Cyber Security Interview Course | Cyber Security Course

Students who chose to uplevel with IK got placed at

Pratik Agarwal

Software Development Engineer ll

Kishore Periassamy

Software Development Engineer

Anshul Bansal

Software Engineer

Suat Mercan

Senior Software Engineer

Harisha Chemuru

Software Engineer

Vinayak Prabhu

System Development Engineer

Kelsi Lakey

Software Engineer

Shrey Shrivastava

Software Development Engineer ll

Akshay Chandrachood

Software Engineer

Aniruddha Tekade

Senior Software Engineer

12,000+

Tech professionals trained

$1.267M

Highest offer received by an IK alum

53%

Average salary hike received by alums in 2021

What You'll Learn in the Security Engineering Interview Course

Algorithms

System Design

Applied Cryptography

Network Security

Cloud Security

Application Security

Security Themed Coding, Code Reviews

Career Skills

See complete curriculum

It's Free

A typical week at Interview Kickstart

This is how we structure and organize your interview prep with our high-quality, content-rich course. Our learners devote 10 to 12 hours per week to this course.

Thu

Get Foundation content

Get high-quality videos and course material for the upcoming week's live class

Covers fundamentals, interview-relevant topics, and case studies

Attend timed test and review session

Focused group discussions involving learners and the instructor on the assignment's solution

Interview-like drill down into key techniques and design choices

Sun

Attend Online live sessions

Attend 4-hour interactive sessions covering interview-relevant Security Engineering concepts

Each class covers a wide variety of interview problems, including open-ended questions and how to approach these questions

Live feedback from a FAANG+ instructor

Mon-Wed

Practice problems & case studies

Practice concepts taught in live sessions to solve assignment questions

Live doubt-solving with FAANG+ instructors

Learn about the hiring process at various FAANG+ companies

Every day

1:1 access to instructors

Personalized coaching from FAANG+ Cyber Security instructors

Individualized and detailed attention to your questions

Solution walkthroughs

Contact for Pricing

Security Engineering Course details and curriculum

It's Free

Try 7-Day Email Course for FREE

Practice and track progress on UpLevel

UpLevel will be your all-in-one learning platform to get you FAANG-ready, with 10,000+ interview questions, timed tests, videos, mock interviews suite, and more.

Mock interviews suite

On-demand timed tests

In-browser online judge

10,000 interview questions

100,000 hours of video explanations

Class schedules & activity alerts

Real-time progress update

11 programming languages

Meet your instructors

Our highly experienced instructors are active hiring managers and employees at FAANG+ companies and know exactly what it takes to ace tech and managerial interviews.

Larry Hu

Senior Security Engineer

18+ years experience

Akshar R

Security Engineer

9+ years experience

Omkar Deshpande

Head of Curriculum

15+ years experience

Nick Camilleri

Head of Career Skills Devp. and Coaching

15+ years experience

Alisha Kloc

security and privacy programs

13+ years experience

Troy Wegner

Building Security Automation

11+ years experience

Get upto 15 mock interviews with hiring managers

What makes our mock Interviews the best:

Hiring managers from Tier-1 companies like Google & Apple

Interview with the best. No one will prepare you better!

Domain-specific Interviews

Practice for your target domain - Security Engineering

Detailed personalized feedback

Identify and work on your improvement areas

Transparent, non-anonymous interviews

Get the most realistic experience possible

Career impact

Our engineers land high-paying and rewarding offers from the biggest tech companies, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Tesla, and Netflix.

Ian Hwang

Software Engineer

Placed at:

I attended IK and I've got a lot of knowledge that helped me get into Microsoft. TheirCurriculum (algorithms and data structures) is organized very well and explanations are so helpful. Andmock interviews and the feedback helped me a lot. It was worth it!

Neetika Srivastava

Software Engineer

Placed at:

I really like how the program is structured and how it caters to different domains. It is really helpful. The patterns that they teach you at Interview Kickstart are really useful because you can apply those patterns to any new problem. Knowing those patterns, you can solve basically any question because you can relate it to problems you have already solved, which gives you confidence.

Chun Wu

Senior Software Engineer

Placed at:

I joined iK after stumbling across it while reviewing some other interview prep materials after doing poorly in an interview at Linkedin. I knew that doing well in these interviews would require dedication and investment of my time - but with so many resources online I didn't have structure. This is what the IK platform provided me.

Shrey Shrivastava

Software development Engineer ll

Placed at:

The Interview Kickstart course is very structured and informative. They teach you about DS and algo fundamentals very thoroughly and also prepare you for the software engineering interview. I really like the live classes by FAANG engineers, and the homework and tests definitely help you toprepare for a real interview. If you have been looking for a bootcamp that prepares you for software engineering interviews, I would say this is definitely the right place to do it.

