper memory area address reserved for the system stack. Used table lookup in the use case tool to constrain the user input to existing values in the database."

What experience do you have in the different types of software maintenance?

"Being familiar with all four types of software maintenance, my most used method of maintenance in my current role is corrective. Based on bug reports from end users, I work through coding and logic issues to resolve issues in a timely and effective manner. In the maintenance I perform, I never hesitate to pick up the phone and contact customers to hear first hand about what they are experiencing. By doing this, they feel like they are an important part of the process and it reflects well on me and my organization."

As a reputable company, F5 Networks takes their software maintenance processes seriously and your interviewer is looking to hear that you are familiar with the four different types of software maintenance. Talk to your interviewer about any work you have done in the past with corrective, adaptive, perfective and/or preventative software maintenance. Use specific examples and make sure that your interviewer walks away from your conversation knowing that you understand the importance of proper system maintenance.

"In my current role, I'd definitely say that a majority of the maintenance work that I do is adaptive maintenance. Working in banking software that is used around the globe, I help perform system maintenance for changes in currency on a pretty regular basis. This work requires research and talking with end users to help adapt the programs for their use. If hired here at F5 Networks, I also have experience performing perfective, preventative and corrective maintenance on software as well."

"My software maintenance experience is mostly in the areas of corrective and perfective software maintenance. Early in mBIP, I did champion a preventive maintenance activity to optimize the design of the monitoring subsystem so it is architecture-independent. Adaptive - adapted the company's complete software portfolio to 64-bit architectures for 64-bit Solaris, UNIX, HPUX, and Linux."

Tell me about your greatest work related accomplishment.

"The greatest accomplishment in my career was graduating University as an honors student while still working full time in a related field. I was top of my class, and working full time. This accomplishment showed me that I could dedicate myself to my career, and reach the goals that I set for myself. It felt great to accomplish so much and be recognized for my dedication."

Talking about your most significant accomplishment will give the interviewer a firm idea of where you place your values. It will also show the interviewer more about your personality, how you like to be motivated, and how to coach you in the future. It is okay to brag a little bit when answering this question. Show that you are proud of yourself and your career accomplishments!

"My greatest work-related accomplishment was the management promotion I received at Company X after just one year. I worked very hard for that promotion and was so happy when my work and dedication was rewarded. It kick-started my career."

"Adax and Alcatel? $1.8B Win? System Test Automation of new Web-based Service Ticketing System?"

Do you have experience working with different CASE tools? If so, what do you have experience with?

"In my current role, I regularly utilize both diagramming and web development tools. The diagram tools assist our software projects by outlining the system data and components in a graphical form for us and this saves us a great amount of time while also being very reliable. The web development tools greatly help me visualize site changes that I am making because I don't have a deep background in web development. If hired for this position, I'd look forward to learning other CASE tools for prototyping, quality assurance and maintenance."

The world of software engineering has greatly benefited from advancements in computer aided software engineering tools. Because F5 Networks is at the forefront of the industry, your interviewer will be looking to hear which tools you have experience with. Make sure not to concern yourself with providing a correct answer here, but rather focus on your flexibility to learn new aides when needed while explaining what you have experience with.

"During my career and in my experience with CASE tools, most of my experience is in the lower CASE elements that focus on coding and testing the software after initial development. CASE tools have certainly made life as a software engineer more efficient and effective and I'd look forward to learn any new CASE tools if hired for this position here at F5 Networks."

"I have used CASE tools personally for defect reporting and tracking, configuration management, and software manufacturing. SCCS, Sublime, git and Make are four specific CASE tool instances I am familiar with. When I was at Bell Labs, Sublime and Make were used to manage, manufacture and maintain the code for the wireless mobile switching center (MSC) software and the base station software. I am very familiar with Bugzilla and Jira as defect reporting and tracking tools. We're using Bugzilla, Jira, git, Make and git's CI/CD runner architecture on mbip. I'm also aware of IDEs like Eclipse and would like to know how our TMM developers could benefit from IDEs and CASE tools that encompass the full SW design lifecycle."

What do you feel are the primary features and benefits of the Java programming language?

"When I started working with Java three years ago, the first huge benefit was the fact that the Java syntax was based on C++. At that time, I had a great working knowledge of C++ and my transition to Java was absolutely seamless. The other amazing feature that I've come to appreciate with Java is how robust the memory management is in exception handling and automatic garbage collection."

As a company that utilizes Java, F5 Networks and your interviewer want to make sure that you have an understanding of the Java programming language and they do so by asking this question. Obviously a language packed with unique features, talk about the features that you can speak the most knowledgeably about and tie your direct experience to.

