Four candidates describe National Instruments software engineer interviews as an online coding assessment, a technical interview on fundamentals and projects, and a manager conversation. One campus hire and three interns reported.
$95K
Avg. Base Comp
$111K
Avg. Total Comp
3-4 rounds
Typical Rounds
4 weeks
Process Length
The four candidates here (one campus hire and three interns) describe a similar shape: an online assessment, a technical interview, and a manager or HR conversation. One intern reported a fourth round, with two online assessments before the interviews. Two of the four received offers.
Expect algorithm-heavy online assessments. Candidates report array, string and dynamic programming problems. Specific ones include a good-versus-evil arrays scoring problem, a modified Kadane's algorithm, knight's-movement DP, a segment tree range-sum query, longest common substring and maximum area in a histogram. One candidate described a proctored mobile-app assessment where any interruption could flag the attempt. Another was told to prefer C or C++.
The technical interviews reportedly stayed at easy-to-medium difficulty. Reported questions include mountain array, Two Sum, Closest Two Sum, rotational strings, K largest elements without sorting, iterative linked list reversal, and basic OOP, array and stack problems. Several candidates said interviewers spent real time on their projects, asking about contributions and technical decisions. One said the manager round felt more technical than expected.
Hardware-adjacent topics appeared for one intern. Their written exam included electronics questions on capacitors and Kirchhoff's laws, and their interview moved into digital electronics and sampling theory. Treat this as possible rather than guaranteed, and check it against the role you apply for.
The manager and HR conversations covered motivation, mentoring, conflict and prioritizing under a tight deadline. One HR interviewer stressed knowing every line of your resume. One candidate who did not get an offer still felt good about their assessments and technical interview, so practice explaining your reasoning aloud as well as solving problems.
Synthesized from 4 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the National Instruments process.
National Instruments brought me through a four-round interview process for their software engineer internship position. The first two rounds were online assessments focused entirely on data structures and algorithms. In the first assessment, the questions ranged from easy to moderate difficulty and tested fundamental problem-solving skills. The second assessment stepped up the difficulty to medium level, where I encountered problems like longest common substring and maximum area in histogram — classic DP and stack-based challenges that required careful optimization. I found myself managing the time pressure carefully, working through the logic before diving into code. The third round was a technical interview where they dug deeper into DSA fundamentals while also discussing my project work. This felt like a chance to explain my thinking process and show how I'd approach problems in a real engineering context. The final round was with a manager and took on a more behavioral tone, where they asked me how I'd handle competing demands — things like "if a task normally takes 15 days but you're asked to deliver in 10, what would you do?" It felt less about the 'right answer' and more about understanding my work style and priorities. Unfortunately, despite feeling good about the technical assessments and the interview itself, I didn't receive an offer. The feedback suggested that while I'd performed well on the assessments and the technical interview, there was a concern about my technical depth or readiness for the role. It was a bit frustrating because I'd prepared extensively for DSA and felt confident in my solutions, but clearly there was something about my overall approach or communication that didn't land.
Prep tip from this candidate
Focus specifically on DP variants (especially problems like stone game) and graph/histogram problems in your preparation — these came up repeatedly. More importantly, be ready to articulate not just your solution but your thinking process and trade-offs; the managerial round seemed to probe technical judgment and communication as much as pure coding ability.
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Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at National Instruments
Given a string, write a function to determine if it is palindrome or not.
| Question | |
|---|---|
| 2nd Highest Salary | |
| Merge Sorted Lists | |
| Prime to N | |
| Find the Missing Number | |
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Maximum Profit | |
| The Brackets Problem | |
| Upsell Transactions | |
| Over-Budget Projects | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Recurring Character | |
| Scrambled Tickets | |
| Detecting ECG Tachycardia Runs | |
| Retailer Data Warehouse | |
| Employee Project Budgets | |
| Size of Joins | |
| Integer to Roman | |
| Sum to N | |
| Cyclic Detection | |
| Twenty Variants | |
| Find the First Non-Repeating Character in a String | |
| Bagging vs Boosting | |
| Equivalent Index | |
| Completed Shipments | |
| Get Top N Frequent Words | |
| Delivery Estimate Model | |
| One Element Removed | |
| Paired Products | |
| Groups of Anagrams |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates report an online assessment as the first step. Reported content includes arrays, strings, dynamic programming, stack and histogram problems, and for one intern a segment tree, SQL and CS theory. One candidate described a strict proctored mobile app. Difficulty is reported from easy to hard, so it may vary by program.
One intern described a written exam with 15 aptitude questions and 15 electronics questions on capacitors and Kirchhoff's laws, alongside two coding problems. Other candidates did not mention this section, so it may depend on the role or campus program. Check the posting to see whether hardware knowledge applies.
Candidates report a technical interview covering arrays, strings, stacks, linked lists and basic object-oriented design, typically at easy-to-medium difficulty. Several said interviewers asked about their projects, contributions and technical decisions. One intern was also asked about digital electronics and sampling theory.
The final conversation was described as a manager or HR round. Reported topics include why they should hire you, motivation, mentoring, handling conflict, and delivering a 15-day task in 10 days. One candidate found the manager round more technical than expected and project-heavy. Be ready to defend every item on your resume.
