A reported Workday Software Engineer loop had five interviews: medium coding, a hiring-manager technical discussion, parallel-programming questions, and two behavioral conversations.
$173K
Avg. Base Comp
$250K
Avg. Total Comp
5 rounds
Typical Rounds
2-4 weeks
Process Length
For a Workday Software Engineer interview, the clearest current report describes a five-round loop that moves from coding into technical discussion and behavioral evaluation. The first round was a medium LeetCode problem. One candidate said they did not feel they performed especially well there but still advanced, so aim to communicate a sound approach, not simply race to a finished answer.
The most role-specific preparation area is parallel programming. That candidate reported roughly 20 rapid-fire questions and specifically recalled synchronized blocks and the busy-spin technique, including why each might be used. Practice explaining concurrency choices plainly: what coordination problem a mechanism addresses, its trade-offs, and when it is inappropriate. The hiring-manager technical discussion is reported as a separate stage, so be ready to connect your technical experience to the team conversation rather than treating it as another coding test.
The final two conversations were behavioral: one based on previous professional experiences and one based on company values. Prepare concise examples that show your own decisions, collaboration, and outcomes, then adapt them to the question instead of memorizing a script. This guide is based on one directly matching Software Engineer report, so team-specific variations may occur.
Synthesized from 5 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Workday process.
Initially the recruiter walked me through the process in a pretty transparent way, which I appreciated because the rest of the loop was a bit more involved than I expected. The first round was with the hiring manager and lasted around an hour. That one was mostly conversational at the start, with questions about the challenges I had faced in past projects, but they also slipped in some OOPs questions. After that, I had a technical round where they asked me to model an LLD system design step by step based on changing conditions, so it felt more like building the design gradually than giving a polished final answer right away. The next round was supposed to be an architectural discussion plus behavioral, but the process ended before that because the position was withdrawn and I was told AI-based hiring was being prioritized.
What stood out to me was that the interview was not just pure coding, even though coding was definitely part of it. The overall structure seemed to be around 4 to 5 rounds, with about 3 technical interviews and 2 behavioral ones, and the coding questions were in the LeetCode easy to medium range. Depending on the team, there could also be a project-style homework round instead of another live technical round. In my case, I only got through the first couple of rounds before it stopped. I also had one odd follow-up in a separate contract process where they asked about being available for onshore and offshore meetings every day, morning and night, which felt very specific to the role. My main takeaway is to be ready for a mix of project discussion, OOPs, LLD-style design, and straightforward coding, and don’t assume the process will be purely algorithmic.
Prep tip from this candidate
Prepare for a hiring-manager round that digs into past project challenges and OOPs, then practice LLD design by building it incrementally from changing requirements. Also be ready for LeetCode easy/medium coding and, for some contract roles, practical availability questions about working across onshore/offshore meeting times.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Workday
Given two sorted lists, write a function to merge them into one sorted list.
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Target Indices | |
| Median O(1) | |
| International e-Commerce Warehouse | |
| Stakeholder Communication | |
| Why Do You Want to Work With Us | |
| SFTP Pipeline | |
| 2nd Highest Salary | |
| Top Three Salaries | |
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Subscription Overlap | |
| Monthly Customer Report | |
| Rolling Bank Transactions | |
| Top 3 Users | |
| Prime to N | |
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Comments Histogram | |
| Upsell Transactions | |
| Raining in Seattle | |
| Customer Orders | |
| String Shift | |
| Bagging vs Boosting | |
| Find the Missing Number | |
| Minimum Change | |
| Weighted Keys | |
| Find the First Non-Repeating Character in a String | |
| Scrambled Tickets | |
| Largest Salary by Department | |
| P-value to a Layman |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
One Software Engineer candidate reported a medium LeetCode problem in the first round. Practice stating your approach and reasoning clearly while coding, including when you need to revise it.
The same candidate listed a hiring-manager technical discussion as the next stage. Typically, prepare to connect your past engineering work and technical decisions to the role conversation.
One report described around 20 rapid-fire parallel-programming questions, including synchronized blocks and busy spinning. Be ready to explain why a concurrency technique might be used and its trade-offs.
A behavioral round based on previous professional experiences was reported. Prepare specific examples of your own work, decisions, collaboration, and results rather than relying on generic strengths.
The final reported round was a behavioral interview based on company values. Candidates may benefit from adapting concrete professional examples to the values raised in the conversation.
