Three candidates describe CAE software interviews as conversational but varied: a resume walkthrough with C++ basics, design patterns and OOP questions with team leads, and a JavaScript, system design and managerial loop.
$93K
Avg. Base Comp
$110K
Avg. Total Comp
Not reported
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
CAE's software interviews don't follow one script, and the three reports here come from different roles: a Software Engineer, a System Software Specialist, and a React Native Developer. Read them as three separate paths rather than one fixed loop.
The Software Engineer candidate had a 30-minute conversation about their resume and projects, then an hour-long technical round with an easy LeetCode-style problem and C++ basics. The problem was Fibonacci, but the explanation mattered as much as the code: design thinking, time and space complexity, and justification of the approach. That candidate received an offer.
The System Software Specialist candidate went through a talent acquisition screen and then met three team leads. Questions covered debugging, having only a week left to fix a new issue, two design patterns with implementation and use cases, C++ OOP, pure virtual functions, real-time computing, and how to prioritize five tasks when two are unfamiliar. That candidate was offered the job, but the offer was later rescinded because of organizational restructuring.
The React Native candidate described four rounds: a JavaScript and React Native technical round, system design, HR, and a managerial round. Topics included hoisting, the temporal dead zone, promises, the event loop, debouncing and throttling. No offer followed, and the candidate felt the behavioral and system design rounds were where they undersold themselves.
Synthesized from 5 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Cae process.
I went through CAE's interview process for a software engineer role, and honestly, the biggest pain point wasn't the technical side—it was the recruiting coordinator. She refused to do anything over email, insisting on phone calls only, which made scheduling a nightmare as a full-time student. There was always at least a week of back-and-forth just to lock down a time slot, and I had no way to follow up asynchronously about my progress. It felt like my time wasn't valued the same way.
The actual interview process consisted of four rounds. First came a technical round focused on JavaScript and React Native fundamentals. The interviewer walked me through questions on hosting concepts, the temporal dead zone, promises, the event loop, and different promise methods. Then we covered some practical patterns like debouncing and throttling. The pacing was good—the interviewer was genuinely helpful and kept me comfortable throughout, which made it easier to think clearly under pressure.
After that came a system design round, followed by an HR round and a managerial round. The technical questions were designed to gauge my depth of knowledge rather than trip me up with gotchas, which I appreciated. The engineers seemed invested in understanding what I actually knew rather than just checking boxes. Despite feeling good about my performance in the technical portions, I didn't receive an offer. Looking back, I wish I'd pushed harder on the behavioral and system design aspects—those rounds felt less defined to me at the time, and I may have undersold myself there.
Prep tip from this candidate
Go deep on JavaScript fundamentals—hosting, temporal dead zone, promises, and the event loop came up repeatedly. Be ready to explain practical patterns like debouncing and throttling with real-world use cases. System design is a distinct round here, so don't just rely on coding chops; prepare to discuss architecture and trade-offs.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Cae
Given two sorted lists, write a function to merge them into one sorted list.
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Over-Budget Projects | |
| First Touch Attribution | |
| Find the Missing Number | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Employee Project Budgets | |
| One Element Removed | |
| Level Of Rain Water In 2D Terrain | |
| Project Budget Error | |
| String Mapping | |
| Find Duplicate Numbers in a List | |
| Words in Encrypted String | |
| Target Indices | |
| Swiping App Design | |
| Nightly Job | |
| Loan Model | |
| Slow SQL Query | |
| Implementing the Fibonacci Sequence in Three Different Methods | |
| Seller Type Modeling | |
| User Event Data Pipeline | |
| Subway Machine Learning Model | |
| Testing Constraints | |
| Text Editor With OOP | |
| Deciding Between Solutions | |
| Three Indexes Adding Zero | |
| Client Solution Pushback | |
| Fixed-Length Arrays: Deletion | |
| Green Dot | |
| Repository Policy Enforcement | |
| Safe Deployments |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Entry points differed. One candidate got an HR email asking to interview two days later, and another had a talent acquisition call that walked through their work history. The React Native candidate said the coordinator insisted on phone calls, which stretched scheduling to a week or more of back-and-forth.
The Software Engineer candidate describes a 30-minute, fairly informal conversation about their resume and projects. Be ready to explain what you built, why you made the choices you did, and what you personally owned, since this conversation led directly into the technical round.
The Software Engineer candidate reports about an hour with an easy coding problem (Fibonacci) and C++ basics, with emphasis on complexity and tradeoffs. The System Software Specialist reports design patterns, algorithms, C++ OOP, pure virtual functions and real-time computing. The React Native candidate reports JavaScript fundamentals, promises, the event loop, debouncing and throttling.
The System Software Specialist met three team leads who asked behavioral and prioritization questions, including how to tackle five tasks with two unknowns. The React Native candidate reports separate system design, HR and managerial rounds, and wished they had prepared those more. Prepare structured examples and be ready to discuss architecture tradeoffs.
