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Top Snap Interview Questions and Answers for Product Managers, Data Engineers, and Software Engineers

by Interview Kickstart Team in Interview Questions
September 25, 2024
Preparing for an interview at Snap? Here's how you can nail it!

Top Snap Interview Questions and Answers for Product Managers, Data Engineers, and Software Engineers

Last updated by Ashwin Ramachandran on Sep 25, 2024 at 10:46 PM | Reading time: 10 minutes

You can download a PDF version of  
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Snap Inc. is one of the world’s biggest technology and social media companies that offers multimedia, image messaging, and social networking services through popular apps such as Snapchat, Bitmoji, and Spectacles. The company offers lucrative career opportunities and compensation to software engineers, making its interviews highly competitive. With the right strategy and resources in place, you can tackle tricky Snap interview questions and land an irresistible offer.

In this article, we’ll look at some top Snap interview questions with answers for data engineers, product managers, and software engineers.    

If you are preparing for a tech interview, check out our technical interview checklist, interview questions page, and salary negotiation e-book to get interview-ready!

Having trained over 10,000 software engineers, we know what it takes to crack the toughest tech interviews. Our alums consistently land offers from FAANG+ companies. The highest ever offer received by an IK alum is a whopping $1.267 Million!

At IK, you get the unique opportunity to learn from expert instructors who are hiring managers and tech leads at Google, Facebook, Apple, and other top Silicon Valley tech companies.

Want to nail your next tech interview? Sign up for our FREE Webinar.

Mentioned in the below sections are a few Snap interview questions that might help prepare for the interview.

  • Snap Interview Process
  • Snap Interview Questions for Software Engineers
  • Snap Interview Questions for Data Engineers
  • Snap Interview Questions for Product Managers
  • FAQs on Snap Interview Questions

Snap Interview Process

Given Snap's numerous career opportunities, the competition to become a software developer or product manager is fierce. Similarly, the Snap interview process will be complex. Throughout the timeline, you will be subjected to a number of tough coding interview questions. Don't let these frighten you!

The Snap interview process takes around one month. It is conducted through the following procedure:

  • Stage 1: A phone screening with HR
  • Stage 2: A technical phone interview with someone at your level or higher. This round also includes an online coding interview. Make sure you prepare well for Snap interview questions on coding.
  • Stage 3: An on-site interview

In the on-site interview, you will have four rounds of technical discussions and lunch, followed by a non-technical interview round to discuss work culture.

Snap Interview Questions for Software Engineers

Here are a few common Snap Inc. software engineer interview questions:

Q1. Find the maximum amount of rainwater you can collect on top of a building.

This is one of the most difficult yet fun Snap interview questions. The idea behind answering this should be to calculate the rooftop dimensions. Further calculations will require a thorough knowledge of Java, C, or python.

Q2. Provided an MxN matrix, where the elements can either be 0 or 1. Mention the shortest path between a certain source and a destination.

The idea behind this Snap interview question takes inspiration from Lee's algorithm and follows the BFS. To solve this, you will have to start with the source sell and call the BFS process. After that, applying C, Java, or Python programming language is crucial.

Q3. What would you like to change about Snapchat?

Answer such Snap interview questions by giving your insights on what you like the least about the company.

Q4. What is a project you are proud of?

To answer this, provide the interviewer with a glimpse of your project and describe why you are proud of it.

Q5. Talk about a time when you implemented an innovative idea that had a positive impact.

Such behavioral Snap interview questions are important for assessing your ability to solve real-world problems. Try to be honest and answer the question confidently.

Mentioned below are a few other Snap interview questions for software engineers:

  1. Remove duplicates in a given array within the k range.
  2. A string contains the target value and digits between 0 and 9. Return all scopes to include binary operators ‘-‘, ‘+’, or * between these digits so that they reach their target value.
  3. Translate an XML file into a tree.
  4. Add an LRU cache.
  5. Design the story feature of Instagram.

Snap Interview Questions for Data Engineers

Data scientists work on various teams at Snapchat, including marketing, engineering, and product management. Clearly, a data scientist's role at Snapchat is diverse. The following are some common Snap interview questions for data engineers:

Q1. Explain the difference between data warehouse and operational database.

