In your mind, when is monkey testing the most effective in testing new software?

"In my experience, monkey testing has been very effective in load testing and stress testing new software as standard testing methods couldn't do this without a lot of extra work. Because of the adhoc approach to the testing, load and stress on the software was most highly gauged through monkey testing."

By utilizing random inputs to check the behavior of a program, monkey testing has its time and place in the software testing process. For this question, your interviewer is looking to hear that you have an understanding of the theory behind monkey testing and how you would look to put it to work at Hippo to test their products.

"Because monkey testing is able to find unique bugs that standard testing won't find, I've found it to be very effective for testing new pilot software programs that are reaching new bounds. At my current job, I helped design a brilliant monkey testing process that utilized user behavior to look for certain probabilities of bugs within our systems that we were designing."

As you reflect back on your career to this point in your search for a new position, what would you say is your ideal work environment or culture?

"As I begin this job search now 15 years out of college, I'm looking for an employer that promotes and encourages innovation, new ideas and collaboration among all members of the team. From what I know about Hippo from speaking with others, you sound like a perfect match for what I am looking for in a career."

While using this question as a key indicator on how you'll fit with the team and the organization at Hippo, it will be very important for you to research as much as you can on the work environment at Hippo so you can match your priorities to that environment. If you have the opportunity to speak with an employee at Hippo prior to your interview, that can shed valuable information. In the end, the culture and value of an organization are often a key indicator of long-term success in a job, so make sure that you reflect your values into what the company values.

"With all of the companies that I have both worked for and consulted with in the past, I realize that a company culture is basically the personality of the company and I am looking for a new organization that really meshes well with my personality. I am a casual person that believes in hard work, teamwork and having fun on the job. As I embarked on a job search, I was so happy to see that Hippo was hiring because I believe our styles will fit perfectly together."

If you were confronted with a time where you wouldn't be able to meet a deadline here at Hippo, what steps would you take when you made that realization?

"In my current position, I am very used to handling multiple tasks and projects on a day to day basis. Last year, my team was tasked with what started as a low priority project. After assembling a team to initially discuss the details and set a deadline for completion with our management, the project unfortunately fell off the radar of everyone on the team with many more high priority projects coming up each week. As the initial project's deadline was within a week of being due, our CEO reached out to me for a progress report. I immediately took full responsibility for letting this fall off the radar and I ensured our CEO that we would have an updated timeline set by the end of the week. In doing this and completing the project to his satisfaction, this was really the tipping point in our department moving forward utilizing a detailed project management tracking system. To this day, I can't say enough about how appreciative I am about utilizing this awesome system. Moving forward, you can rest assured knowing that I take full accountability for my actions and do what is necessary to communicate new expectations and meet them fully."

At some point in any person's career, the inevitable happens and an important deadline needs to be missed. With your interviewer fully understanding this fact, they are solely interested in how you react to this situation and what you do to make the situation right. In your answer, focus on the refocused planning and communication needed while also avoiding blaming others for the situation. Your interviewer holds accountability as a desirable virtue, so be sure to take accountability for actions in your response.

"Having been in this situation before, I would first sit down to gather all the facts possible in the situation. What was the deadline, why wasn't it met and what can be done are all important questions moving forward. From there, communicating to all key parties is extremely important and doing so in a timely manner is critical. In this communication, taking accountability and setting new expectations for delivery in a concise and tactful manner will most often put stakeholders at ease and allow for successful completion."

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, Hippo 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.

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 Hippo, 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."

Here at Hippo, we strive for continuous delivery and continuous deployment with our software. Are you familiar with these processes in your current work?

"In my current role, we utilize a 100% continuous deployment process with our end users when we role out new changes to existing software. We use automated testing in our process to validate that code changes are correct and able to be deployed without issue. Once validated, changes are automatically rolled out to our end users. Having once utilized a continuous delivery system, I am very appreciative of working in an environment utilizing continuous deployment as it negates any need for human intervention in the roll out."