Sridhar Gandham

Senior Software Engineer

Placed at:

My experience at IK was extremely positive. I was preparing for FAANG companies using the standard techniques that you find on the internet. When I started preparing, there was no structure to the madness. For example, a simple quicksort can be implemented in multiple ways. So solving a medium problem would take me about 30 minutes. The biggest benefit that I got from IK was a clear, structured way of solving problems. After IK, I could solve medium problems in 10 minutes!

Ibrahim Demidrogen

Software Engineer

Placed at:

IK is super helpful in cementing a lot of the basics and developing a deeper understanding of the core concepts that are essential to the interview process at any FAANG company. The foundation material is dense, but it is discussed at a swift pace. Omkar's instructional videos are very detailed and break down the essentials into small digestible components. The mock interview sessions are super helpful, especially for those who need additional guidance and help with defining their shortcomings.

Akriti Bhatt

Software Engineer

Placed at:

Interview Kickstart is a great platform to perfect your basics and get a deep understanding of algorithms. These sessions helped me crack Google and several other companies.

Having struggled for a while to understand what I was doing wrong in interviews and how to behave during an interview, I took the help of 1-1 interview sessions with the mentors and the guidance provided by them helped me understand the problem with my approach.

How to enroll for the Security Engineering Interview Course?

Learn more about Interview Kickstart and the Security Engineering Interview Course by joining the free webinar hosted by Ryan Valles, co-founder of Interview Kickstart. You can also talk to our program advisors to get additional program-related details.

It's Free

Try 7-Day Email Course for FREE

Already preparing or want a sneak peek? Try the SE Interview Prep 7-day email course

A Free Guide to Kickstart Your Security Engineering Career at FAANG+

From the interview process and career path to interview questions and salary details — learn everything you need to know about Security Engineering careers at top tech companies.

It's Free

Security Engineering Interview Process Outline

The interview process at FAANG+ and other Tier-1 companies for Cyber Security Engineering interviews vary a bit for each company. However, the general structure is as follows:

Initial technical screening:
On-site interview:
1-2 coding rounds
1 Security coding round
1-2 system design rounds
Behavioral round

What to Expect at Security Engineering Interviews?

Recruiter screening:

30-45 min interview with a recruiter. They will ask questions about your resume, light technical questions to gauge your domain knowledge of Security Engineering, and behavioral questions to assess your culture fit at the company.

Initial technical screening:

This usually involves a coding round and a few questions testing your general knowledge of Security topics. The coding questions are typically at an Easy/Medium level on Leetcode.

On-site: 4-5 Rounds:

Each round is 30 - 60 minutes long.
1-2 general coding rounds: Depending on the total years of experience, candidates go through 1-2 coding (DSA-based) rounds. The questions are usually LC easy/medium.
One security coding round: In these rounds, candidates could be asked to review a code snippet to find vulnerabilities it contains. Alternatively, they could be asked some security-themed coding questions focusing on text parsing and manipulation, basic data structures, and simple logic flows.
1-2 system design rounds: Candidates are asked to design systems to secure various applications. The solution is evaluated on all aspects: network, system, application, and information security. Usually, the discussion leads to several conceptual questions on Networking, OS, Cryptography, Malware, Digital Forensics, etc. For candidates having <5 years of experience, the design round is often replaced by a core Security understanding Round of Medium/High Difficulty.
Behavioral round: To test for cultural fit and check your leadership and communication skills.

Security Engineering Interview Questions

Practicing Cyber Security interview questions and answers is key to nailing your Cyber Security interview. Want to gauge your Cyber Security Engineer interview preparation levels? See if you can answer these Cyber Security Engineering interview questions:

Security Engineering Coding Questions

Find the single element that does not appear thrice in a given array of integers.

For a given number, find the number of ones in its binary representation. Given nums=[0, 1, 3] return 2

How would you test for a loop in a linked list?

How would you reverse a linked list?

Sort an array using bubble sort and quicksort

Reverse a string without using any built-in functions.

Domain-specific Security Engineering Interview Questions

How do you ensure that a server is secure?

How do you differentiate between symmetric and asymmetric encryption?

What Is SSL encryption?

What do you mean by port scanning?

How frequently do you perform patch management?

Can you reset a password-protected BIOS configuration?

What is the difference between Black Box Testing and White Box Testing?

What is forward secrecy?

What is ARP poisoning? Can you explain with an example?

What do you mean by SQL injection?

Do you know what XXE is?

Differentiate XSS from CSRF.

What is a server-side request forgery attack?

What is the same-origin policy and CORS?

Security Engineering Interview Questions on Behavioral Skills

Why do you want to build a career in Cyber Security?

What are your greatest strengths and accomplishments?

What is the most challenging project you encountered on your learning journey?