The operational database supports massive volumes of transactions. On the other hand, data warehouses support massive volumes of analytical processing.

Q2. What do you understand by **kwargs and *args?

**kwargs and *args are used in Python when we are unsure about the number of arguments to present to the functions.

Q3. Have you ever handled a job-related crisis as a data engineer?

These types of behavioral Snap interview questions are common. You can approach this question by giving an example of such as situation and how you handled it.

Q4. Do you have any experience with data modeling?

Answer honestly and confidently whether you have any experience in data modeling or not.

Q5. Mention the algorithms you used on a recent project.

Try to mention all the algorithms you used on a recent project.

Data engineers can also practice the following Snap interview questions:

  1. Mention the important applications and frameworks for data engineers.
  2. What Is the difference between a Data Scientist and a Data Engineer?
  3. What would be your approach towards developing a new analytical product as a data engineer?
  4. Have you ever converted unstructured data into structured data?
  5. Can you mention and explain the design schemas in data modeling?

Do you want to work as a product manager at Snap? The section that follows goes over the Snap interview questions for product managers. Make sure to read them all.

Snap Interview Questions for Product Managers

Snap is well-known for its well-crafted, design-heavy products. Snap's product managers have a close working relationship with the designers. Designers at Snap play an important role in the development process, collaborating with product managers to identify and conceptualize opportunities to address. During your Snap interview, you will be asked questions about strategy and product design. Take a look at the following Snap interview questions for product managers:

Q1. How do you deal with customer expectations?

Draft out 4-5 ways to deal with customer expectations and explain them in detail.

Q2. How do you plan your approach when working with an engineering team?

Since Snap product managers work with engineers, this is a crucial Snap interview question. Mention how you would work with your engineer mates with complete honesty.

Q3. Tell me about your experience when you became a manager of a team.

Give a relevant answer depending upon your past experiences.

Q4. How did you craft your most innovative idea?

Note that the interview does not want to know the entire process here. Instead, you just have to mention your approach towards crafting an innovative idea.

Q5. How would you launch Snapchat in a new country?

Be as creative as you can to answer these types of Snap interview questions.

Here are a few other common Snap interview questions for product managers:

  1. If you are chosen for this job, how long do you plan on staying?
  2. Would you like to change anything about Quora if you were a PM there?
  3. Are you familiar with the product development process?
  4. Tell me about the time when you failed miserably. What did you learn from that experience?
  5. What are your expectations from the role of Product Manager at Snap?

We hope that these Snap interview questions for software engineers, data engineers, and product managers will help you crack your tech interview. For a solid prep, practice some mock interviews too.

Widen your knowledge about the Product Manager Career Path and get the opportunity to shape your career.

FAQs on Snap Interview Questions

Q1. What is the average annual salary of a Snap software engineer?

The average Snap software engineer salary is $135,000 per year.

Q2. What Snap interview questions can you expect at the company’s software engineering interviews?

At Snap’s software engineering interviews, questions are predominantly on core data structures and algorithms, scalable and distributed systems, and behavioral psychology.

Q3. How many interview stages does the Snap software engineering interview have?

The Snap software engineering interview typically has three main interview rounds - The Recruiter Screen, the Technical Phone Screen Interview, and the On-site Interview.

Q4. Are Snap interview questions on coding hard?

Snap interview questions on coding are fundamentally around core data structures and algorithms. The difficulty of the coding problems is usually similar to Leetcode problems that classify under medium-to-hard-difficulty.  

Q5. Does Snap Inc. have remote working opportunities for software engineers?

Yes, the company offers full-time and part-time remote opportunities for software engineers. This is usually flexible and dependent on which team you work for.  

Gear Up for Your Next Tech Interview

Are you getting ready for an upcoming Snap interview? Register for our technical interview webinar.

At Interview Kickstart, we’ve trained over 10,000 engineers to land lucrative offers at the biggest tech companies. Our instructors, who are FAANG hiring managers, know what it takes to nail tough tech interviews at top technology companies.

Register for our FREE webinar to learn more.