In the industries that Hippo works in, updates to software are vital to end users for them to stay at the forefront of their business. To ensure that updates happen as quick and smoothly as possible, Hippo utilizes continuous delivery and continuous deployment for their customers. For this question, talk about what you know about these processes as a software architect, why they are important and what experience you have with them.

"In my current position, we've slowly grown from a continuous integration process to a continuous delivery process. I love the automated testing process when we are looking at rolling out new changes to existing software and my role as the architect for our projects puts me in the drivers seat for sending out these changes. If hired for this role here at Hippo, I'd be very intrigued at learning and working with continuous deployment practices as well."

If you were asked to review a colleague's code that they had written, what key things would you look for?

"As an experienced software engineer, I fully expect my colleagues to reach out to me for my insight and I never hesitate to provide open and honest feedback. When asked to do this, my main focus is ensuring that the code is readable and functional. If there are lines of code that need to be removed, I don't hesitate to let my colleague know that while also giving them feedback on why I feel it is unnecessary."

For this question, your interviewer will obviously be looking to hear that you have adequate knowledge when it comes to coding processes. But most importantly, your interviewer will be looking to gauge your ability to be a team player and focus on the bigger picture when working on a project. In your answer, focus on your attention to detail and your ability to help others when needed.

"When I'm asked to do this in my current position, my main focus is on regulatory requirements that were put in place for the project and security issues. I work with a team of great engineers that are very efficient coders and these two areas are most often overlooked."

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 Hippo 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."

Here at Hippo, 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 Hippo."

Hippo hires developers with a strong understanding of object-oriented programming. Discuss your knowledge in this area.

"When I was hired for my first development position five years ago, my employer provided in-depth programming and development courses. I trained in Java and C++, and over the years I have gained expertise by using these applications for my development roles."

The interviewer would like to understand your knowledge and experience in object-oriented programming languages, such as Java, C++, Python, Visual Basic, Ruby, etc. Walk them through your experience, being sure to highlight any specialized training or coursework. If you took on a significant project using an object-oriented programming language, you could give an overview of that work.

"Here are some other essential characteristics that you can draw on: - Disciplined - Intuitive - Takes Initiative - Responsible - Positive Attitude - Solid Communicator"

Can you describe the software development lifecycle?

"Absolutely. In my last job, we leveraged the waterfall method, making sure we completed each phase of the project - and completed it on time and to the highest quality, before moving on. The software development lifecycle consists of 6 steps, starting with planning, of course, followed by implementation, testing, documentation, deployment, and maintenance. Every step is crucial to ensure we're producing a quality product and also maintaining that product to meet the changing needs and demands of our end users."

With this question, employers are looking to test your knowledge. They want to know how much you've participated in the projects you've been involved in to truly understand the software development lifecycle. The question may seem basic to some, but employers are expecting an accurate answer to know that they're hiring a true pro.

"I am new to my career in financial services and sales; however, I have taken an online course focused on cold calling. This course was incredibly helpful and I look forward to meeting and exceeding my targets with Hippo."

Our implementation consultants here at Hippo often face conflicts with our customers while onsite during implementations. What interpersonal skills do you use to handle conflicts with clients?

"Any time that I face a conflict in the workplace, I maintain my own personal composure by not taking things personally and keeping a smile on my face. After setting myself, I look to gain insight into the potential conflict by using my reflective listening skills and then problem solve from there. In this role, I would listen to the needs of the client and be empathetic in my approach with them. My ability to creatively problem solve would take over from there to help find a solution for the client."

In the software implementation process for large customers of Hippo, you will be working with top level managers and key decision makers onsite and more often than not, issues can arise. In your role as the implementation consultant, these issues come directly to you and your interviewer will be looking to hear how you will handle these issues to maintain both a great relationship with the customer and honor to the Hippo. In your answer, focus on finding solutions to issues that benefit both parties and talk about the important communication skills that you possess that will make this possible in any situation that you may face.

"The biggest skill that I would bring to the team here at Hippo as a consultant to clients would be my ability to express mutual respect to all that I work with. As an organization, Hippo has their own goals that I will be vital in helping to achieve. Your clients also have their own goals that can offer different greatly from yours. A sense of mutual respect allows me to put myself in the shoes of all involved and that really helps me find solutions that work for everyone."

