30 Senior Staff Engineer Interview Questions & Answers
Below is a list of our Senior Staff Engineer interview questions. Click on any interview question to view our answer advice and answer examples. You may view 5 answer examples before our paywall loads. Afterwards, you'll be asked to upgrade to view the rest of our answers.
Accomplishment
1. Can you describe your last successful software development project, and what factors helped you achieve this?
How to Answer
When examining a candidate's qualifications, interviewers seek proof that you have achieved goals similar to the ones they are interviewing you to accomplish. Therefore, when preparing for an interview, you should review your previous work and have three to four different stories of your past accomplishments similar to the work you will be doing for the company with which you are interviewing. When relating these stories, keep your answers brief and don't go into too much detail. Instead, focus on what you accomplished and how you did it. The interviewer will ask a follow-up question if they need more information or want to explore the topic in more detail.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Behavioral
2. What is one decision you made in your career that you would like to have the chance to do differently?
How to Answer
Everybody would love to have a' do over' at some point in their life. This applies to their professional life as well. We've all made a decision that, in hindsight, we either regret or would like to take in a different direction. Interviewers understand this and may ask you about it. One reason is to test your honesty and your ability to accurately evaluate your actions. The other is to determine the scope of the decision you would like to change, and how much it impacted the organization you are working for. When responding to this question, describe a situation that had a minor impact and would be beneficial to the organization if corrected.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"Probably the decision I would like to change the most was deciding to move directly into an engineering job after completing college instead of accepting an invitation to intern abroad. I was anxious to start my career and had several job offers on the table for engineering positions. However, one of my classmates had accepted a position with a German company and invited me to intern with them during the summer. If I had accepted the invitation, I believe I would have learned additional engineering skills and developed the ability to work with individuals from different cultures and countries. This would have broadened my background and helped me during my subsequent career."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Behavioral
3. Can you walk me through the process you would use to design an application that helped users manage their company health benefits?
How to Answer
During an interview as a senior staff engineer, you may be presented with a technical problem or practical development assignment. The interviewer doesn't expect you to design the application or resolve the problem. They are interested in the process you use to achieve the objective of the exercise. The best way to respond to this type of question is to break the process down into discrete steps, detailing each step and then discussing the results you expect to achieve.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"If I were asked to design an application which helped users manage their company health benefits, the first thing I would do would be to meet with the project stakeholders to discuss their requirements and expected outcomes. I would want to get a clear picture of what they're trying to achieve before beginning the project. I would then create a development plan and review it with the stakeholders to confirm that I accurately captured their requirements. Next, I would assign different parts of the development project to each team member based on their specific skills and experience. Throughout the development, I would assess our progress and take steps to put the project back on track if it fell behind. Before releasing the application into production, I would test its functionality and the results it produced and stress test it to make sure it would work as designed. After the application was released, I would continue to monitor the software and apply any patches or bug fixes necessary to keep it functioning properly."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Communication
4. How do you resolve disagreements with product or project managers when collaborating with them on a development project?
How to Answer
Once you reach the level of senior staff engineer, you will interact with people outside of your development team more often. This requires expert collaboration and negotiation skills, especially when a disagreement occurs. As any good manager knows, the key objective is to resolve the disagreement as quickly as possible so the project can move forward. Compromise, cooperation, and cajoling are skills that will help you to achieve this. Interviewers expect you to describe your skills in each of these areas and possibly provide an example of how you used these to resolve a disagreement with people from outside your organization.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"One of the more challenging aspects of this job is collaborating with project stakeholders outside of my team and with whom I have no direct authority. Although we typically agree on the importance of the project and the goals we are trying to achieve, our methodologies and the steps we take to get there are subject to dispute. When disagreements occur, I work hard to understand the other stakeholders' perspectives on the problem, try to find a point on which we can agree, and focus on resolving the issue and moving the project forward. Sometimes this requires me to compromise, but I do this without jeopardizing my team, the resources they require, and the schedule. The more I work with business leaders from outside of my development team, the more comfortable I am doing this."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Competency