Author
Ashwin Ramachandran
Head of Engineering @ Interview Kickstart. Enjoys cutting through the noise and finding patterns.
The fast well prepared banner

Snap Inc. is one of the world’s biggest technology and social media companies that offers multimedia, image messaging, and social networking services through popular apps such as Snapchat, Bitmoji, and Spectacles. The company offers lucrative career opportunities and compensation to software engineers, making its interviews highly competitive. With the right strategy and resources in place, you can tackle tricky Snap interview questions and land an irresistible offer.

In this article, we’ll look at some top Snap interview questions with answers for data engineers, product managers, and software engineers.    

If you are preparing for a tech interview, check out our technical interview checklist, interview questions page, and salary negotiation e-book to get interview-ready!

Having trained over 10,000 software engineers, we know what it takes to crack the toughest tech interviews. Our alums consistently land offers from FAANG+ companies. The highest ever offer received by an IK alum is a whopping $1.267 Million!

At IK, you get the unique opportunity to learn from expert instructors who are hiring managers and tech leads at Google, Facebook, Apple, and other top Silicon Valley tech companies.

Want to nail your next tech interview? Sign up for our FREE Webinar.

Mentioned in the below sections are a few Snap interview questions that might help prepare for the interview.

  • Snap Interview Process
  • Snap Interview Questions for Software Engineers
  • Snap Interview Questions for Data Engineers
  • Snap Interview Questions for Product Managers
  • FAQs on Snap Interview Questions

Snap Interview Process

Given Snap's numerous career opportunities, the competition to become a software developer or product manager is fierce. Similarly, the Snap interview process will be complex. Throughout the timeline, you will be subjected to a number of tough coding interview questions. Don't let these frighten you!

The Snap interview process takes around one month. It is conducted through the following procedure:

  • Stage 1: A phone screening with HR
  • Stage 2: A technical phone interview with someone at your level or higher. This round also includes an online coding interview. Make sure you prepare well for Snap interview questions on coding.
  • Stage 3: An on-site interview

In the on-site interview, you will have four rounds of technical discussions and lunch, followed by a non-technical interview round to discuss work culture.

Snap Interview Questions for Software Engineers

Here are a few common Snap Inc. software engineer interview questions:

Q1. Find the maximum amount of rainwater you can collect on top of a building.

This is one of the most difficult yet fun Snap interview questions. The idea behind answering this should be to calculate the rooftop dimensions. Further calculations will require a thorough knowledge of Java, C, or python.

Q2. Provided an MxN matrix, where the elements can either be 0 or 1. Mention the shortest path between a certain source and a destination.

The idea behind this Snap interview question takes inspiration from Lee's algorithm and follows the BFS. To solve this, you will have to start with the source sell and call the BFS process. After that, applying C, Java, or Python programming language is crucial.

Q3. What would you like to change about Snapchat?

Answer such Snap interview questions by giving your insights on what you like the least about the company.

Q4. What is a project you are proud of?

To answer this, provide the interviewer with a glimpse of your project and describe why you are proud of it.

Q5. Talk about a time when you implemented an innovative idea that had a positive impact.

Such behavioral Snap interview questions are important for assessing your ability to solve real-world problems. Try to be honest and answer the question confidently.

Mentioned below are a few other Snap interview questions for software engineers:

  1. Remove duplicates in a given array within the k range.
  2. A string contains the target value and digits between 0 and 9. Return all scopes to include binary operators ‘-‘, ‘+’, or * between these digits so that they reach their target value.
  3. Translate an XML file into a tree.
  4. Add an LRU cache.
  5. Design the story feature of Instagram.

Snap Interview Questions for Data Engineers

Data scientists work on various teams at Snapchat, including marketing, engineering, and product management. Clearly, a data scientist's role at Snapchat is diverse. The following are some common Snap interview questions for data engineers:

Q1. Explain the difference between data warehouse and operational database.

The operational database supports massive volumes of transactions. On the other hand, data warehouses support massive volumes of analytical processing.

Q2. What do you understand by **kwargs and *args?

**kwargs and *args are used in Python when we are unsure about the number of arguments to present to the functions.

Q3. Have you ever handled a job-related crisis as a data engineer?

These types of behavioral Snap interview questions are common. You can approach this question by giving an example of such as situation and how you handled it.