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 Hippo?

"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 Hippo."

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 Hippo 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.

What do you think you will like about this role with Hippo?

"I look forward to helping companies by analyzing data that will help them make solid decisions surrounding their digital future."

The interviewer wants to hear what you are looking forward to learning and experiencing in this new position. Talk about what excites you! Share how this position will challenge you and help you grow. New opportunities are a chance for you to demonstrate your skills.

"I am looking forward to getting more experience in UI, and feel that Hippo is the best place for me. You have a great reputation for creating beautiful and easy to use products."

What skills do you use to cope with the day to day stress and pressure on the job?

"Where many others get overtaken by stress to the point that they can't function in this field, high pressure situations sharpen my focus and that helps me work through them with ease. Last year, I was assigned a high priority, short notice project for a high profile customer. My manager gave it to me because of my proven success in those situations. From the start, I created a timeline for completion and mapped out a plan to make it happen. While staying in communication with my leaders and the client, I was able to create a great system update in just a few short weeks."

In modern technology industries, consumer demand has led to high volume of work and high pressure situations to work on tight deadlines. To prove that you are able to handle high stress, high pressure situations on the job, your interviewer is looking to hear first hand how you handle this type of environment in your own words. As you answer the question, try to turn potential perceived stress into a positive by highlighting your personal skills that enable you to perform well in those situations. If possible, try to use specific examples in your answer.

"I am confident in high stress work situations because of my ability to adapt, communicate and be organized in my work. These skills came in very useful a few weeks ago when our support staff were experiencing an extremely high volume of help desk calls. My adaptability helped me go with the flow and handle items on at a time. My communication skills enabled me to quickly and efficiently call on needed support. My organization skills helped me be prepared for anything on that day and enabled me to work through tickets in a quick and efficient manner."

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."

If hired for this position here at Hippo, would you be comfortable handling overall project manager responsibilities for new software development?

"Looking to join the team here at Hippo directly out of college, I feel very confident in my abilities to manage the entire scope of a new development project. I have leadership experience as my campus' president of the software engineering club. In that role, I developed skills that would help me utilize staff and resources in the best way possible. During my internship, I was exposed to the planning stages of new projects and I have a very good feel of estimating the budget and length of time needed to have a fully functional system."

As a skilled software engineer, you have all of the necessary tools in your bag to be a successful engineer at Hippo. This question is allowing your interviewer to get a better sense of your project management skills and people skills if you were to join the team at Hippo. In your answer, talk about your ability to estimate the time and cost of a project, the staffing needed and the overall scope of planning for a particular project. If you have direct experience in being the lead on a large development project, be sure to discuss that experience with your interviewer.

"I would absolutely be comfortable if tasked with project manager duties here at Hippo. In my last two roles, I have led successful projects that started with great planning and budgeting process and went through to completion with great people and processes in place under my leadership. While it's not a regular duty for me in my current role, I always welcome leadership duties."

Culture fit is important to us at Hippo. How would you describe your personality?

"I would describe my personality as approachable, light-hearted, and positive. I believe that, if asked, my colleagues and supervisor would say the same about me."

Personality and character are two very different things. The interviewer is looking for more information on your traits vs. your integrity. This answer could include buzzwords such as introverted, energetic, and confident.

"Try to include a variety of words that the interviewer does not hear all the time. Be unique! Here are some ideas: - Adaptable - Considerate - Diligent - Intuitive - Persistent - Resourceful - Sincere - Witty"

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 Hippo 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 Hippo."

In Java, why shouldn't you use strings to store a password?

"To store a password, character array is the obvious best choice because character arrays are mutable. If a string was utilized to store passwords, a definite security risk would be present to anyone that would have access to the memory dump from the system."

While this may seem like a rudimentary question regarding your knowledge of Java, your interviewer is looking to ideally hear that you understand the principle differences between string and character arrays. Asking about the storage of passwords within a system gives you the opportunity here to point out the differences between the two. In the end, while explaining the differences, be sure to tie it back to the original question on why strings shouldn't be used to store passwords.

