Symantec software engineer candidates reported an initial phone conversation followed by either an in-office interview or a full technical day, with behavioral discussion, coding fundamentals, JavaScript, and design prompts.
$137K
Avg. Base Comp
$219K
Avg. Total Comp
Not reported
Typical Rounds
2 months
Process Length
For a Symantec Software Engineer interview, prepare for a process that may combine a conversational first screen with technical discussion rather than a single narrowly focused coding test. One candidate began with a hiring-manager phone call about background, interest, and role fit, then completed a full day of technical interviews with senior engineers. Another described an employee phone call followed by an in-office meeting with two interviewers. The shared preparation theme is breadth, but the reported formats differ.
Technical prompts in the longer report included designing a multithreaded scheduler management application, merge sort, a binary-search-style problem, JavaScript closures and the event loop, polyfills, and object flattening. That same candidate also encountered a trellis-board design prompt and lower-level fundamentals including CDC, FIFOs, and logic optimization. The in-office report instead described a LeetCode-style medium problem discussed without writing code, plus a loosely framed technical or logic prompt.
Practice explaining your reasoning aloud and clarifying ambiguous requirements before committing to an answer. Be ready to connect your background and work expectations to the role, since behavioral discussion appeared in both reports. One candidate reported a process lasting close to two months; the available accounts are too limited to establish a consistent format or duration for every applicant.
Synthesized from 4 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Symantec process.
The process I went through was pretty structured and moved fast. It started with a phone screen, then a remote technical interview with the headquarters, and finally an onsite round at the location. The first call was mostly personal and introductory, while the second round was more of a basic knowledge check for the role. The onsite was where things got more technical and practical, and I was asked basic transistor knowledge and how I’d apply it to real situations. That part felt less like memorizing definitions and more like showing that I understood the concepts well enough to use them in context. What stood out most was how different the rounds were from each other. One review I saw described the process as happening all in one day with a software engineer, where they asked about a past project and then wrote a system question on the board and had the candidate analyze it and explain the solution. Another process was more interview-heavy, with four rounds total: three LeetCode-style coding rounds and one system design round that took more than an hour and was described as hard. The coding questions sounded standard, mostly around arrays, lists, maps, and sets, while the system design focused on API design for blob file storage, retrieval, and modifications. There was also a behavioral round with the hiring manager and a question about what you know about VMware. the technical screen was a paper test with 20 C questions covering syntax errors, data structures, networking, OS, architecture, and debugging, mostly fill-in-the-blank or descriptive. Overall, the interviews leaned toward fundamentals rather than trick questions, but the system design portion could get intense and time-consuming. I ended up not getting an offer, so I’d say the safest prep is to be very solid on core coding patterns, be ready to explain a system design clearly on a whiteboard, and review basic OS, networking, and C concepts if that’s part of the role.
Prep tip from this candidate
Be ready for a long system design round on blob file storage/retrieval/modification, and don’t neglect fundamentals like arrays, lists, maps, sets, plus basic OS/networking/C syntax questions. Also prepare to explain a past project clearly and answer why you know VMware.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Symantec
Design a database schema for a Tinder-style dating app and discuss needed optimizations
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Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates reported a first phone conversation with either a hiring manager or an employee. Discussion included background, interest in the role, past experience, expectations, and fit; the exact interviewer and format varied between reports.
One candidate described a full technical day with senior engineers, while another reported an in-office meeting with two interviewers. Candidates may be asked to explain a solution aloud, and one report did not require code to be written for a medium-style problem.
A hiring-manager behavioral discussion was reported in one process. Technical coverage may span DSA, JavaScript fundamentals, a multithreaded-design prompt, or lower-level concepts, but these topics came from an individual account rather than every interview.