Q4. Do you have any experience with data modeling?

Answer honestly and confidently whether you have any experience in data modeling or not.

Q5. Mention the algorithms you used on a recent project.

Try to mention all the algorithms you used on a recent project.

Data engineers can also practice the following Snap interview questions:

  1. Mention the important applications and frameworks for data engineers.
  2. What Is the difference between a Data Scientist and a Data Engineer?
  3. What would be your approach towards developing a new analytical product as a data engineer?
  4. Have you ever converted unstructured data into structured data?
  5. Can you mention and explain the design schemas in data modeling?

Do you want to work as a product manager at Snap? The section that follows goes over the Snap interview questions for product managers. Make sure to read them all.

Snap Interview Questions for Product Managers

Snap is well-known for its well-crafted, design-heavy products. Snap's product managers have a close working relationship with the designers. Designers at Snap play an important role in the development process, collaborating with product managers to identify and conceptualize opportunities to address. During your Snap interview, you will be asked questions about strategy and product design. Take a look at the following Snap interview questions for product managers:

Q1. How do you deal with customer expectations?

Draft out 4-5 ways to deal with customer expectations and explain them in detail.

Q2. How do you plan your approach when working with an engineering team?

Since Snap product managers work with engineers, this is a crucial Snap interview question. Mention how you would work with your engineer mates with complete honesty.

Q3. Tell me about your experience when you became a manager of a team.

Give a relevant answer depending upon your past experiences.

Q4. How did you craft your most innovative idea?

Note that the interview does not want to know the entire process here. Instead, you just have to mention your approach towards crafting an innovative idea.

Q5. How would you launch Snapchat in a new country?

Be as creative as you can to answer these types of Snap interview questions.

Here are a few other common Snap interview questions for product managers:

  1. If you are chosen for this job, how long do you plan on staying?
  2. Would you like to change anything about Quora if you were a PM there?
  3. Are you familiar with the product development process?
  4. Tell me about the time when you failed miserably. What did you learn from that experience?
  5. What are your expectations from the role of Product Manager at Snap?

We hope that these Snap interview questions for software engineers, data engineers, and product managers will help you crack your tech interview. For a solid prep, practice some mock interviews too.

Widen your knowledge about the Product Manager Career Path and get the opportunity to shape your career.

FAQs on Snap Interview Questions

Q1. What is the average annual salary of a Snap software engineer?

The average Snap software engineer salary is $135,000 per year.

Q2. What Snap interview questions can you expect at the company’s software engineering interviews?

At Snap’s software engineering interviews, questions are predominantly on core data structures and algorithms, scalable and distributed systems, and behavioral psychology.

Q3. How many interview stages does the Snap software engineering interview have?

The Snap software engineering interview typically has three main interview rounds - The Recruiter Screen, the Technical Phone Screen Interview, and the On-site Interview.

Q4. Are Snap interview questions on coding hard?

Snap interview questions on coding are fundamentally around core data structures and algorithms. The difficulty of the coding problems is usually similar to Leetcode problems that classify under medium-to-hard-difficulty.  

Q5. Does Snap Inc. have remote working opportunities for software engineers?

Yes, the company offers full-time and part-time remote opportunities for software engineers. This is usually flexible and dependent on which team you work for.  

Gear Up for Your Next Tech Interview

Are you getting ready for an upcoming Snap interview? Register for our technical interview webinar.

At Interview Kickstart, we’ve trained over 10,000 engineers to land lucrative offers at the biggest tech companies. Our instructors, who are FAANG hiring managers, know what it takes to nail tough tech interviews at top technology companies.

Register for our FREE webinar to learn more.

Recession-proof your Career

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Recession-proof your Career

Recession-proof your Software Engineering Career

Attend our free webinar to amp up your career and get the salary you deserve.

Ryan-image
Hosted By
Ryan Valles
Founder, Interview Kickstart
blue tick
Accelerate your Interview prep with Tier-1 tech instructors
blue tick
360° courses that have helped 14,000+ tech professionals
blue tick
57% average salary hike received by alums in 2022
blue tick
100% money-back guarantee*
Register for Webinar

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