What, according to you, are the most required skills in a security engineer?

What does the job of a security engineer entail, as per your understanding?

Why our company and why this role? Which of our company’s principles is your greatest strength?

Describe your most complex project.

How would you prioritize work and tasks in a program? Tell me about a time when you had to deal with competing priorities.

Describe a conflict you had with your manager or team member. How did you solve it?

Security Engineering Career

Cyber Security Engineers are the first line of defense a company has against unauthorized access and security threats. It is clear that a robust and diverse skill set is a necessity to be a Cyber Security Engineer at any Tier-1 company. We’ll now discuss some common nagging questions about career progression, role, salary, interview process, etc., you might have as a Cyber Security Engineer.

Security Engineering Job Roles and Responsibilities

Even though the specific responsibilities of Security Engineers may vary for each company, the key day-to-day responsibilities of Cyber Security jobs includes:

Perform vulnerability and risk assessments, including ethical hacking, to detect security loopholes

Devise the necessary Security policy

Define, detect and prevent security issues at the Application, System, and Network layers

Contribute to building security tools and infrastructure to analyze, deploy, and manage security controls

Design, develop, implement, and test security solutions with cost, performance, and reliability in mind

Design computer security architecture and develop detailed Cyber Security designs

Prepare and document standard operating procedures and protocols

Configure and troubleshoot security infrastructure devices

Develop technical solutions and new security tools to help mitigate security vulnerabilities and automate repeatable tasks

Ensure that the company knows as much as possible, as quickly as possible, about security incidents

Write comprehensive reports including assessment-based findings, outcomes, and propositions for further system security enhancement

The educational qualifications needed to become a Security Engineer include:

A bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, or another related field.

Expert knowledge of Cyber Security and related subjects and a fair amount of previous work experience.

Understanding of scalable systems, applications, networks, encryption standards, secure coding practices, and types of threats: detecting and preventing them

Knowledge of formulating security policies, skilled in a high-level language/scripting language. Proficiency in Python, C++, Java, Ruby, Node, Go, and/or Power Shell

Some certifications like CISSP, GIAC, CISA, and CISM may be useful

Experience with Firewalls (functionality and maintenance), Office 365 Security, VSX, and Endpoint Security

Great awareness of Cyber Security trends and hacking techniques. Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment. Strong attention to detail with an analytical mind and outstanding problem-solving skills.

Experience implementing security solutions that resolve security and business risk trade-offs and an understanding of cryptography, web service frameworks, mobile application architectures, service architectures, networking, and communication protocols.

Career Roadmap for an Security Engineer

Amazon Technical Security Engineer Career Path

L4 - Security Engineer → L5 -Sr. Security Engineer→ L6 - Security Architect → L7 - Principal Engineer → L8 - Sr. Principal Engineer → L9 - Scientist

Apple Technical Security Engineer Career Path

L2 → L3 → L4 → L5 (at this level, the people are generally known in the industry) → L6

Despite the levels, the career path is quite fluid. The transition is from writing code to designing architecture/framework and then to cross-team collaboration and designing a complete system or platform architecture.

Microsoft Technical Security Engineer Career Path

61 - Entry Level → 62 → 63 → 64 → 65 - Principal Engineer

Security Engineer Salary and Levels at FAANG

The average entry-level Security Engineer salary in the US is $90,709, but the salary range typically falls between $77,510 and $108,871.

The average salary for a Security Engineer in the US is $124,527. The average additional cash compensation for a Security Engineer in the US is $20,347. Finally, the average total compensation for a Security Engineer in the US is $144,874

The estimated total pay for a Cyber Security Engineer is $109,098 per year in the US, with an average salary of $101,548 per year.

Cyber Security Salaries by Role

Cyber Security professionals are well compensated for their skills, even at the entry-level. As you gain experience and move into more advanced roles, salaries expectedly go up. To give you an idea of what’s possible, here’s a look at the average salary of some high-paying Cyber Security jobs in the US. (Source: glassdoor.com)

Ethical Hacker: $101,165
Penetration Tester: $102,405
Security Engineer: $111,691
Cyber Security Manager: $132,180
Security Architect: $153,751
Chief Information Security Officer: $170,928

Facebook Security Engineer Salary

The average annual salary of a Security Engineer at Facebook is $172,333 with $86k as the lowest known and $260k as the highest known Facebook Security Engineer salary as of June 2022.

