Flexport Software Engineer Interview Guide

The initial phase of the interviewing process involves an online assessment that consists of approximately five questions. These questions are about evaluating your proficiency in various computer science concepts but aren't particularly challenging. If you spend enough time-solving Leetcode questions, you should be able to get through this round smoothly.

It is essential to note that the online assessment doesn't just cover traditional LeetCode-style problems but also extends to front-end and SQL-related questions.

This 20-minute HR phone screen typically includes standard "get to know you" questions aimed at understanding the candidate's past experiences and motivations for choosing Flexport.

You can expect questions regarding your graduation status, preferred start date, current location, and willingness to relocate, among other things. 

The wait after the phone screen may be long, as reported by previous candidates.

This third interview round is with the hiring manager; it typically involves questions related to CS fundamentals like data structures and algorithms, and system design. The stage often includes a coding challenge (a Hackerank or Leetcode medium) designed to test your coding proficiency. However, you don't need to worry; the challenge is usually straightforward with questions like "implement a checkerboard" and such. You will be expected to solve the problem using a shared code editor, allowing the interviewer to observe your coding skills in real-time.

A recent candidate reported being asked the following question, for instance:

Given a shipping yard with infinite capacity for containers and has clients who would like to store their containers. Design a system which can manage the operations of the yard.

1. Start with a client intending to add or remove containers, i.e. (containers, amount)
2. Improve functionality by extending the system to buying and selling operations, maintain a order book where logs of each buy and sell order requests are 
3. Introduce bidding for each buy and sell request, based on the best offer, make the transaction.

The candidate was asked to explain the complexity of the solution as well as whether they could still improve the solution if they had more time.

During the on-site technical/coding round of the software engineer interview process, you can expect to undergo an architecture interview and several coding interviews on a whiteboard. These interviews will likely test your understanding of OOP concepts, data structures, algorithms, and system designs.

The coding questions that you will encounter are typically at the easy/medium level on LeetCode, as the interviewer will be more interested in evaluating your thought process rather than your ability to solve difficult problems. 

In fact, you may be asked to describe verbally the steps you would take to solve a coding problem, such as determining if horizontal and vertical letters are the same, or answer a recursion question.

To prepare for this round, it is recommended that you review fundamental programming concepts, practice coding problems, and be able to communicate your thought process clearly and concisely. You'll need to demonstrate a deep understanding of how these concepts work and how to use them effectively to solve challenging problems. If you have gone through other interviews that similar, i.e. Google Software Engineering Interview, you would realise that system design questions are important too.

For the system design questions, you'll be expected to provide a high-level architecture and describe the components and interactions between them. You may be asked to consider scalability, fault tolerance, performance in your design, as well as explain the trade-offs and considerations that went into your design choices.

Remember to stay calm, ask questions, and think through your solutions carefully.

Participating in mock interviews with an experienced software engineer can be a highly effective way to prepare for the on-site technical/coding round.

Mock interviews provide an opportunity to simulate real interview conditions and receive feedback on your performance. The expert may ask you coding questions, provide guidance on your problem-solving approach, and offer tips on how to communicate your thought process effectively. This can help you refine your skills and ensure that you are well-prepared to tackle the real interview with confidence.

Booking a 60-minute session with a Flexport Full Stack Software Engineer expert here.

• Implement a sorting algorithm (e.g. quicksort, mergesort) from scratch
• Implement a graph traversal algorithm (e.g. BFS, DFS)
• Given a set of meeting times, find the minimum number of rooms required to schedule all meetings
• Given a set of n intervals, find the maximum number of intervals that overlap at any point in time
• Design a distributed file system
• Design a recommendation system for e-commerce
• Design a fault-tolerant messaging system
• Design a social network with millions of users

In this final round, you can expect to face a series of behavioral questions that give insight into your work ethics, problem-solving skills, and ability to think critically. The interviewer may ask you to share specific examples of how you dealt with certain situations or challenges in the past, and how you approached them.

It also involves a deep dive into one project of your choice where you'll have the opportunity to display your technical skills and expertise, and demonstrate your ability to work independently and collaboratively. 

The above interviews are followed by live coding using a shared code editor; previous candidates were reportedly given debugging challenges, and you can expect to be presented with similar challenges, which will test your ability to think logically and systematically.

• Tell me about a time when you had to make a compromise
• Describe an aspect of your role you learned at your former job that you feel will be beneficial to your future role at Flexport.
• What about the Software Engineer role at Flexport excites you the most?
• What makes you a great fit for Flexport?
• Why work at a startup?
• Can you explain the architecture of the project you chose for the deep dive?
• During the development of one of your previous projects, you encounter a bug that prevents the application from functioning correctly. Can you walk us through the debugging process you would use to identify and solve the issue? 
• How would you optimize the performance of a slow running application?