Ethos Life Software Engineer candidates report an online assessment, a DSA round, a low-level design round, and sometimes a resume deep dive or an open-ended API design session. Outcomes in the reports were mixed.
$133K
Avg. Base Comp
$190K
Avg. Total Comp
2-3 rounds
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
Ethos Life Software Engineer candidates describe a process that leans on design as much as algorithms, though each report differs. Two candidates began with an online assessment. One described 90 minutes with two graph and tree DSA problems plus a backend design problem. The other described three DSA questions covering 0/1 knapsack, a priority queue, and string anagrams. Dynamic programming and graph or tree practice under time pressure is the clearest shared preparation point.
The interview rounds then varied. One candidate had a DSA round, then an LLD round with a Senior Manager about a simplified Zomato-style system, and received an offer. Another did a DSA round with a few Spring Boot warm-up questions, then a 30-minute Job Scheduler LLD problem. They were asked to re-solve it with a different approach, and then did a resume deep dive. That candidate was rejected a week later.
A third candidate described a session with a quiet interviewer. The prompt was which APIs they would design for an insurance company like Ethos, and why. Most of the hour was silent, so the candidate had to drive the conversation. A fourth reported React fundamentals, hooks, reconciliation, and Fiber questions, plus slow communication and a hiring manager rejection.
Practice talking through designs aloud, stating assumptions early, and explaining tradeoffs without prompting. If your background is frontend, review how React reconciliation works.
Synthesized from 4 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Ethos Life process.
I went into this one expecting a normal back-and-forth, and the interviewer was not that. He was based in Singapore and didn't seem very engaged from the start. There was no warm-up. He jumped straight into the main prompt: what APIs would you design for an insurance company like Ethos, and how would you design them and why. He gave me a minute or so of guidance, and then the rest of the session was almost completely silent for about an hour while I talked through my design.
The silence was the hardest part. I had to keep narrating my thinking, laying out the endpoints and resources I would expose, and explaining each choice, with no sense of whether I was on the right track. I kept expecting follow-up questions that mostly didn't come, so I had to fill the gaps with explicit tradeoffs and the assumptions I was making about the business.
I didn't get an offer. The main takeaway I'd give is to treat a session like this as a design conversation you have to drive yourself. Don't wait to be prompted. Clarify scope early, state your assumptions out loud, and keep explaining your reasoning even when the interviewer isn't responding.
Prep tip from this candidate
Be ready to design APIs for an insurance-style domain from scratch and justify each choice out loud, since this interview offered little prompting or feedback to lean on.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Ethos Life
Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Employee Salaries | |
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Bagging vs Boosting | |
| Size of Joins | |
| Total Spent on Products | |
| P-value to a Layman | |
| Duplicate Rows | |
| Green Dot | |
| Type I and II Errors | |
| Rectangle Overlap | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Delivery Estimate Model | |
| Type-ahead Search | |
| Always Excited Users | |
| Friend Requests Down | |
| Decision Tree Evaluation | |
| Justify a Neural Network | |
| International e-Commerce Warehouse | |
| Unified Inbox | |
| Swap Variables | |
| Three Zebras | |
| Precision and Recall | |
| Success Measurement | |
| Target Indices | |
| Transformer Encoder Layer | |
| RAG Strict Source Control | |
| Digitizing Student Test Scores | |
| Client Solution Pushback | |
| Common Prefix |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates report an online assessment before any interviews. One described 90 minutes with two graph and tree problems plus a backend design problem. Another described knapsack DP, a priority queue question, and a string anagram problem. One candidate called it the hardest part of the process. Another mentioned a HyreSnap technical assessment after a screening.
Candidates report a coding round where interviewers cared about the approach and thinking process, not only a perfect answer. One was asked a couple of basic Spring Boot questions first. Another candidate reported array basics, React fundamentals, and hooks, then reconciliation and Fiber. The topics may depend on the interviewer or the candidate's background.
Two candidates describe an LLD round. One designed a simplified Zomato covering entities, relationships, API flows, and edge cases with a Senior Manager. The other coded a Job Scheduler System in 30 minutes, was asked to solve it a different way, and faced probing on design tradeoffs. Be ready to explain your reasoning and adapt.
One candidate reports a session that opened with no warm-up and asked which APIs they would design for an insurance company like Ethos, and why. After brief initial guidance, the interviewer was largely silent for about an hour. This may not be typical, but it suggests preparing to clarify scope, state assumptions, and keep narrating tradeoffs on your own.
One candidate reports a final resume deep dive after clearing the technical rounds, followed by a rejection about a week later. Another reported a hiring manager rejection after repeated follow-ups for status. A third reported an offer. Outcomes were mixed, so ask early about next steps and timing, since communication was slow in at least one report.
