VMware Interview Questions

VMware is a billion-dollar virtualization, cloud computing, and enterprise software company headquartered in California. The company was the first to virtualize the Microprocessor 8086 architecture commercially. It offers a wide variety of technology products and services, also through its acquisition of several smaller technology companies.

VMware hires for several technology roles, with software engineer and developer roles being the most common. Given the number of engineers who apply for these roles, landing an offer requires a solid prep strategy and implementing it to the T.

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This article on VMware interview questions covers questions asked at VMware’s software engineering interviews. We’ll cover:

• VMware interview process and timeline
• VMware interview questions
• Tips to crack the VMware interview
• Get ready for your next VMware interview

VMware Interview Process and Timeline

The interview process at VMware is similar to that at FAANG and tier-1 companies. Recruiters essentially test your approach to problem-solving and your ability to solve complex coding problems by applying the right concepts.

The interview process at VMware lasts about 20-40 days from your first interaction with the recruiter to landing an offer. Here’s what you can expect as far as the process is concerned:

The Initial Phone Screen

This is the first round where a recruiter will contact you to essentially figure out if your profile meets the role’s requirements. In order to get contacted by a recruiter, make sure your LinkedIn profile has the right keywords so that LinkedIn’s bullion algorithms can locate your profile when recruiters are hiring for software developer positions.

You’ll be asked general questions about your experience and skills, following which your Technical Phone Screen round will be scheduled.

The Technical Phone Screen

This round tests your technical problem-solving skills with a problem or two on core data structures. You will be asked to brute-force the problem solution and write code on a shared doc. The interviewer may even modify the problem to include additional elements and test your approach.

If your performance in the technical phone screen is satisfactory, you’ll be invited to the on-site interview.

On-site Interview

The on-site interview has three main rounds: the coding round, the design round, and the behavioral round.

Each of these rounds typically last 30 minutes. The coding round will involve solving a problem or two around algorithms and data structures. You could be asked to code on a whiteboard if you’re invited to the on-site campus.

The design round evaluates your ability to build arbitrary, scalable systems with low latency. You’ll also be asked questions about cloud computing, database management, and network protocols in this round.

Finally, the behavioral round tests if you are the right cultural fit. Recruiters test your reaction in workplace situations and understand your attitude and behavioral traits in general.

Note: Behavioral and design rounds are more important for senior developer roles, such as Engineering Manager and above. In contrast, the coding round is more important for junior and mid-level developer roles.

VMware Interview Questions

In this section, we’ll look at VMware interview questions across four main categories:

1. Coding
2. Design
3. Behavioral
4. General (mostly about VMware’s products and services)

VMware Coding Interview Questions

VMware’s coding interview questions essentially fall under the following topics:

• Arrays, strings, and linked lists
• Sorting algorithms — quicksort, merge sort, heap sort, etc.
• Hash tables and queues
• Recursion
• Trees and graphs
• Graph algorithms, including greedy algorithms
• Dynamic programming

Below are some coding interview questions asked at Google’s software engineering interview:

1. Write a program to implement a Queue using two stacks H1 and H2.
2. You are given a Binary Tree “B” with unique values. You’re given two nodes for the binary tree. Write a program to find the lowest common ancestor of the two nodes.
3. You’re given a Binary Tree “B” with unique values. Write a program to find the longest path consisting of connected nodes with consecutive values. The idea is to find the longest consecutive sequence in the given binary tree.
4. You’re given a Binary Tree “B.” Write a program to return the mirror of the given binary tree.
5. You’re given a sequence of strings. Write a program to find the most repeated string in the given sequence.
6. Write a program to convert a given URL (long) into a shorter version leading to the same web page.
7. In a party of “N” number of people donated as integers, if the same integer denotes couples, write a program to find the single person at the party.
8. For a given number “N,” write a program to find out if it is sparse or not. A number is said to be sparse if no two or more bits are in binary representation.
9. You’re given an incomplete 9x9 Sudoku frame. Write a program to complete the sudoku accurately.
10. You’re given an array A that is both sorted and rotated and has distinct elements. Write a program to find the index of a given element in the array.
11. You’re given a boolean matrix of size LxM where cells contain either 1 or 0. Your task is to modify it such that if a given matrix cell m[i][k] is 1, the ith row and the jth column also have the same value of 1.
12. You’re given an array consisting of integer elements. Divide the array into two sets such that the difference between the sum of both sets is an absolute minimum.
13. You’re given two strings “S” and “K.” Write a program to find the longest common substring.
14. A frog can jump either 1, 2, or 3 steps to reach the top. Write a program to find out how many ways it can reach the top.
15. You’re given n pairs of numbers. In each pair, the first number is smaller than the second number. A certain pair [a,b] takes numbers from two different pairs [c,d] and [e,f] if c<f. Find out the longest chain that the new set of pairs can form.
16. For a given array arr[], write a program to find the maximum sum increasing subsequence of the array.
17. For a given array of n integers, find the length of the longest increasing subsequence from the array.
18. You’re given two strings str1 and str2. Write a program to find the longest subsequence in both the strings.
19. Write a code to compute the square root of a given number.
20. For a given Binary Tree, find out if it is a Binary Search Tree or not.
21. Write a code to convert a given set of integers into their Roman number equivalents.
22. Write a program to reverse the characters of a given string “S.”
23. You’re given a string containing a set of digits. Write a program to return all possible IP address combinations in the format A.B.C.D where the alphabets are numbers from 0 to 255.

