How to Interview Senior Software Engineer

The demand for hiring qualified tech talent in the IT industry has been increasing for a while. With more industries and businesses going digital due to technological advancements, the need for top-notch tech experts is growing yearly.

However, as the demand for hiring top software engineers continues to rise, filling tech roles becomes even more challenging. A survey revealed that 86% of hiring managers and technical recruiters need help finding and hiring software engineers.

According to IDC, software engineers have become a valuable resource for any industry or company due to the shortage of full-time developers, which is projected to increase from 1.4 million in 2021 to 4.0 million in 2025.

This creates numerous hiring challenges in the IT industry, making it difficult to fill positions with skilled tech professionals.

As a result, many are seeking better ways how to interview senior software engineer. However, before we dive into that, it's important to examine some of the main challenges that tech recruiters face.

Now, the question remains, “how to interview senior developer” so all functional and technical aspects are thoroughly assessed. But that, too, comes with a few challenges:

Challenges you might encounter as you build your tech team

• Limited pool of candidates with relevant technical skills
• Market competition
• Time-consuming interviews
• High costs of hiring software engineers
• Lack of formal IT education

Now that we mentioned the common engineer hiring challenges, here’s how to interview senior software engineer with planning and tweak how you strategize the hiring process.

1.Here are a few ways on how to interview senior software Engineer

I. Live coding interviews

Live coding interviews are challenges or exercises that mimic real work a candidate might do on the job. The candidate is assessed in a pair programming interview, in which they will interact directly with the existing tech team on a project. Some of its benefits are:

• Live coding interviews make the most sense if you want to hire for a coding-only position. This method is best for assessing senior role positions, which require a lot more than coding abilities. It evaluates how someone thinks through code and approaches problems and how they will lead others.
• The coding challenges typically include something close to what the candidate would do on the job. The candidate can also complete the challenge in a reasonable amount of time.
• Candidates can’t cheat with live coding. The skills demonstrated by them are completely practical. For example, a candidate may have mentioned they know what a singleton pattern is, but do they know how to write one or recognize one in a code?

Live coding interviews help track precisely this! The candidate will apply their knowledge and walk the technical interviewer through their work in detail.

Some other skills you can check during a live coding interview include:

1 - Oral communication: how easily can a candidate explain their thought process or understanding of the coding challenge?

2 - Openness to feedback or different opinions: how do they take feedback or criticism from the interviewers?
 

II. Coding assessments 

A coding test is an efficient process to screen a senior developer before hiring them. These technical assessments enable you to identify and hire proficient developers. So, coding tests are your go-to if you want to hire quality developers.

Tech recruiters can use a skills assessment platform to conduct coding tests. These platforms will enable you to test applicants in a specific programming language or over multiple technologies (Java, Angular, Python, etc.).

You will be able to screen a large number of candidates in a short time, and cut bias from the entire recruitment process. Coding assessments help filter top candidates and identify if they are a good fit for your organization. Our article about hiring developers for the latest technologies will guide you in finding the best talent.

III. Take home projects

Take-home projects are another way to assess the skills of a senior developer. These assessments consist of real-world coding tasks that candidates can complete independently. Candidates can use a coding environment, including libraries, frameworks, and access to GitHub, etc.

Here are some benefits of take-homes:

• It gives the candidate enough time to do the work in a comfortable environment.
• A take-home project will enable hiring managers to assess how candidates think through problems.
• A good take-home project mimics what the candidate might be asked to do on the job.
• Take-home projects will remove a lot of stress associated with other technical challenges.

IV. Examine their programming portfolio

Programmer portfolios are the best way for developers to showcase their skills. These portfolios can include single web pages to complex software projects. Any passionate developer will have one, as it allows them to showcase their coding skills.

Think about it this way: You would only hire content writers if you read their previous articles.

The same logic applies here.

You can see a candidate's skills and development level with a portfolio. In other words, the main benefit of examining portfolios is to know a candidate's previous projects and gauge how helpful they would be for your team.

v. Include a senior developer in the technical interview process portfolio

Conducting a technical interview during the recruitment process is a vital responsibility.

Here’s why you should involve a senior developer to conduct the interviews.

Senior developers have a wealth of experience and knowledge they bring to the table. This can significantly benefit the company in its hiring efforts.

Let’s discuss why a senior developers should be involved and the benefits they bring to the table.

i. Technical Expertise:

One of the main reasons is their technical expertise. A senior developer is well-versed in the technologies and programming languages that the company uses. This makes them the best people to assess a candidate’s technical skills.

They can ask challenging questions and determine a candidate’s level of proficiency in a particular language or technology. This ensures the company hires the right developer with the necessary tech skills. Thus, contributing to the team and driving the company forward.

ii. Objectivity:

A senior developer can help provide an objective assessment to test a candidate’s technical abilities. This will avoid any biases arising from past experiences or personal relationships. Conducting technical interviews is one way to assess the candidate’s tech skills objectively, ensuring that the company makes informed hiring decisions.

iii. Company Culture Fit:

In addition to assessing a candidate’s tech skills, a senior developer can also test a candidate’s soft skills like problem-solving approach and communication skills. This will give an insight into how the candidate would fit into the company’s culture and team dynamics.

