State Farm software engineer interviews often include a HireVue one-way video screen, reported by intern, new-grad, and experienced candidates alike. Accounts describe roughly five to nine recorded behavioral questions covering your background, how past experience prepares you for the role, handling unexpected challenges, staying organized across multiple tasks, and balancing competing priorities. One candidate noted that retakes were allowed. Some candidates also hit a coding component in the video round: one was asked to trace code snippets and explain what would happen when they ran, while another had to code Connect 4 in the terminal. One applicant learned too late that demeanor on camera appeared to matter, so treat the recording as a real interview and keep answers concise and engaged.
Not every path looks the same. One candidate began with a recruiter call about background and relocation. Another took a separate online coding assessment on fundamentals before the video round. An applicant for an applications developer role saw only behavioral questions and did not advance past HireVue.
Candidates who advance typically meet a hiring manager, tech lead, or multi-person panel. These live rounds mix behavioral storytelling about conflict, failure, and competing priorities with object-oriented programming fundamentals, including the four pillars and the difference between interfaces and abstract classes. Coding in these rounds tends to be practical rather than puzzle-heavy: parsing data into an appropriate data structure in one account, string manipulation in another. One intern was told the interviewers cared more about approach and communication than a complete solution. Another account described technical questions tied to the specific job posting and resume, with detailed explanations of past design choices expected.
Reported timelines run from about two weeks to a few weeks. One new grad said communication after the final round could have been clearer. Across accounts, interviewers come across as conversational rather than adversarial, generally more interested in how a candidate thinks through a problem than whether they land a perfect answer.
Synthesized from 16 candidate reports by our editorial team.
