Southwest Airlines Software Engineer candidates often describe a recorded or phone screen, a recruiter conversation, and a multi-person panel mixing behavioral questions with technical topics such as SQL, OOP, and project deep dives, based on five candidate reports.
$105K
Avg. Base Comp
$133K
Avg. Total Comp
2-3 rounds
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
Across five candidate reports for Southwest Airlines Software Engineer and closely related titles (Associate Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, and Software Developer), a common shape appears in most external accounts: an early screen, a recruiter or phone conversation, and a panel that mixes behavioral and technical questions. Two candidates describe a one-way recorded video interview as the first step, with preset prompts like "tell me about yourself" or why Southwest specifically appeals to them; one of them then had a recruiter call that dug into project scope and impact.
The panel stage is where technical range shows up, and it varies by candidate background rather than following one fixed script. A Software Developer candidate fielded a university database schema design question and SQL questions focused on NULL handling in joins. An Associate Software Engineer candidate was asked about multi-threading, OOP concepts, Kafka, Python, and deployment practices for shipping code. A candidate converting out of a contractor role described questions on Java objects versus Spring beans, mocking for error-scenario testing, Java logging tools, logging cost strategy, AWS services used in their current role, and what nonfunctional requirements meant to them. Behavioral questions — background walkthroughs, "why Southwest," favorite coding language, and detailed project discussions — appear in nearly every account, suggesting fit and communication are weighed alongside technical depth.
Outcomes were mixed across this set. None of the external candidates received an offer, including one Senior Software Engineer-track candidate who advanced through a six-person panel but learned the role ultimately went to someone who was already working there as a contractor. The one offer in this set went to a candidate who was already an internal contractor and converted into the role through a shorter two-round process covering technical and behavioral questions. Given the limited sample size, treat round-by-round specifics as directional rather than a fixed company-wide format.
Synthesized from 6 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Southwest Airlines process.
The process started with an online application, followed by a one-way recorded video interview where they asked standard behavioral questions—why Southwest Airlines appealed to me, my background, and a project where I'd demonstrated innovation. I felt I'd answered those questions well and that my qualifications matched what they were looking for, but that format made it hard to gauge how I was actually landing.
After that, a recruiter reached out to schedule a follow-up conversation. During that 30-minute recruiter call, we went deeper into my work history. I walked through key projects I'd completed, explaining the scope, impact, and technical challenges I'd faced. They asked about the tools and languages I'd used, and I tied those back to concrete examples from my experience. We also discussed how my background aligned with the role's requirements. The tone was conversational and gave me a real chance to explain my fit.
The next stage involved an in-person or video interview with a panel—the recruiter, the hiring manager, and an engineer from the team. This is where the technical bar showed up. I got a database design question focused on what schema a university system would need. That required thinking through entities, relationships, and scalability, which tested both my SQL knowledge and system design thinking. I also fielded some tricky SQL questions around NULL handling in joins, where understanding the edge cases was critical.
Overall, the process involved multiple rounds with different people asking both behavioral and technical questions. It was thorough—the kind of vetting where you need to be solid across the board. I didn't make it through to an offer, but the experience made clear that Southwest weights both cultural fit and technical depth.
Prep tip from this candidate
Focus on SQL edge cases, especially NULL handling in joins and result set prediction, as those showed up in technical rounds. For the database design round, practice thinking through schema design for complex multi-entity systems like universities—that's more about reasoning than memorization. Be prepared to explain not just what you did, but the scope and impact of your projects in concrete terms.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Southwest Airlines
Design a cloud-agnostic CI/CD pipeline supporting safe deployments and rollbacks across multiple providers.
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Employee Salaries | |
| Top 3 Users | |
| Weighted Keys | |
| User Experience Percentage | |
| Distance Traveled | |
| Size of Joins | |
| Manager Team Sizes | |
| Maximum Profit | |
| Download Facts | |
| Sum to N | |
| Google Maps Improvement | |
| Type-ahead Search | |
| Type I and II Errors | |
| Third Purchase | |
| P-value to a Layman | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Groups of Anagrams | |
| Random Weighted Driver | |
| Binary Tree Conversion | |
| Sort Strings | |
| KNN From Scratch | |
| Production Model Monitoring | |
| Dijkstra implementation | |
| Bernoulli Sample | |
| Christmas Dinner Ingredient Optimization | |
| Client Solution Pushback | |
| Messenger Service Design | |
| RAG Strict Source Control | |
| Implementing the Fibonacci Sequence in Three Different Methods |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates report applying online, and two were routed into a one-way, HireVue-style recorded video interview with pre-set prompts such as "tell me about yourself," why Southwest Airlines appeals to them, and a project where they showed innovation. One candidate found this format hard to read, since there is no live interviewer and no immediate feedback on how answers are landing.
In several accounts, a recruiter follows up to schedule a call described as conversational rather than interrogative. Candidates report discussing their background, what drew them to tech or to Southwest, and walking through specific projects, including scope, technical challenges, and tools used, to connect their experience to the role's requirements before moving to a technical stage.
Panels have included a recruiter, hiring manager, and team engineer in groups ranging from about three people to as many as six on a video call. Candidates report technical questions spanning database and schema design, SQL edge cases like NULL handling in joins, object-oriented programming concepts, multi-threading, Kafka, and deployment practices for shipping code. These are mixed with behavioral prompts such as walking through past projects, favorite coding language, and why Southwest appeals to the candidate.
One candidate who was already working as a contractor reported a quicker, two-round internal process: a recruiter round followed by a round with the tech lead and hiring manager, covering technical questions tied to their current work (Java and Spring concepts, mocking, logging, AWS, nonfunctional requirements) plus behavioral questions, before receiving an offer. This path appears shorter than the external process described by other candidates.
None of the external candidates in these reports received an offer, and several felt they had interviewed competently. One candidate who advanced through a six-person panel came away suspecting the Senior Software Engineer role may have already been informally earmarked for an internal contractor, who was ultimately hired. The one offer in this set went to a candidate who was already working at Southwest as a contractor and converted into the role through the shorter internal process.