A senior developer will also be able to determine if the candidate has the interpersonal skills required to work effectively with the test of the team.

iv. Industry Insight:

A senior developer has a wealth of experience in the industry and will offer valuable advice and perspectives on current and emerging trends. This will help an organization make informed hiring decisions and stay ahead of the curve.

For example, when hiring a senior developer, the company can tap into their expertise and knowledge to ensure that they are hiring people who are well-equipped to drive the company forward.

In conclusion, involving a senior developer in the technical interview process ensures that the company is making informed hiring decisions and cultivating the next generation of technical leaders within the organization.

2. How to interview senior software engineer with iMocha

iMocha makes tech hiring simple, fair, and unbiased. It offers a complete suite of products to help tech recruiters streamline the technical hiring process—making the lives of both recruiters and developers easy.

iMocha offers features like:

• A rich library with 3,000+ coding problems for 37 programming languages that enables you to create precise coding assessments with minimal technical know-how.
• You can quickly create custom assessments for any role or skill based on job descriptions. 
• It offers coding simulators like AI-LogicBox to assess a candidate’s technical abilities.
• This platform offers questions such as fill-in-the-blanks, async videos, MCQs, live coding, whiteboarding, etc. 
• With iMocha Projects, tech recruiters can hire proficient candidates with specific technical skills to perform on the job. 
• iMocha’s advanced proctoring monitors a candidate remotely during a test and reduces cheating done by candidates. 
• Talent analytics offer deeper insights into a candidate’s capabilities with summarized, automated performance reports.

Want to know how this software company leveraged iMocha’s coding simulator to reduce interview time by 50%? Read on to find out more.

3.Senior Software Engineer Coding Interview Questions: 

To add more senior-level talent to your development team, you need to know how to identify them more precisely.

So how do you distinguish one from an average developer? What are the critical tech skills and traits defining a senior software engineer?

Skills that, once identified, signal to you that you are looking at a senior software engineer during the interview?

We’ve got you covered!

Here’s a list of senior software engineer interview questions for evaluating candidates and filtering out the mid-level (and junior) developers.

General questions

• Tell me about your interests in current development trends.
• How do your qualifications support your success as a senior developer?
• How have you overcome industry challenges in your career?
• How will your experience help you contribute to this firm’s goals?
• How do you keep your work skills up to date?

Technical questions

• How do you approach debugging an entire system of applications?
• What factors do you consider when designing inventory management systems?
• In which instances would you apply “set” logic?
• What type of web application architecture would you choose? And why?
• What kind of instrumentation do you apply to ensure high-performance architecture design?
• How would you create an SQL database for geographical and time-series information?
• How have you implemented the Agile framework in your software design processes?
  
  

Wrapping up

This article has tackled all the essential ways on how to interview senior software engineer. We have covered everything from using live coding interviews, technical assessments, and interview questions to including a senior developer during recruitment.

Proper technical interviews can give exceptional insights into your candidates’ skills. Their responses will inform you how well they will fit into your organization. So, start compiling your interview strategy today to achieve this.

Remember that a technical interview shouldn’t feel like a homework assignment. It is your chance to collaborate with a senior software engineer candidate.

Need to level up your recruitment strategy to hire great senior software engineers? Here are 20 Tips on How to Hire Tech Talent.

FAQs

1. How do you assess a senior software engineer?

Before you hire a senior software engineer, use the following evaluation criteria to assess candidates and determine the potential candidates to call for an interview.

• Years of Experience: The years of experience of a software engineering candidate working as a developer will play an essential role in whether they will be a good fit for your company.
• Programming Languages: When hiring senior software engineers, you want to ensure they are updated with current or future languages.
• Problem-Solving: Debugging and problem-solving skills are important for any senior software engineer as they will be able to identify issues within the developed software.
• Communication skills: A senior software engineer will be a good team player and effectively communicate within and across teams.

2. What are the ideal top 3 traits of a software engineer?

Excellent software engineers are the lifeblood of development teams. Therefore, tech recruiters and hiring managers must think hard about the values that make candidates the best fit for their teams.

Here are a few traits of a great software engineer:

• Experience
• Attention to Detail
• Productivity, Planning, and Time Management
• Self-Learning, Flexibility, and Adaptability
  

3. What to look for in a Sr. Software engineer?

A senior software engineer is vital to any development team and organization. Similar to other tech roles, they are in high demand, particularly senior software engineer positions, which require a lot more experience and a more niche skillset.

So, what do you need to look for?

A senior software engineer is a problem-solver and creative. They are responsible for leading the entire development team for a piece of software. They help develop, design, and install software solutions, build applications for customers to complete specific tasks, and make the underlying system that runs complete software.

Beyond their technical duties, they also lead a team of junior software developers. This ensures that everyone contributes to improving the software functionality or user experience.

Other senior software engineer tasks include:

• Collect and analyze user data to optimize software
• Recommend software upgrades or fixes for existing software systems
• Instruct a team of junior developers on how to write and implement code
• Run regular tests and maintenance checks of existing software
• Iterate and upgrade software