"This question simply boils down to a string being immutable. Because strings are a sequence of characters represented as a single data type, the system requires garbage creation to fully get rid of it out of memory. In my time designing software, I have used Char array and its mutable features to store passwords for the security of our end users "

In your experience in software testing, would you consider yourself proficient in both testing and debugging processes?

"Yes, I definitely would consider myself proficient in both testing and debugging software. My current role that I've held for four years since graduating from college has exposed me to both processes. In testing, I use known conditions and predefined methods to test for expected outcomes to find errors within the system. I utilize testing prior to new software rollouts. The debugging process happens to already released software that has had issues and comes with unknown conditions and unpredictable outcomes. In this process, my goal is to find the cause of the error to fix it efficiently and effectively to roll an updated program back out to end users."

As a reputable provider of software, Hippo relies on their software testing engineers to both test and debug their products when necessary. Make your interviewer aware that you are knowledgeable on both processes by briefly explaining each process as you've worked on them in the past. Then, talk about your openness to working both testing and debugging processes if hired for this position.

"While a majority of my career has been focused on software testing, I am very familiar with debugging processes as well. If hired for this position, I would take the time to focus on debugging processes to bring myself up to speed while being able to hit the ground running on testing processes."

The next cloud engineer that we hire here at Hippo needs to be able build a system that can handle a high amount of traffic. How would you test our system's ability to handle large amounts of traffic?

"Cloud computing has certainly revolutionized the storage of high amounts of data and a key piece that cloud based systems bring to the table are their elasticity for handling large amounts of traffic. I see my job as building a cloud based system to scale horizontally to be able to handle the most data and traffic possible. To test systems, I've used a few different tools that were all very accurate prior to go-live."

This question allows your interviewer to gain insight into your thought process and ability surrounding building a cloud network that has an architecture that can handle large amounts of traffic without failure. Some key points to focus on your answer are your ability to match capacity to system demand and use horizontal scaling in the design of the system.

"In my current position as a cloud engineer, I have utilized internet scale services like Amazon S3 and Elastic Load Balancing to ensure that our cloud systems could handle large volume that fluctuate seasonally. Because of the great functionality of the internet scale services, internal testing wasn't necessary as we knew we were in good hands through those services."

How do you ensure that you have a healthy work-life balance in your career?

"As I am passionate about my career as a UX designer, I am also passionate about my family. Any moments outside of work are spent coaching my kids traveling baseball teams in the summer months and then spending as many weekends as possible on the ski slopes. These activities help keep me active, physically fit and keep my mind centered on what it truly important in my life when work weeks get stressful."

In the fast paced world in software and technology development, heavy work loads and potential on-call duties have created a lot of burnout in professionals. Your interviewer is looking to hear that you are cognizant of the risks of burnout and that you do what is necessary to maintain your own personal health and well being and that of your family as well. While you can use this time to talk about personal interests or hobbies outside of work, try to focus on how these items help keep you refreshed for the work that you'll be doing for Hippo.

"Having watched many of my senior colleagues over time suffer from work burnout that has caused marital issues and health issues, I make it a priority to maintain a healthy balance between my work and my home life. My free time is spent in the outdoors with my wife, whether that be on the lakes and rivers fishing or biking around town. I consider myself fortunate to be considered for a position here at Hippo because I know that you put a focus on your employees maintaining this healthy balance because the organization realizes how important this is to be productive."

Do you consider yourself stronger in C++, C#, Java, or Python?

"In my last company, we had a bit of an outdated tech stack and used C# and .NET. I found myself fully immersed in those technologies, but had a strong desire to learn more and become more familiar with modern technologies and how I can apply that in my career. That's what has me so interested in this role. Over the last year, I've taken courses in Java and C++, which I noticed you prefer. I've become proficient in the skills and in side projects, applied my increasingly strong knowledge. I'm probably strongest professionally in C# as that has been where my experience lies, but my passion and dedication is on the Java and C++ side, as I feel that's the more modern alternative. I'm excited about the possibility of applying that knowledge in a role at Hippo."