"Java is platform-independent - it is highly portable across many platforms/architectures. it can run on any system that has a Byte code interpreter. It's pure object-oriented programming; programs can be coded in the manner that objects are used and function in their applications. Java does not support pointers; the application is more reliable, it is protected from the programmer misusing pointers that can cause data corruption and process crashes. Also, Java's multi-threading leverages, multi-core architectures, and distributed applications (micro-services) are supported out of the box. With the JRE, Java is one of the most secure programming languages"

What is one thing that really tests your patience when dealing with your coworkers?

"As a person that values diversity and differences of opinion in the workplace, there aren't many things that grind my personal gears when it comes to my colleagues. The only real true test of my patience is a coworker that doesn't pull their weight in a team effort. When I've been in this situation in the past, I first seek to learn if the issue is a lack of training or knowledge. If it is, I take the necessary steps to help my colleague get on track. But if I find that it is due to a lack of effort, I talk to the person immediately in a professional manner. The sum is only as good as the effort of all of its parts and a team efforts requires everyone's maximum effort."

While on the surface this question may seem like your interviewer is trying to get you to talk negatively about a situation, it is really more of a test to see what can potentially drive you crazy on the job in a team atmosphere and how you handle those situations. In your answer, be honest about your pet peeves when it comes to coworkers and do so in a positive light. Then, expand on your answer by talking about how you handle those situations."As a person that values diversity and differences of opinion in the workplace, there aren't many things that grind my personal gears when it comes to my colleagues. The only real true test of my patience is a coworker that doesn't pull their weight in a team effort. When I've been in this situation in the past, I first seek to learn if the issue is a lack of training or knowledge. If it is, I take the necessary steps to help my colleague get on track. But if I find that it is due to a lack of effort, I talk to the person immediately in a professional manner. The sum is only as good as the effort of all of its parts and a team efforts requires everyone's maximum effort."

"Having been raised in a rural farm setting, I have always been a stickler for being on time and holding meetings to set lengths of time. While watching people show up late for meetings has bothered me internally because of how I am wired, I don't let it bother me on the exterior. We are all very busy in our lines of work and showing up a few minutes late is only normal from time to time."

"I can become very impatient with people attending any kind (zoom, conference call, conference room) meeting who do not pay attention to the conversation and continually ask for points or questions to be re-stated when they are directly asked questions. I've addressed this shortcoming by being mindful of my thoughts and letting go of any resulting hostility."

Do you have any unique skills or past work experiences that we can't see on your resume that would benefit the team here at F5 Networks?

"In my current role as a data engineer, I have gotten the opportunity over the last five years to work with clients in many industries. One of the industries that I've worked most closely with has been the private insurance industry. This experience and my gaining of insider knowledge in the insurance industry would benefit me greatly if brought aboard the team here at F5 Networks."

This question is providing you the opportunity to potentially set yourself apart from your competition for this position. To do just that, it will be important for you to make sure that the unique skill or experience that you discuss matches with a critical need for F5 Networks and the position that you are interviewing for. Whether you talk about a unique skill or experience, your research on this job will prove vital in your ability to make sure that it impresses your interviewer.

"My work at _____ managing the development of high bandwidth hardware and software protocol products for seven years gave me the opportunity to understand and practice the software engineering fundamentals essential to delivering and supporting high-performance application data products. This experience is a direct match to the TMM product and the requirements of the position."

If hired here at F5 Networks, what do you feel would be the biggest hurdle for you to overcome from the start?

"As you can see from my resume, I don't have any direct working experience with the financial industry and I would see that as my largest learning opportunity if offered this position. Like I did with my current job in the healthcare industry, I would take the time to learn the basics of the industry that would help me design the most intuitive user interfaces in the products here at F5 Networks."

The key to answering this question with confidence starts with understanding that you are interviewing with F5 Networks because your interviewer feels that you are a strong candidate for this position. What your interviewer is focusing on with this question is how they could be of most help to you if hired for the job. So, take the time prior to your interview to think about an aspect of the position that would be the most difficult for you to overcome to be up and running at full speed and then take time to explain how you would plan to overcome that hurdle if hired. This structured answer will tell your interviewer that you have put thought to your potential shortcoming with a plan of action.

"Being a team player by nature, I've always considered my first challenge at any new company to be the task of getting to know my colleagues, their work preferences and their work styles. In the same breath, I want them to know who I am and how I best work as part of a team with them. To accomplish this, I would take the initiative to set one on one meetings with individuals that I didn't get to touch base with during my orientation process to get to know them better."

