Optum Serve software engineer candidates describe an HR step plus one or two technical rounds covering Java, C#, Spring Boot, Angular or SQL Server, with project discussion in some loops. The stack varies by team.
$106K
Avg. Base Comp
$141K
Avg. Total Comp
2-3 rounds
Typical Rounds
4 weeks
Process Length
Reports from Optum Serve software engineer candidates point to a fundamentals-heavy loop, with the exact stack depending on the team. An Associate Software Engineer II candidate who received an offer described Java fundamentals in the first technical round, such as class versus object, break versus continue and what finally does in exception handling. The second round brought a string-compression function and questions about justifying design decisions from past projects. A Spring Boot candidate was asked about Java, Angular and connecting multiple databases to a Spring Boot application.
Another candidate described a four-person technical panel that began with Angular and then moved to the backend. There, interviewers cross-questioned answers on database optimization, web APIs, C#, SQL Server query execution order and managing secrets in ASP.NET Core. When the candidate seemed unsure, the panel pushed back and asked them to defend the answer.
Across these reports, explaining your reasoning matters as much as the answer. Prepare to discuss past projects in detail, including the trade-offs you made, and confirm the stack with your recruiter.
The experience was uneven. The offer candidate reported about four weeks from screening to offer discussion. Another reported weeks of silence between technical conversations, followed by an unexpected extra technical interview before the planned onsite.
Synthesized from 11 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Optum Serve process.
My on-campus interview was disappointing. It was supposed to be a technical round—that was stated upfront. I got 40 minutes with an experienced interviewer, but he didn't ask a single technical question about data structures, algorithms, or computer science fundamentals. Instead, he asked random questions about where I live, my college curriculum, and tried to probe my leadership qualities with outdated, repetitive questions. He never asked about my projects either. It felt like he either wasn't prepared or didn't know how to conduct a technical interview properly. I was rejected afterward. The whole thing was disheartening because there was no way to demonstrate what I actually knew.
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Topics based on recent interview experiences.
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| P-value to a Layman | |
| Liked Pages | |
| Daily Retention Summary | |
| Size of Joins | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Sort Strings | |
| String Mapping | |
| Concurrent LLM Serving | |
| Prime Numbers Identification | |
| Subscription Retention | |
| Slow SQL Query | |
| Swap Variables | |
| String Palindromes | |
| Impossibly Iterative Fibonacci | |
| Uber Eats Customer Experience | |
| Decision Tree Evaluation | |
| Azure Kubernetes Infrastructure | |
| Your Strengths and Weaknesses | |
| Justify a Neural Network | |
| Fast Food Database | |
| Concentric Circles | |
| Choosing Between Python and SQL | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Employee Salaries | |
| Subscription Overlap | |
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Top Three Salaries | |
| Monthly Customer Report |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
One candidate says the recruiter walked through the role and team structure and raised compensation expectations early. Another describes a basic HR call about their current role and why they wanted to change. Be ready to summarize your background and explain why you are interested in this role and team.
Questions follow the team's stack. Reports include Java basics and exception handling, and Spring Boot with Angular, including connecting multiple databases to a Spring Boot application. One candidate faced a four-person panel that cross-questioned backend answers on C#, database optimization, web APIs, SQL Server query execution order and secrets management in ASP.NET Core.
The Associate Software Engineer II candidate said the second technical round included a string-compression function and detailed questions about past projects, design decisions, trade-offs and how systems are deployed and integrated. Panel interviewers in another report pressed the candidate to defend shaky answers. Prepare a couple of projects you can explain step by step.
One candidate was told the loop included a separate HR round after the technical panel, but did not advance past the technical round. Timing varied: about four weeks from screening to offer discussion in one report, and weeks of silence between rounds in another, so keep in touch with your recruiter.