Before your interview, do some research to understand what tech stack Hippo uses so you can best prepare and highlight your expertise. If you aren't as strong in one of the skills you feel is necessary, be sure to explain how you've used it and how you are growing your knowledge to become better. Be sure to be honest in your answer, as the company will likely test your strengths.

"I am motivated and excited about this new opportunity because it will challenge me to grow in my (X) skills. I love soccer and enjoy spending time with my teammates. I am interested in continuing my education by studying (Y) to further my career."

If hired for this position at Hippo, 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 Hippo 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 Hippo 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."

As a consultant with Hippo, your role will be vital in gather information from our customers in building new technology for them. What would be your goals in an initial consultation with a new or existing client?

"As an experienced consultant looking to break into the technology field, I will break a lot of awesome client focused skills to your team. In an initial consultation, my number one goal is to learn the business of the client and listen to what they are looking for in my products. Once their need is known, I can knowledgeably speak to the products that I work with to help them create a custom solution to fit their needs. If hired for this position, my first order of business would be to work very closely with the design and engineering staff to know the possibilities of customization. From there, my natural ability to consult with clients would take over in a win-win situation for all involved."

Software consultants are the bridge between the end users and the development teams of new software to help come up with new and creative solutions for the business. In this role with Hippo, you will be expected to live in two different worlds and this question focuses on how you will work with end users of the companies products. In an initial consultation, focus your efforts on how you will learn the business needs of the client, talk about what can potentially be offered and then how you will start the creative problem solving process with them.

"In consulting with a new client or an existing client looking for system modifications, my number one goal in a first meeting with them would be to lay the framework for how we will move forward and to set expectations moving forward. I would look to understand their business needs and talk with them about all of the solutions possible for them with us as their software provider. From there, I have the ability to set expectations on a time frame for a solution proposal and we can move forward from there. At the end of a first meeting, I want to ensure that the key decision makers are comfortable with me and the business that I represent so they don't hesitate to reach out to me with questions or for clarification on items discussed."

We are looking for innovators to join us here at Hippo. Where have you brought innovation in automation to a process in your career?

"To be very honest with you, I was really drawn to the automation side of engineering because of the constant need to be flexible and continuing me education to stay ahead of new trends. Last year, I helped develop a codeless test automation for my company that brought together our software engineers and end users to test in environments in a fast and efficient manner. The codeless testing was a first for my organization and really helped free up time for our software engineers to come up with solutions rather than spend time testing."

Innovation in software has occurred in many phases over the last 20 years and Hippo is always striving to be on the forefront of innovation in their field. For this question, think back on your automation experience and talk about a concept that you helped create that you felt was innovative. Really sell your interviewer on your ability to think outside of the box with this question by hammering home the idea that you can help bring new innovations to the team at Hippo.

"About four years ago, I was on a team that developed an AI bot that could test scripts and provide analysis on extremely large amounts of data in a short period of time. Our work focused on the algorighms that the AI would utilize in its testing work. From the start, the AI process was extremely accurate and efficient. Now, as things have changed over time, modifications to the AI system all center around changes to the algorithms. Based on our success, we presented our AI system at a national conference last year and it received a lot of great accolades."

Do you have experience working with data in a cloud computing environment?

"My current organization has been using Apprenda, a PaaS, that allows us to develop, test and maintain our software projects. I also have experience mining and converting data off of public, community and private cloud networks. If hired here at Hippo, I think I would bring a wealth of cloud based experience to the data engineering team."

Over recent years, more and more companies are converting to cloud based computing services because the conversion allows them to save money and have better auditing trails. As a prospective data engineer with Hippo, your interviewer will be looking to hear that you are at least familiar with the concepts of working with cloud based data. Talk in details about the experiences you have while keeping your mind open to working with more in the future if hired with Hippo.