"The biggest hurdle I anticipate with this position is becoming a functioning member of the team of my peers. I have worked with the managers that report to Satoshi in the past and I am somewhat familiar with them. However, as a management team member I want to know what they expect of me and I want them to know what they can depend on me for. I will schedule regular 1:1 with each of them to begin this process and to sustain the feedback channel going forward."

Talk about your previous user interface design experience in detail. Why do you feel that this experience will translate well to this role with F5 Networks?

"Ten years into my career out of college, I consider myself very blessed to have such a well rounded background in user interface design. I have experience designing cutting edge mobile app designs, website design, video game design and software design. Here at F5 Networks, your education software would greatly benefit from my creative designs to be user friendly and appealing to educators, parents and students and I'd love to bring these skills to work for you."

While your interviewer can get a good sense of your experience from your resume, they are looking for you to talk in details about your experiences in UI design in your previous work. While explaining your previous experience, be sure to highlight the skills that you developed that will help you be successful in designing new products with F5 Networks. Prior to your interview, be sure you research and are family with the products that F5 Networks puts out.

"While my experience in user interface design has really focused on web design over the past five years, I think my current skill set will benefit the team here at F5 Networks greatly. In my web design, I prepare mockups and wireframes for customers and have experience utilizing a lot of different resources in doing these. In the software world, I would love to use these same principles. As well, my web experience has really driven me to be user focused. In this role, a more user focused drive is required out of your user interface design and I would be able to bring that to the team here."

Here at F5 Networks, we ask our test engineers to follow specific QA protocols. What role do you feel QA plays in software development and testing?

"As a test engineer, I take great pride in my role of ensuring that systems go out to consumers as error free as possible. In my current role, I take the time to learn all of the system specifications that are laid out by our design engineers and customize my testing to follow those specifications."

As an experience software testing engineer, quality assurance should be ingrained in your brain and your interviewer is looking to get a sense of your personal feelings towards it in your work with this question. In your answer, be sure to highlight QA's importance in reducing errors, maintaining specifications, testing failure parameters and preventing defects from occurring. In the end, make sure that quality is your mantra in the eyes of your interviewer by giving an example or two of how you put QA in the forefront of your work.

"In my work throughout my career, quality assurance in my testing was an every minute of every day job on my part. While creating effective testing processes on new software is extremely important in following QA protocols, the recording of defects, issuing of reports and assisting the designers on fixing issues are equally important parts of the process that I'd love to let shine here at F5 Networks."

"The role QA plays in software development and testing is to ensure 1) there is no regression as a result of repairs being made or new features being introduced to the product 2) the product functions to expectations for the full range of customer use cases it has been defined to support by-product management and inherent dev practices. Every defect found by a customer is more expensive to the company (in $$ and lost opportunity cost or +overhead and customer satisfaction) than finding and repairing it before it's released. One measure: faults found internally / (total faults) if < 1 is undesirable."

What programming languages would you consider yourself fluent in?

"From the start of college, where software engineering grew into a passion for me, I've become very fluent in Java, JavaScript and C++. My current role has me working primarily with C++, but I pride myself on my ability and passion to learn new programming languages and would be able to do so if hired for this role with F5 Networks."

While this question gives your interviewer insight into the diversity of your programming language experience, they most importantly want to know that you are adaptable and able to learn on the fly if needed. Talk about the different languages that you consider yourself fluent in and, if possible, do as much research into F5 Networks as you can prior to your interview and try to speak to the specific languages that they work with.

"During my training to be an engineer and then in my current role since graduating, a majority of my experience falls within Python. My current role delves deeply into artificial intelligence and Python is awesome with this advanced technology. As I understand it from talking to another engineer here at F5 Networks, a requirement would be for me to learn Scala. Though I haven't worked directly with Scala, I believe my experience and willingness to learn would have me up and running in no time if hired for this role."