5. How do you go about monitoring a development project's milestones and completion stages?
How to Answer
When asked this type of question by an interviewer, they seek to understand your ability to keep projects on schedule and experience performing quality control tasks. As a senior staff engineer, it is your responsibility to keep the team on task and on schedule. Even though you may have responsibilities for developing some of the code use of the project, you also need to make sure everybody else is performing their job. This involves collaborating with your team and other parts of the organization, including the quality engineers, project managers, and then users. It would be best if you were prepared to discuss the techniques and tools you use to accomplish this.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"One of the more challenging aspects of my job as a senior systems engineer is to ensure that our development projects are kept on schedule and under budget. I have accomplished this by setting reasonable goals, communicating clearly with all the project stakeholders, and using tools such as pert charts, spreadsheets, and project management software. When a project falls behind schedule, I work to identify the cause for this and then apply the appropriate resources to bring the project back to the timeframe."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Competency
6. Do you have experience using open-sourced web development environments, such as Django or Ruby on Rails?
How to Answer
Senior staff engineers need to have a wide range of talents, experiences, and skills. These include developing applications, managing a few resources, and creating websites for internal and external use. This question is meant to investigate your skills using hosted web development environments. By asking this question, the interviewer is indicating that the organization currently uses an open-source web framework or is considering one. Your research should give you information about which one of these is used and enable you to construct your answer to this question appropriately.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"I have worked with both the Django and Ruby on Rails to create websites. My preference is Django, which I understand your organization is considering. I like this because it is open-sourced and provides a framework that allows me to quickly develop websites and put them into production for specific uses. Since the basic framework is already built, I can focus on the website's function, the applications, contents, and other custom features. For example, I recently used Django to create a transactional website our company used for a popup boutique to test market a new line of cosmetics."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Competency
7. What is your experience managing IT resources in a cloud environment, and do you prefer to use the Google Cloud Platform, AWS, or Azure?
How to Answer
Today's IT professionals need to have experience and knowledge in managing IT resources in the cloud. These can either be in a private, public, or shared cloud environment. The interviewer is interested in your direct experience with clouds and cloud service providers such as Google, Microsoft, or Amazon. They also want you to talk about how applications perform differently in a cloud environment.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"I have a great deal of experience managing IT resources in the cloud. My previous employers used private clouds hosted by AWS. However, I am familiar with the operations of both Google and Microsoft and would be comfortable managing those cloud environments. The key to optimizing applications within a cloud environment is knowing which applications will function best in the cloud, what security considerations there will be, and also how the cloud affects the application's performance. You can use techniques such as caching, replication, and others to both minimize the security threat and increase the application's performance."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Competency
8. How would you design a program so it can easily scale?
How to Answer
Designing an application so it can scale is the key account every senior staff engineer should possess. Scaling allows you to start with a single small application with limited processes that address a small number of the classes. If the architecture is designed properly, the system could scale as you add objects, classes, and data. Not only is this design methodology efficient, but it enables the application to grow without having to be reprogrammed. This is a key factor the interviewer will be interested in and something you will be asked about.
Consider whether the system should be a monolithic service or a combination of microservices. For example, how many databases, caching layers, or message queues are required?
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"In my experience, the key to developing an application that can scale begins with the design. When starting, I have the option of using a monolithic service or many small ones. Depending on the application, I choose one of these methodologies, document the design, noting the patterns, and code references. As the application scales, we can refer to the documentation to understand how the base application was built and can scale using the classes, inheriting or extending them."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Competency
9. What is the advantage of refactoring a class?
How to Answer
Refactoring a class is the process of breaking a class into smaller ones. An interviewer may ask you this question to understand how you deconstruct a class and organize the smaller classes. While there is no standard methodology for this, the interviewer is trying to understand your architectural style and how you manage and economize your code.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"The advantage of refactoring a class makes it easier to test the code and enable parallel and concurrent processing. Once I have the main class broken into smaller ones, I can organize them to utilize threads, create sub-processes, and run jobs in the background. There are several different tools I can use for this that are specific to the languages I program in."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Competency
