Snapchat Mock Interview

Practice 28 Snapchat interview questions covering product thinking, AR innovation, and Gen Z engagement.

Question 11 of 28

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

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Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.

Snapchat 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.

Ryan Brunner

Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.

"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."

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28Snapchat Interview Questions & Answers

1.Looking at our products and services, what do you think we do better at Snapchat than any of our competitors?

2.At Snapchat, we take security risks very importantly in our products. In your experience, what are the biggest security risks in software and what is your experience in any prevention methods?

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

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

5.A huge part of our business here at Snapchat is designing software for iOS. In this role, how would you steer away from retain cycles when using closures in Swift programming language?

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

7.Would you say that you are a goal oriented on the job? What would I be able to do as your manager to help you achieve your goals if hired here at Snapchat?

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

9.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 Snapchat?

10.If you can, please provide your thoughts on the function of managed object context in developing iOS apps and software.

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

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

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

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

15.What data cleaning methods are you familiar with and comfortable using if hired for this role at Snapchat?

16.If hired here at Snapchat and tasked with helping design a UI for a new mobile app, what important factors would you consider in that design?

17.What is one unique personality trait you possess that would help you be successful in this role with Snapchat?

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

19.In designing Android software, what is your experience using parcelable versus serializable within an app?

20.If hired here at Snapchat to develop iOS and Android software, when would you use a fragment rather than an activity?

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