Tesco software engineer candidates report recruiter and technical conversations, coding or pair-programming, system design, and—in some cases—a timed online assessment or Scala-and-Spark discussion.
$112K
Avg. Base Comp
$127K
Avg. Total Comp
4 rounds
Typical Rounds
3-6 weeks
Process Length
Tesco software engineer interviews reported here vary by team, but the recurring pattern is practical technical work alongside a discussion of how you build software. One candidate described a recruiter call, a hiring-manager technical screen, a coding or pair-programming round, and a system-design round. They said the technical conversation probed their own project and tech stack with follow-up questions, so prepare to explain decisions, trade-offs, and your personal contribution rather than merely naming tools.
A separate account described a two-hour online assessment with roughly 20 multiple-choice questions on OOP, networking, Git, REST APIs, and web development, plus four straightforward array-based coding tasks. Be comfortable turning a short requirement into correct, readable code for operations such as a mean, sum, largest prime, or smallest missing number.
Another candidate’s technical session involved the hiring manager and tech lead and emphasized Scala best practices, functional programming, live coding, and Big Data frameworks at scale. Their prompt required a Spark query that compared each sale amount with the previous sale for the same customer, ordered by date; reviewing window-function thinking and clear query explanations is relevant for this version of the process. The available reports are limited, so treat these as team-dependent formats rather than a fixed sequence.
Synthesized from 3 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Tesco process.
The interview itself was pretty pleasant, which made the ending more frustrating. My first round was a recruiter call, followed by a tech screening with the hiring manager, then a coding/pair programming round and a system design round. I didn’t make it past that point, but the process felt like what I’d expect for a software engineer role and none of the interviewers were rude or combative. They were friendly, encouraging, and gave me room to think through my answers instead of rushing me.
The most memorable part was that the technical discussion was less about grinding through a long list of questions and more about talking through my own background. In the interview I had, the person asked about my project and tech stack, then kept asking good clarifying questions and listened openly to how I approached things. It wasn’t a very lengthy interview, but it still felt substantive because they were trying to understand my reasoning rather than just checking boxes. The disappointing part was the follow-up: after all that time interviewing, I never got a real update and had to chase for feedback. Eventually I only received an automated rejection months later, which was a letdown after an otherwise respectful process.
Prep tip from this candidate
Be ready to talk clearly about your own projects and tech stack, since the screening leaned heavily on that and the interviewer kept digging with clarifying questions. Also prepare for a standard coding/pair programming round plus system design, even if the early conversations feel more conversational than algorithmic.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Tesco
How would you determine whether the carousel should replace store-brand items with national-brand products of the same type?
| Question | |
|---|---|
| International e-Commerce Warehouse | |
| Azure Kubernetes Infrastructure | |
| Your Strengths and Weaknesses | |
| Game Feature Home | |
| 2nd Highest Salary | |
| Monthly Customer Report | |
| Recurring Character | |
| Maximum Profit | |
| Bagging vs Boosting | |
| Resumable Fact Table Load | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Portfolio Platform Architecture | |
| Generate Shopping List from Recipes | |
| Optimistic vs Pessimistic Locking | |
| Youtube Recommendations | |
| Buy or Sell | |
| Deciding Between Solutions | |
| Incorrect Packets | |
| Safe Deployments | |
| Client Solution Pushback | |
| Image Classification Pipeline | |
| Scalable Data Pipelines | |
| Why Do You Want to Work With Us | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Employee Salaries | |
| Subscription Overlap | |
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Top Three Salaries | |
| Merge Sorted Lists |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates report an initial recruiter screen covering basics and team fit. Another candidate described a recruiter call before later technical stages; be ready to introduce your background and connect it to the role.
Candidates report a hiring-manager technical screen or a combined session with a hiring manager and tech lead. Discussion may focus on your projects and tech stack, with clarifying questions about how you approached the work.
One candidate reported a two-hour online assessment with four array-based coding tasks and multiple-choice questions, while another reported a coding or pair-programming round. Practice explaining a direct solution as you implement it.
One candidate reported live coding centered on Scala best practices, functional programming, and Big Data frameworks. Their Spark task used prior-row comparison by customer and date, which may call for window-function reasoning.
One candidate reported a system-design round after recruiter, technical-screen, and coding stages. The report does not specify the design prompt, so focus on communicating assumptions and trade-offs rather than expecting a named architecture.