10. Can you discuss the differences between functional and object-oriented programming, and which type do you prefer?
How to Answer
There are two different types of software development paradigms. These include functional and object-oriented programming. As a senior staff engineer, you should be able to describe each of these, discuss their benefits, and comment about which one you prefer or have the most background in. An interviewer will ask you this question to test your knowledge and understand your programming style. They're interested to see if it aligns with that of their organization.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"Functional and object-oriented programming are both valid methodologies used for developing software. Functional is the most straightforward and operates with the concept that inputs are used during computations, resulting in the outputs of the software. Object-oriented programming is more complex and uses classes. The variables in each class can be actionable by different methods. It also involves the concept of inheriting or extending the classes. While functional programming is more straightforward, object-oriented programming is more efficient and allows the reuse of classes and objects within the classes. For this reason, I prefer to program using object-oriented methodology use. As for languages, I'm comfortable using include Java, C, and C++."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Competency
11. What is your methodology for assessing the efficiency of an existing process?
How to Answer
As a senior staff engineer, you are likely to be managing other engineers and the work done by the entire team. This will require you to respond to interview questions that extend beyond software development practices. You'll need to discuss your management style, how you evaluate the team's performance, and other non-software development-related questions. This is an example of one of those. This question addresses not only your engineering knowledge but also your organizational talents.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"There are several different ways you can measure the efficiency of an existing software process. In general, efficiency is measured by dividing the software's actual performance by the average performance of similar pieces of code. A specific example involves multiplying the utilization of the application by its reliability. This is known as process efficiency. Utilization is calculated by dividing the amount of time the application is functioning by the total hours in the measurement period. Reliability is a factor of the uptime, the applications functionality, and the field pass yield, also known as the throughput yield."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Competency
12. Which software development tools do you routinely use, and why would you recommend these for our company?
How to Answer
When asked about the software development tools you use, you need to be aware of two factors: first, what are the tools you are familiar with, and which of these would you recommend for the company. Secondly, what are the tools the company uses, and how compatible are they with your experiences and preferences. You can determine what tools the organization uses by conducting research before the interview. Suppose the tools you prefer do not align with those of the company. In that case, you can still recommend them, and make your case as to why they are more effective.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"The tools I typically use when developing code for software depends on the application we are developing, the expertise of my team, and the organization I'm working for. Although I have my personal preferences, I can accommodate each of these factors when selecting the tools we will use. Some of the development platforms and software I prefer include GitHub, GitLab, IntelliJ IDEA, Stack Overflow, Docker, and Jira. I also like Confluence to manage my team's collaboration and documentation. Based on the research I did before coming here, I believe your team currently uses most of these same tools."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
General
13. What are some of your key values which contribute to your performance as a senior staff engineer?
How to Answer
An interviewer will ask you about your professional values for two reasons. One is to determine that you have established core values and use them to direct your professional activities. The second is to determine if your values align with those of the organization. By the time you have been invited to an interview, the hiring manager has already determined that you have the skills and experience needed for the job. The purpose of the interview is to confirm their assessment and determine if you would be a good fit for their organization. Questions about values address this latter point.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"Some of the values I use to guide my professional career include focusing on the big picture while being attentive to details, always putting the interests of my team and the organization ahead of my interests, acting with honesty and integrity, and being willing to admit when I am wrong. Adhering to these has helped me achieve my professional goals while contributing to the organization's business objectives."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
General
14. What is a key achievement that you feel led to your advancement to a senior staff engineer position?
How to Answer
Everybody has a seminal moment in their professional lives in which achieving something made a significant difference in the trajectory of their career. Identifying and discussing this with the interviewer will demonstrate that you recognize how achievements can help both you and the organization advance. The interviewer will also be interested and the impact of the achievement and how you took advantage of it to move forward. If possible, discuss an achievement relative to the role for which you are interviewing.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"Probably the most significant achievement in my career that helped me advance to the role of a senior staff engineer was when I completed a software development project a week earlier than expected and took the initiative to add some additional features to the product. This caught the attention of my development team as well as the product organization. Both managers recommended that I'd be advanced to a senior staff position. I leveraged this opportunity to move up within the organization."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Leadership
