Interview scorecard by role
Software Engineer Interview Scorecard & Questions
Great engineers aren't the ones who solve puzzles fastest on a whiteboard; they're the ones who ship reliable code in a real codebase, communicate trade-offs and make teammates faster. Interviews should mirror that work: reading code, debugging, designing small systems and explaining decisions.
What to assess: 5 core competencies
Copy this scorecard. Assign each competency to one interviewer, rate it 1–5 and write down the evidence before discussing the candidate with anyone.
| Competency | What good looks like | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code quality | writes readable, tested, maintainable code that others can extend. | ||
| Debugging | narrows problems systematically using logs, tests and hypotheses rather than guessing. | ||
| System design | chooses appropriate data models, APIs and trade-offs for the scale the business actually has. | ||
| Collaboration | gives and receives code review constructively and explains decisions to non-engineers. | ||
| Delivery | breaks work into small shippable increments and flags risk early. | ||
| Overall | ☐ Strong no ☐ No ☐ Yes ☐ Strong yes | ||
10 structured interview questions for a software engineer
Ask the same core questions, in the same order, to every candidate. Probe with "What did you do?" and "What was the result?"
- Walk me through the last production bug you fixed. How did you find the root cause?
- Tell me about a piece of code you're proud of. What makes it good?
- Describe a design decision you made that turned out wrong. What did you learn?
- How do you approach a large codebase you've never seen before?
- Tell me about a code review where you disagreed with the reviewer. How was it resolved?
- How would you design a simple URL shortener for 10,000 users? What changes at 10 million?
- When do you write tests first, and when don't you?
- Tell me about a time you had to ship under a tight deadline. What did you cut, and why?
- Explain a technical concept you know well as if I were a new sales hire.
- Work sample: here's a 60-line function with a bug and no tests. Find it and make it safer.
Rating anchors for the critical competencies
Anchors stop one interviewer's "4" from being another's "2". These cover the two competencies that most often separate strong and weak software engineer hires. Read our interview rating scale guide to write anchors for the rest.
Debugging
| 1 — Below the bar | Guesses randomly; changes code until the error disappears. |
|---|---|
| 3 — Meets the bar | Reproduces the bug, forms a hypothesis, verifies the fix with a test. |
| 5 — Exceptional | Uses observability and bisection, fixes the root cause and prevents the class of bug from recurring. |
System design
| 1 — Below the bar | Jumps to fashionable tools with no reasoning about scale or cost. |
|---|---|
| 3 — Meets the bar | Proposes a sensible design and names its main trade-offs. |
| 5 — Exceptional | Starts from requirements, sizes the problem, designs for today and explains a clear path to scale. |
Red flags to watch for
- Can't explain their own past code or decisions in detail.
- Dismisses testing or code review as bureaucracy.
- Blames teammates for every failed project.
30-60-90 day plan outline for a new software engineer
| Days 1–30: Learn | Set up the dev environment, ship a small fix in week one, pair on two features, learn the deploy and on-call process. |
|---|---|
| Days 31–60: Contribute | Own a small feature end to end with review, write or improve tests for one fragile area, join the support rotation with a buddy. |
| Days 61–90: Own | Lead a medium feature, give substantive code reviews, propose one improvement to tooling or architecture. |
Turn this into a full plan with goals and check-ins using our 30-60-90 day plan guide or the 30-60-90 Day Onboarding Kit.
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How many interview rounds should a software engineer go through?
Two or three focused stages are usually enough for a small company: a short screen, a structured interview using the questions above, and a practical exercise or final interview. Score every stage on the same 1–5 scale.
What is the most predictive part of a software engineer interview?
The practical exercise — "here's a 60-line function with a bug and no tests. Find it and make it safer." — because it shows real work rather than descriptions of it. Score it against the anchors on this page.
Generate more questions with the free interview question generator.