Technical Program Manager at Facebook

Average compensation by level

Level name

Total

Base

Stock (/yr)

Bonus

IC3

$137K

$107K

$21K

$11K

IC4

$204K

$212K

$37K

$18K

IC5

$289K

$212K

$72K

$32K

IC6

$376K

$212K

$119K

$18K

Amazon Security Engineer Salary

The average annual salary of a Security Engineer at Amazon is $309k with a $175k base, $24k stocks, and a $110k bonus, as of June 2022. It also varies quite a bit with levels as shown in the table below:

Technical Program Manager at Amazon

Average compensation by level

Level name

Total

Base

Stock (/yr)

Bonus

$136K

$104K

$26K

$9K

$187K

$137K

$34K

$18K

$256K

$159K

$78K

$22K

$398K

$182K

$198K

$36K

Apple Security Engineer Salary

The average annual salary of a Security Engineer at Apple is $171,805 with $86k as the lowest known and $260k as the highest known Apple Security Engineer salary as of June 2022.

Technical Program Manager at Apple

Average compensation by level

Level name

Total

Base

Stock (/yr)

Bonus

ICT3

$213K

$151K

$43K

$19K

ICT4

$276K

$179K

$74K

$24K

ICT5

$390K

$210K

$147K

$33K

Netflix Security Engineer Salary

The average annual salary of a Security Engineer at Netflix is $158,015 with $141,267 as the lowest known and $176,750 as the highest known Netflix Security Engineer salary as of June 2022.

Technical Program Manager at Netflix

Average compensation by level

Level name

Total

Base

Stock (/yr)

Bonus

Sr. SW. Engineer

$305K

$275K

$14K

$13K

Google Security Engineer Salary

The average annual salary of a Security Engineer at Google is $156,731 with $79k as the lowest known and $258k as the highest known Google Security Engineer salary as of June 2022.

Technical Program Manager at Google

Average compensation by level

Level name

Total

Base

Stock (/yr)

Bonus

$173K

$121K

$38K

$17K

$230K

$143K

$62K

$25K

$297K

$170K

$94K

$32K

$389K

$200K

$139K

$50K

Salary Details of Security Engineers at Other Tier-1 Companies

Knowing the Technical Program Manager's salary details for other tier-1 companies can help you evaluate your options better. We’ve curated the salaries associated with each of these companies at different levels:

Uber: The average annual salary of a Security Engineer at Uber is $162,253 with $82k as the lowest known and $267k as the highest known Uber Security Engineer salary as of June 2022.
Twitter: The average annual salary of a Security Engineer at Twitter is $147,841 with $129,639 as the lowest known and $168,599 as the highest known Twitter Security Engineer salary as of June 2022.
LinkedIn: The average annual salary of a Security Engineer at LinkedIn is $128,593 with $103,500 as the lowest known and $159,771 as the highest known LinkedIn Security Engineer salary as of June 2022.

Technical Program Manager at Tier-1 Companies

Average compensation by level

Microsoft

$173K

$174K

$193K

$274K

Uber

$312K

Twitter

$298K

$215K

Average

$154K

$212.6K

$282.6K

$308.75K

FAQs on Security Engineering Interview Course

How to enroll for the Security Engineering Interview Course?

It's Free

Try 7-Day Email Course for FREE

Already preparing or want a sneak peek? Try the SE Interview Prep 7-day email course

Nail Your Next Security Engineering Interview

Students who chose to uplevel with IK got placed at

What You'll Learn in the Security Engineering Interview Course

A typical week at Interview Kickstart

Thu

Sun

Mon-Wed

Every day

Security Engineering Course details and curriculum

Sorting

Recursion

Trees

Graphs

Dynamic Programming

Online Processing Systems

Batch Processing Systems

Stream Processing Systems

Applied Cryptography

Network Security

Cloud Security

Application Security

Security Themed Coding, Code Reviews, Secure System Design, and Security Policies

Interview Strategy and Success

Behavioral Interview Prep

Offers and Negotiation

15 mock interviews

Take classes you missed/retake classes/tests

1:1 technical/career coaching

Interview strategy and salary negotiation support

Practice and track progress on UpLevel

Meet your instructors

Larry Hu

Akshar R

Omkar Deshpande

Nick Camilleri

Alisha Kloc

Troy Wegner

Get upto 15 mock interviews with hiring managers

Hiring managers from Tier-1 companies like Google & Apple

Domain-specific Interviews

Detailed personalized feedback

Transparent, non-anonymous interviews

Career impact

Ian Hwang

Neetika Srivastava

Chun Wu

Shrey Shrivastava

Sridhar Gandham

Ibrahim Demidrogen

Akriti Bhatt

How to enroll for the Security Engineering Interview Course?

A Free Guide to Kickstart Your Security Engineering Career at FAANG+

Security Engineering Interview Process Outline

What to Expect at Security Engineering Interviews?

Security Engineering Interview Questions

Security Engineering Career

Security Engineer Salary and Levels at FAANG

Cyber Security Salaries by Role

FAQs on Security Engineering Interview Course

How to enroll for the Security Engineering Interview Course?

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