15. What was the largest engineering team you led, and what were some of the challenges you encountered?
How to Answer
An interviewer will ask you about the size of the teams you'd led to understand the scope of your management capabilities and the size of the projects you've worked on. Larger teams usually indicate more complex projects. These, in turn, have more challenging issues which you need to overcome. Being able to tell the interviewer that you manage large teams while working on complex projects and overcoming challenging issues will demonstrate your qualifications for the role and differentiate you from other candidates interviewing for this job.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"The largest engineering team I have led consisted of 12 people. These include both the software development engineers and the support staff. We needed a team this large because we were developing a database system for an international organization with offices around the globe. The project presented several different challenges, including times zone differences, converting the application into different languages, and making it compatible with various disparate systems used by the organization. We successfully overcame each of these challenges and delivered the product on time and under budget. I believe the organization is still using the application we developed several years ago."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Leadership
16. When creating a software development team, do you prefer to hire experienced staff engineers or recent graduates? Why?
How to Answer
As a senior member of the engineering staff, you're very likely to be involved in hiring. While you may not have the final say in who is hired, you will be asked for your input and participation in the interview process. Discuss the type of candidate you look for and provide the rationale for your preferences. This demonstrates your mindset and ability to identify talent and to populate the team with the skill sets you need for the projects you are working on. It also establishes you as a candidate for more senior jobs.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"When interviewing candidates to join my development team, I look at their experience, their expertise, knowledge, and the budget I'm working with. My team's tasks range from simple coding to more complex fixes and issue resolution. To be successful and within budget, the team needs to include both recent graduates and more seasoned engineers. Although the recent graduates have less experience, they have lower salary expectations and bring fresh ideas to the team."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Leadership
17. How do you develop the members of your team to move to the next level in their careers?
How to Answer
One of the key responsibilities of a senior staff engineer is to develop their team to move into senior-level positions. An interviewer will ask you this question to confirm that you've done this in the past and that you can create personnel development plans. When responding to this question, provide an outline of the plan to use for personnel development. Be prepared for follow-up questions about the success your team realized and how each of the team members continued to advance within the organization.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"I am very proud of my record of advancing my team members to senior staff-level positions. I look for opportunities to move them into senior-level positions and work with my management team to recommend them for advancement. I consider this one of the most important things I do and put a lot of attention and time into it. My process for achieving this includes evaluating the skills and experience of each team member, working with them to create a career development plan, and then periodically verifying that they are following the plan. I measure my success as a team leader by how well my team has advanced into senior leadership positions."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Leadership
18. Can you tell me about a project on which you were the team leader and did not achieve the organization's expected results?
How to Answer
Nobody likes to talk about failures during their career. However, we've all experienced them. Discussing your failures and the lessons learned that you could apply to this new role is a key competency you need to demonstrate during an interview for a senior staff engineer role. Since this is a behavioral question, you can use the STAR methodology to frame your answer. Begin by describing the Situation, and then talk about the Task you were required to complete. Next, discuss the Actions you took and finish with the Results you achieved. If the project failed, you should talk about what you learned and how you can apply it going forward.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"I was once assigned to lead my team to develop a mobile gaming application. Even though the requirements for the project were somewhat vague, and I didn't feel I had all the resources needed to complete the assignment, we moved forward and began the coding work. It soon became apparent that my team did not have the skill set to complete the project. Reluctantly, I informed management that we could not develop the application and that the project should be assigned to a team with the proper background. Even though the project failed, I learned to evaluate an assignment realistically and either obtain the resources I needed to complete the job or recommend that it be assigned to a different team from the very beginning. This would save me the embarrassment of failing and result in the organization achieving its business objectives sooner."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Anonymous Interview Answers with Professional Feedback
Anonymous Answer
1. Technology to be used to build the application and the availability of suitable technical engineers to build that.
2. Tool stack to be used and availability of reusable tools/frameworks at the organizational level.
3. Backward planning with bucket-level estimations to see what is possible in a realistic environment.
With such considerations, if the deadline is strict but there are no technical challenges, we can evaluate the possibility of team expansion if needed or if it is a short time, I will discuss and motivate the team to extend and deliver. Of course, I always ensure the efforts of the team are recognized with holidays and monetary benefits later.
