Plaid Software Engineer Mock Interview

Practice 30 Plaid Software Engineer interview questions covering APIs, financial data systems, and distributed architecture.

Question 14 of 30

Can you describe a tough software development problem you encountered in your last job and discuss how you solved it?

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William Swansen

William Swansen has worked in the employment assistance realm since 2007. He is an author, job search strategist, and career advisor who helps individuals worldwide and in various professions to find their ideal careers.

This is an experience-based question. Experience-based questions ask about a specific situation and seek to understand how you resolved it. This provides the Plaid interviewer with information about your background and your ability to do the job. When responding to this type of question, keep your answer simple by using plain language the interviewer is likely to understand.

William Swansen

"When creating an internal application to help our company's employees track their expenses, there was a bug in the program which impacted the rounding of percentages. After hours of examining the application and attempting to fix the problem, I was unable to identify the bug. I asked one of my peers to look at my code, and they quickly found the issue. This helped me realize that sometimes I'm too familiar with the code I write, and a fresh set of eyes can be helpful."

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30Plaid Interview Questions & Answers

Software Engineer

1.Plaid is very proud of their products and the people who develop them. In your opinion, what distinguishes a great software engineer from an average one?

Software Engineer

2.Here at Plaid, we value work life balance and initiative. What personal software development projects have you worked on outside of work?

Software Engineer

3.If hired by Plaid, can you estimate what portion of your day will involve coding and other activities you will perform when not coding?

Software Engineer

4.Walk me through your process for designing scalable applications.

Software Engineer

5.Describe the process you use to create a program from requirements definition to delivery.

Software Engineer

6.How do you go about addressing errors in your code?

Software Engineer

7.What process do you use to test and find bugs in an application you've developed?

Software Engineer

8.How would you implement Dijkstra's Shortest Path using a programming language with which you are familiar?

Software Engineer

9.Many Plaid Software Engineers prefer to program in Java. Can you describe how you would implement linear search in JavaScript?

Software Engineer

10.How do you go about organizing CSS files, and why do you prefer this approach?

Software Engineer

11.Walk me through the steps to build a single page application with multiple sections using the programming framework in which you typically work.

Software Engineer

12.Which do you prefer - a micro-service approach or a monolithic app?

Software Engineer

13.How would you accelerate the response time of a website you created for us here at Plaid?

Software Engineer

14.Can you describe a tough software development problem you encountered in your last job and discuss how you solved it?

Software Engineer

15.What do you look for or check when reviewing another team member's code?

Software Engineer

16.What do you feel are the critical principles of good software engineering?

Software Engineer

17.Can you describe Plaid's software development life cycle as you understand it?

Software Engineer

18.Here at Plaid, we have embraced Agile methodology. How experienced are you with the Agile software development process?

Software Engineer

19.Please describe responsive design and the difference between fixed and fluid layouts.

Software Engineer

20.What are the differences between an array and a stack?

Software Engineer

21.Please describe a stack and the two operations it performs.

Software Engineer

22.What are the differences between blocking and non-blocking calls in the context of Node.js?

Software Engineer

23.Plaid web developers are incorporating HTML5 in their most recent websites. Can you describe the functions of web workers in HTML5?

Software Engineer

24.Can you define black box testing and white box testing and discuss the differences between them?

Software Engineer

25.What are some of the programming languages you are familiar with, and which ones do you prefer?

Software Engineer

26.How would you go about explaining cloud computing to someone at Plaid who doesn't have a technical background?

Software Engineer

27.In your opinion, what is the difference between computer software and a computer program?

Software Engineer

28.Which design patterns do you use, and in what situations do you use them?

Software Engineer

29.Can you describe what you know about object-oriented programming?

Software Engineer

Plaid Software Engineer Mock Interview

Can you describe a tough software development problem you encountered in your last job and discuss how you solved it?

30Plaid Interview Questions & Answers

1.Plaid is very proud of their products and the people who develop them. In your opinion, what distinguishes a great software engineer from an average one?

2.Here at Plaid, we value work life balance and initiative. What personal software development projects have you worked on outside of work?

3.If hired by Plaid, can you estimate what portion of your day will involve coding and other activities you will perform when not coding?

4.Walk me through your process for designing scalable applications.

5.Describe the process you use to create a program from requirements definition to delivery.

6.How do you go about addressing errors in your code?

7.What process do you use to test and find bugs in an application you've developed?

8.How would you implement Dijkstra's Shortest Path using a programming language with which you are familiar?

9.Many Plaid Software Engineers prefer to program in Java. Can you describe how you would implement linear search in JavaScript?

10.How do you go about organizing CSS files, and why do you prefer this approach?

11.Walk me through the steps to build a single page application with multiple sections using the programming framework in which you typically work.

12.Which do you prefer - a micro-service approach or a monolithic app?

13.How would you accelerate the response time of a website you created for us here at Plaid?

14.Can you describe a tough software development problem you encountered in your last job and discuss how you solved it?

15.What do you look for or check when reviewing another team member's code?

16.What do you feel are the critical principles of good software engineering?

17.Can you describe Plaid's software development life cycle as you understand it?

18.Here at Plaid, we have embraced Agile methodology. How experienced are you with the Agile software development process?

19.Please describe responsive design and the difference between fixed and fluid layouts.

20.What are the differences between an array and a stack?

21.Please describe a stack and the two operations it performs.

22.What are the differences between blocking and non-blocking calls in the context of Node.js?

23.Plaid web developers are incorporating HTML5 in their most recent websites. Can you describe the functions of web workers in HTML5?

24.Can you define black box testing and white box testing and discuss the differences between them?

25.What are some of the programming languages you are familiar with, and which ones do you prefer?

26.How would you go about explaining cloud computing to someone at Plaid who doesn't have a technical background?

27.In your opinion, what is the difference between computer software and a computer program?

28.Which design patterns do you use, and in what situations do you use them?

29.Can you describe what you know about object-oriented programming?

30.What methodologies do you use to ensure that your program will scale?