Hippo Interview Questions

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1. In your mind, when is monkey testing the most effective in testing new software?
2. As you reflect back on your career to this point in your search for a new position, what would you say is your ideal work environment or culture?
3. If you were confronted with a time where you wouldn't be able to meet a deadline here at Hippo, what steps would you take when you made that realization?
4. What do you feel are the primary features and benefits of the Java programming language?
5. What software analysis and design tools do you have familiarity working with?
6. Here at Hippo, we strive for continuous delivery and continuous deployment with our software. Are you familiar with these processes in your current work?
7. If you were asked to review a colleague's code that they had written, what key things would you look for?
8. 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?
9. Here at Hippo, we ask our test engineers to follow specific QA protocols. What role do you feel QA plays in software development and testing?
10. Hippo hires developers with a strong understanding of object-oriented programming. Discuss your knowledge in this area.
11. Can you describe the software development lifecycle?
12. Our implementation consultants here at Hippo often face conflicts with our customers while onsite during implementations. What interpersonal skills do you use to handle conflicts with clients?
13. 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 Hippo?
14. What do you think you will like about this role with Hippo?
15. What skills do you use to cope with the day to day stress and pressure on the job?
16. What is one thing that really tests your patience when dealing with your coworkers?
17. If hired for this position here at Hippo, would you be comfortable handling overall project manager responsibilities for new software development?
18. Culture fit is important to us at Hippo. How would you describe your personality?
19. Do you have experience working with different CASE tools? If so, what do you have experience with?
20. In Java, why shouldn't you use strings to store a password?
21. In your experience in software testing, would you consider yourself proficient in both testing and debugging processes?
22. The next cloud engineer that we hire here at Hippo needs to be able build a system that can handle a high amount of traffic. How would you test our system's ability to handle large amounts of traffic?
23. How do you ensure that you have a healthy work-life balance in your career?
24. Do you consider yourself stronger in C++, C#, Java, or Python?
25. If hired for this position at Hippo, what leadership skills would you bring to our team?
26. As a consultant with Hippo, your role will be vital in gather information from our customers in building new technology for them. What would be your goals in an initial consultation with a new or existing client?
27. We are looking for innovators to join us here at Hippo. Where have you brought innovation in automation to a process in your career?
28. Do you have experience working with data in a cloud computing environment?

Hippo Interview Questions

1. In your mind, when is monkey testing the most effective in testing new software?

2. As you reflect back on your career to this point in your search for a new position, what would you say is your ideal work environment or culture?

3. If you were confronted with a time where you wouldn't be able to meet a deadline here at Hippo, what steps would you take when you made that realization?

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

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

6. Here at Hippo, we strive for continuous delivery and continuous deployment with our software. Are you familiar with these processes in your current work?

7. If you were asked to review a colleague's code that they had written, what key things would you look for?

8. 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?

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

10. Hippo hires developers with a strong understanding of object-oriented programming. Discuss your knowledge in this area.

11. Can you describe the software development lifecycle?

12. Our implementation consultants here at Hippo often face conflicts with our customers while onsite during implementations. What interpersonal skills do you use to handle conflicts with clients?

13. 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 Hippo?

14. What do you think you will like about this role with Hippo?

15. What skills do you use to cope with the day to day stress and pressure on the job?

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

17. If hired for this position here at Hippo, would you be comfortable handling overall project manager responsibilities for new software development?

18. Culture fit is important to us at Hippo. How would you describe your personality?

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

20. In Java, why shouldn't you use strings to store a password?

21. In your experience in software testing, would you consider yourself proficient in both testing and debugging processes?

22. The next cloud engineer that we hire here at Hippo needs to be able build a system that can handle a high amount of traffic. How would you test our system's ability to handle large amounts of traffic?

23. How do you ensure that you have a healthy work-life balance in your career?

24. Do you consider yourself stronger in C++, C#, Java, or Python?

25. If hired for this position at Hippo, what leadership skills would you bring to our team?

26. As a consultant with Hippo, your role will be vital in gather information from our customers in building new technology for them. What would be your goals in an initial consultation with a new or existing client?

27. We are looking for innovators to join us here at Hippo. Where have you brought innovation in automation to a process in your career?

28. Do you have experience working with data in a cloud computing environment?