If the problem is about the skillset of the team and if it does not suit the technology stack chosen, I ensure the concern is raised at the initial stages of planning itself such that we don't have to face any surprises towards the end as this can have a huge impact on brand image and revenue of the organization."
Krista's Feedback
Leadership
19. At what point in your career did you decide to move into a leadership role, and how did you prepare for this?
How to Answer
Every senior staff engineer started their career in a junior or entry-level role. Many stayed contributing team members with no ambition or desire to rise to a leadership role. Some were thrust into leadership roles by their management team and may be hesitant to perform the required duties. Others strive to become leaders and prepare themselves through education and experience. The interviewer will ask you about this to determine which of these categories and you fall into. Naturally, organizations prefer candidates who work hard to achieve leadership status and have the skills and experience needed to do this job.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"Like many engineers, I started my career as a member of a development team. As time went on, I assumed additional responsibilities to increase my skills and learn more about software development. I took to this naturally and enjoyed the challenges it presented. After working as a development engineer for several years, one of my managers asked if I'd like to become a team lead. I accepted their offer and enthusiastically. At first, it was challenging having to direct the activities of my former peers. Still, I grew into the role, and now I'm very comfortable leading teams of creative engineers in software development efforts."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Leadership
20. What are some of the ways you support your team when they are working on projects?
How to Answer
The most effective strategy a team leader can employ has three key elements. These include ensuring that the team members clearly understand the objectives, providing them the resources they need to achieve the goals, and supporting them whenever necessary. This question addresses the last of these. There are several ways you can support your team. These include being available to answer their questions, mentoring them so they learn new skills, backing them up when there are disputes, and providing them the opportunity for career advancement. When responding to this question, you should touch on some or all of these and describe exactly how you go about achieving them. Again, concrete examples of how you've done this in the past will illustrate your qualifications in this area. They also want you to mention how you're prepared to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty creating code to help move the project forward.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"Supporting my team is by far the most important thing I do in my job. I work hard to ensure that every member of my team knows that I have their back. They know I will help them achieve their job-related objectives and provide them opportunities for advancement within the organization. I initiate this process by first making sure each team member understands the organization's objectives and our role in working towards them. I then make sure they have all the resources needed to do their job. I make myself available when they have questions, need help resolving an issue, or just need to vent. I'm not against sitting down at a terminal and creating some code to help them get caught up or teach them a new skill. I also create development plans for each of the team members, so they understand they have the opportunity to move on to more senior roles within the organization and know what it will take to get there."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Leadership
21. How would you prepare to make a presentation to a business manager who has asked for your recommendation between two technologies?
How to Answer
One of the key roles a senior staff engineer plays is to help business leaders make technology decisions. While the business leader may know how technology works, they depend on you to provide recommendations about new and contemporary technology. This is based on your knowledge of the technology and your understanding of their business practices, current technologies, and staff's technical capabilities. The interviewer asks you this question to understand the criteria you use and the process you go through to develop your recommendations.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"When asked to make a recommendation for a business unit about the technology they should adopt, the first thing I do is to gain an in-depth understanding of their business practices. I need to understand their objectives, how they go about achieving these, the type of data they work with, and the tools they use. Once I understand this, I can then select the technology which will help them achieve their goals. I present my recommendation to the business unit leader in clear, non-technical terms focusing on the benefits the technology delivers rather than its features. Of course, I am prepared to answer any questions they have about how the technology functions."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Leadership