Want to access a huge list of problems with their solutions? Check out the Interview Kickstart’s Problems page.

VMware Design Interview Questions

Design interview questions are meant to gauge your approach to solving the given design problem. The focus here is not so much on the result but on your thought process and ability and ideas to create scalable systems with low latency, capable of reaching millions of users.

1. Design a URL shortening service.
2. Design a video streaming service where users can view available videos in the database.
3. Design an online bookstore where users can make purchases through different payment methods.
4. Design a global file storage or sharing service.
5. Design an API rate limiter.
6. Design a proximity server.
7. How do you design a vending machine in Java or Python?
8. How do you design a traffic control system where vehicles are guided accurately?
9. How to design a limit order book for trading systems?
10. How do you design an elevator system that has a maximum load capacity?
11. How would you go about designing an e-commerce website?
12. How would you go about designing an e-commerce website using microservices? How will you handle transactions?
13. Create an autocomplete feature like word suggestions on search engines. How will you scale it to millions of users?
14. Design a chat application like Whatsapp?
15. How would you design Google’s Web Crawler?
16. How would you design a global ride-hailing service where users can make payments through multiple means.
17. Design a train ticket booking system that shows vacancies and prices in real-time.

Recommended Reading: System Design Interview Preparation Tips

VMware Behavioral Interview Questions

Performing well in the behavioral interview is extremely important. Preparation is the key, as you can often be caught off-guard if you are unprepared in behavioral interviews. Here are some behavioral interview questions you can expect:

1. Tell us about a time when you had a disagreement with a coworker regarding the course of action for a project?
2. Tell us about the most difficult project you worked on?
3. Tell us about the most crucial learnings in cloud computing over the course of your experience?
4. Tell us your experience in dealing with enterprise software solutions?
5. Tell us about a time when you dealt with a difficult manager?
6. Tell us about a time when you made important decisions under pressure?
7. Tell us about a time when you moved teams and had to adapt quickly.
8. Tell us about a time when you shared crucial learnings with the entire team?
9. What are your interests outside of work? How do you pursue those interests?
10. How do you generally keep your productivity levels high at work?

Recommended Reading: Behavioral Interview Questions for Software Developers

<h3>VMware-related Interview Questions

Below are some questions pertaining to VMware’s products/services that you can expect at the on-site interview:

1. Describe the main purpose of Hypervisor in VMware?
2. Tell us how VMware has transformed the virtualization landscape in recent years?
3. Why do you want to work at VMware? What is the most exciting thing you’re looking forward to at VMware?
4. What is the difference between vpxa and vpxd?
5. What is Esxi, and how do you install it? What are its benefits?
6. What are the different types of virtualization?
7. What is the VMware Vsphere?
8. Describe the process of configuring false tolerance?

Tips to Crack The VMware Interview

Tech interviews at tier-1 tech companies can be tough and daunting. But a good prep strategy and lots of hard work can get you over the line. Here are some tips to help you with your prep.

Practice Whiteboard Coding

Getting used to coding on a whiteboard is important during the on-site. Whiteboard coding brings out your analytical thinking abilities and your general approach to problem-solving. By practicing, you can recall and apply concepts in a faster and more refined fashion, putting you ahead of your competition.

Practice Mock Interviews

Mocks are a super important way to polish your interviewing skills. More so, you can target and improve areas where you’re found to be weak (through insightful feedback). While practicing mocks, make sure you practice with hiring managers and technical leads from FAANG and leading tier-1 companies to get the right feedback and incorporate it during your on-site interview.

Give Yourself 10-12 Weeks to Prepare

Cracking technical interviews at tier-1 companies isn’t an easy task. It requires a solid prep strategy and being absolutely consistent with it. Given the vastness of topics to cover, giving yourself enough time is crucial. Giving your interview if you're underprepared is definitely not going to cut it.

Ideally, give yourself about 10-12 weeks to prepare if you want to give it your best. During these 10-12 weeks, make sure to practice as many coding problems as possible and classify problems based on inherent patterns. This will help you solve complex problems in the interview by applying pre-existing patterns in the problems you’ve already practiced and solved.

Related article: 2-month coding interview prep course — the only resource you’ll need to nail tough technical interviews.

Get Ready for Your VMware Interview

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— Ganesh Kasinathan, Staff Engineer at VMware

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