F5 Networks Interview Questions

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1. How have you handled obstacles that you've faced during information gathering processes in your time as a technical writer?
2. F5 Networks embraces an Agile environment. Explain your experience in Agile methodologies and why you think it is important.
3. What do you consider to be a good litmus test for when you would automate a test process for a new system versus testing manually?
4. Give an example of a time that you used a universal design practice in your work as a UI or UX designer. Why was it important to do this?
5. Talk about a time when things didn't go as planned on the job. What was the situation and what allowed your to persevere in that situation?
6. In SQL, how do you explain the differences between clustered and non-clustered indexes? Can you name a time that you used each?
7. What unique values can you bring to F5 Networks in your user experience design skills?
8. What do you see as the top benefits of moving to a cloud based computing platform?
9. Talk about a recent successful project that you worked on that required you to navigate some troubled waters during the project. What were the roadblocks and how did you overcome them?
10. If hired for this position at F5 Networks, what leadership skills would you bring to our team?
11. Here at F5 Networks, we subscribe to the domain-driven design approach for our customers. If hired for this role, what will you do in your first 90 days on the job to ensure you can sustain in this job with that approach?
12. At F5 Networks, we rely on a full team effort to deliver top quality products to our customers. Tell me about a time that you worked well as part of a team. Are you comfortable in a similar role here?
13. What SDLC models are you familiar in working with?
14. What software analysis and design tools do you have familiarity working with?
15. What publication tools do you have experience working on during your time as a technical writer?
16. What would you say is your top non-technical skill that will help you succeed in this role here at F5 Networks?
17. Our cloud computing at F5 Networks requires our experts to take proper security measures in their work. What security measures are you familiar with utilizing in a cloud platform?
18. In your current work, what are the important steps you take in the data validation process?
19. What experience do you have in the different types of software maintenance?
20. Tell me about your greatest work related accomplishment.
21. Do you have experience working with different CASE tools? If so, what do you have experience with?
22. What do you feel are the primary features and benefits of the Java programming language?
23. What is one thing that really tests your patience when dealing with your coworkers?
24. Do you have any unique skills or past work experiences that we can't see on your resume that would benefit the team here at F5 Networks?
25. If hired here at F5 Networks, what do you feel would be the biggest hurdle for you to overcome from the start?
26. Talk about your previous user interface design experience in detail. Why do you feel that this experience will translate well to this role with F5 Networks?
27. Here at F5 Networks, we ask our test engineers to follow specific QA protocols. What role do you feel QA plays in software development and testing?
28. What programming languages would you consider yourself fluent in?

F5 Networks Interview Questions

1. How have you handled obstacles that you've faced during information gathering processes in your time as a technical writer?

2. F5 Networks embraces an Agile environment. Explain your experience in Agile methodologies and why you think it is important.

3. What do you consider to be a good litmus test for when you would automate a test process for a new system versus testing manually?

4. Give an example of a time that you used a universal design practice in your work as a UI or UX designer. Why was it important to do this?

5. Talk about a time when things didn't go as planned on the job. What was the situation and what allowed your to persevere in that situation?

6. In SQL, how do you explain the differences between clustered and non-clustered indexes? Can you name a time that you used each?

7. What unique values can you bring to F5 Networks in your user experience design skills?

8. What do you see as the top benefits of moving to a cloud based computing platform?

9. Talk about a recent successful project that you worked on that required you to navigate some troubled waters during the project. What were the roadblocks and how did you overcome them?

10. If hired for this position at F5 Networks, what leadership skills would you bring to our team?

11. Here at F5 Networks, we subscribe to the domain-driven design approach for our customers. If hired for this role, what will you do in your first 90 days on the job to ensure you can sustain in this job with that approach?

12. At F5 Networks, we rely on a full team effort to deliver top quality products to our customers. Tell me about a time that you worked well as part of a team. Are you comfortable in a similar role here?

13. What SDLC models are you familiar in working with?

14. What software analysis and design tools do you have familiarity working with?

15. What publication tools do you have experience working on during your time as a technical writer?

16. What would you say is your top non-technical skill that will help you succeed in this role here at F5 Networks?

17. Our cloud computing at F5 Networks requires our experts to take proper security measures in their work. What security measures are you familiar with utilizing in a cloud platform?

18. In your current work, what are the important steps you take in the data validation process?

19. What experience do you have in the different types of software maintenance?

20. Tell me about your greatest work related accomplishment.

21. Do you have experience working with different CASE tools? If so, what do you have experience with?

22. What do you feel are the primary features and benefits of the Java programming language?

23. What is one thing that really tests your patience when dealing with your coworkers?

24. Do you have any unique skills or past work experiences that we can't see on your resume that would benefit the team here at F5 Networks?

25. If hired here at F5 Networks, what do you feel would be the biggest hurdle for you to overcome from the start?

26. Talk about your previous user interface design experience in detail. Why do you feel that this experience will translate well to this role with F5 Networks?

27. Here at F5 Networks, we ask our test engineers to follow specific QA protocols. What role do you feel QA plays in software development and testing?

28. What programming languages would you consider yourself fluent in?