22. Can you describe some of the factors you address when consulting with stakeholders on a new development project?
How to Answer
The success of many projects is determined at the very beginning. The interviewer is interested in learning how you begin a project and the steps you take to make sure it is successful early in the development cycle. Being able to describe the items you address with the stakeholders at the beginning of a project and how these contribute to the project's success will establish your qualifications for this position. If possible, talk about factors that are relevant to the organization with whom you are interviewing. You can base this on the information you gathered during your research of the position and the organization before the interview.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"When starting a new project, the most important factors I focus on are the requirements and the desired outcomes as defined by the project stakeholders. I make sure I clearly understand these and that they are achievable. If I feel that the stakeholder's expectations are unrealistic, I have a conversation with them and try to guide them towards more realistic and achievable results. I have found that establishing clear expectations at the beginning of a software development project results in more successful project outcomes and satisfied stakeholders."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Leadership
23. What are some of the methods you use to upgrade the skills of your development team?
How to Answer
Competent team leaders are always looking for opportunities to train and improve their teams. This helps each team member grow and enables the entire team to take on new and more challenging development opportunities. Interviewers realize this and will want to know your specific methodologies and strategies for achieving this. In addition to describing how you go about improving your team's competencies, you may want to provide an example of when you successfully prepared one of your team members to advance to a senior staff engineer level.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"Part of my annual plan is a team development strategy. I set training and development objectives for each member and detail the courses or training they need to take to achieve these. In addition to this formal training, I also look for ad hoc opportunities to improve the skill sets of my team. An example of this is assigning them tasks that will stretch them and require them to learn new methodologies for software development. I will also partner a junior member of the team with someone more experienced who can mentor them. This benefits the junior member because they acquire new development skills, while the more experienced member can brush up their mentoring and leadership skills. My larger goal is to promote two of my team into senior staff engineering positions each year."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Operational
24. What do you consider when deciding whether to use a NoSQL solution instead of an SQL one?
How to Answer
By asking this question, the interviewer can understand several things about you. The first is your knowledge of databases, especially SQL databases. Second, your answer will also confirm if you have experience working with both SQL and NoSQL databases. The third thing the interviewer will learn is your ability to organize your thinking and present technology and options to the organization's business unit leaders. To demonstrate this, you should keep your answer direct and to the point and use simple, non-technical language when describing the benefits of each of these options.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"Both SQL and NoSQL databases have their advantages. Some of the reasons for using a NoSQL database are that the data models are flexible, scale horizontally, accelerate the queries, and are easier for developers to work with. NoSQL works better when the datasets are small and uncomplicated. When using very large datasets or data that several different applications will access, SQL databases will perform better even though they are more complex and require additional overhead."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Operational
25. What are the parameters you consider when creating data tables?
How to Answer
While this seems like a pretty straightforward question, the interviewer expects you to respond with clarifying questions. Without knowing the type of software you are developing or the system it will use, it is difficult to determine what the data tables will look like. You should inquire about the purpose of the software, how it will be used, and the type of data it will manage. Once you know this, you can respond appropriately to the parameters you would consider when designing the data tables. You can also give an example of a data table you previously designed to demonstrate your ability to do this.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"To respond to this question, I will need to know what the application is, how it will be used, and the type of data it will manage. Without this information, I would just be guessing and would not design the data tables appropriately. I can give you an example of a data table I recently designed for a retail application. I created a table for each SKU, the class of product it was, the department in which it was sold, the vendor, and its price. Having these data tables within the point of sale application enabled us to track the inventory using each of these parameters to search or sort the data."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Operational
26. What types of tools do you use to ensure the performance of the given architecture?
How to Answer
Senior staff engineers need to know that their applications are performing well by continuously monitoring the overall health of the systems they manage. Top candidates will be able to describe the current system monitoring and instrumentation tools they use. They will also be prepared to detail how the tools work, the information they provide, and what actions they can take to fine-tune, debug, or optimize the code. The interviewer will likely ask a follow-up question once you tell them the type of tools you use to verify your experience in this area.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"I strongly believe in the use of system monitoring tools. The benefits they provide include giving me the insight I need to make data-driven decisions, detecting problems early so that they can be addressed, enabling my staff and me to compare upgrades to optimize our systems, and preventing downtime so that the services are constantly available to the end-users. By far, my favorite tool is SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor. This provides me a complete dashboard that monitors several features and functions across all of my systems. The tool also gives the team alerts when the performance falls below predetermined parameters."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Scenario
27. How would you justify the cost and disruption of upgrading to a newer version of the software an organization is currently using?
How to Answer
Hiring managers know that people who work with technology have a bias for the latest and greatest. It's easy to build a case for upgrading to a manufacturer's most recent products, noting the additional features and improvements the new product's performance likely delivers. However, upgrading software requires additional investment and is disruptive to the organization during the upgrade process. Senior staff engineers need to know when an upgrade is applicable, and if it is, how to present it to the business unit managers so that they understand the benefits and how they outweigh the costs.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"One of my jobs is to stay current on developing technology, especially those the organization currently uses. I maintained good relationships with my vendors to receive timely notifications of upcoming upgrades, the features and benefits they will include, and whether they apply to my organization. If I feel the organization would benefit from upgrading an application, I carefully build a case using the benefits the upgrade would deliver. I focus on gains in productivity, process improvements, and long-term cost savings. I also develop a table which demonstrates the breakeven for the upgrade, taking into account the initial investment, the cost to implement the upgrade, and any disruption and productivity the upgrade process will involve."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Scenario Based
28. If you are assigned several different projects with competing requirements, schedules, and resource needs, how would you prioritize them?
How to Answer
Most software development organizations are asked to do more with less. This means having several projects on the table simultaneously, all of which compete with each other. As a senior staff engineer, you will be asked to prioritize which projects should receive your team's attention, time, and resources. The interviewer is less concerned about which projects you would prioritize over others than about the criteria you use and the methodology for accomplishing this. It is okay to provide them with an example to illustrate your answer. The interviewer may also expect you to ask several clarifying questions if they provide you with a list of projects to prioritize.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"I try to assess prioritization by identifying which task will best meet the organization's business objectives. These criteria involve the time, effort, and cost involved to complete each task and its impact on the organization. If I don't already have this information, I ask the business leaders and other project stakeholders questions that provide the answers which help me prioritize. Other criteria include the importance and urgency of each task, with an emphasis on the importance. For example, fixing a bug in the accounting software code could be very important if it prohibits the accounting team from closing the books for the quarter and reporting the company's financials to the SEC on time."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Scenario Based
29. How would you divide software development tasks among the members of your team?
How to Answer
As a senior staff engineer, you need to know how to delegate tasks based on your team members' skill levels and knowledge. Talented engineering managers understand how to avoid overloading developers and how to spread knowledge throughout the organization. You can also use the need to delegate to increase the skill level of your team members by challenging them with stretch assignments and partnering them with more skilled developers who can mentor them. These are the characteristics the interviewer is looking for in your answer to this question.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"When taking on a new development project, I break the project down into concrete tasks and delegate them to each of my team members. I then delegate the tasks according to the team's strengths and prior experience. Sometimes, I will assign a new task to a team member who has not worked on something similar before to help expand their skills and knowledge. If the task is extremely challenging, I partner them with someone with more experience. This enables both employees to expand their skills as developers and leaders."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Scenario Based
30. What are your communication strategies for your team and the other project stakeholders when a development project falls behind schedule?
How to Answer
It's not uncommon for software development projects to fall behind schedule. A competent senior staff engineer will recognize this and not overreact when it occurs. Communicating with your team and the other project stakeholders is critical to inform them of the project status and put the project back on schedule. The interviewer expects you to describe several different strategies that enable you to accomplish this. In addition, you may want to provide a concrete example of how you achieved this on a previous project.
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021
Answer Example
"My team uses the agile methodology for most of our software development projects. This allows us to become aware of when a project is falling behind and enables us to take immediate actions to correct the timeframe. I make a point to communicate the project status in daily update meetings and weekly communications with the key project stakeholders. I also have ad hoc meetings, if necessary, to develop strategies to bring the project back on schedule. I never assign blame for the project falling behind, and I always solicit input from both the team members and the stakeholders about what we can do to resolve the situation. The strategy has resulted in everyone feeling responsible for the project's status and working together to keep it on schedule."
Written by William Swansen on September 9th, 2021