Shopee Software Engineer Interview Questions and Processes - Compiled from 404 interviews!

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Shopee’s hiring process is nowhere near being simple: significant competition, several rounds of interviews, and tricky questions - both specific to Shopee and on a broad range of general topics.

However, all the torments of Shopee's application process are well worth it: the company reputedly offers more generous benefits and compensation as compared to some of the FAANGs (or MANGA).

At NodeFlair we know that preparation is critical for any job application. In this guide, we will talk about all the ins and outs of Shopee's application and interview process and provide some useful tips for landing a job at Shopee

The information and questions are gathered from various sources from users who have gone through the interview process for roles such as Backend Engineer and Frontend Engineers. These sources include, but are not limited to, Glassdoor, Leetcode, forums and users we have interviewed.

TL;DR: Your ultimate Shopee Software Engineering Interview Guide

  • Landing a Software Engineering Interview with Shopee
  • What you can expect from the Interview Process: 1 HR + 3 Technical
  • Shopee Interview Questions: Online Assessment, Leetcode and Live Coding
  • BONUS: How well does Shopee pay? 💰

Disclaimer:

While we do our best to ensure that the content is accurate and up to date by cross-checking it with a sizable number of individuals, we acknowledge that the questions might be changed over time, or it might vary across departments and interviewers. 

How to land a Shopee Software Engineering Interview?

Shopee is on a hiring spree for over 400 engineers in Singapore and they are very aggressive in their hiring with very competitive salaries. Here are some ways you can score an interview with them!

  • Referral from a friend who’s already working there! Statistically, applicants from referrals have a much higher chance of getting interviewed.
  • A recruiter from Shopee reaches out to you on LinkedIn
  • Lastly, you can apply directly - you can find the list of jobs here

Here are 7 short actionable steps you can take to increase your chances of getting scouted on LinkedIn or have your resume be accepted during the initial screening!

Interview Process for Shopee Software Engineering roles

Source: tenor

HR Interview (Phone Interview with Recruiter)

This is an informal round with the recruiter. Depending on the seniority of the role, there might not be any call with HR. From speaking to a handful of internship applicants, Shopee seems to skip this round if you are applying for internship positions.

The recruiter will ask you to share more about your resume and experiences. This is also a great opportunity to share your non-work-related coding experiences. For example, experience in competitive programming, open-source contributions or writing technical articles. Doing so will help you stand out among other applicants!

The recruiter will share more details about the company and the roles that are open. In addition, you will also learn more about what you can expect from the interview processes and the types of questions that you will be asked during the interviews.

You can make the most out of the chat by:

  • Ask questions that you have regarding the roles and responsibilities, team, culture etc.
  • Don’t be shy and ask the recruiter how you can better prepare for the upcoming interviews
  • If you need more time to prepare for the interviews, kindly let the recruiter know! As it is unlikely that their hiring spree will slow down anytime soon. It’s best to take at least 1-2 more months to prepare for the interview than screw up your chance by going in unprepared!

Technical Rounds (Online Assessment, Leetcode and Live Coding)

Number of rounds and how they are conducted

  • In most cases, you can expect 3 technical rounds, consisting of a mixture of online assessment, live coding and whiteboard exercises. This might differ depending on the seniority and role you are applying for, so it would be best to check with HR during the call.
  • For the online assessment and coding questions, there seems to be a range of platforms being used, such as Glider.ai. However, to simplify the understanding of the type of questions you can expect, we have decided to benchmark the question difficulties to that of our best friend Leetcode!

Types of questions

  • The difficulties of the questions mainly range between Medium and Hard on Leetcode, with most of the questions being Medium difficulty. Easy questions have been reported too, but they are a much less frequent occurrence. They could be found in the next section of the article. 
  • It is also important and worth noting that the Shopee is looking for an optimum solution rather than just a working solution. Thus, it is important to understand the space-time complexity of your code, as it is common that the interviewers will ask you to explain and elaborate on it and how it can be improved. 
  • In addition to your typical data structures and algorithms, Shopee also placed a huge emphasis on Computer Science fundamentals, such as Networking and Web Security, Operating Systems, Databases, System Design etc. These questions are asked regardless of the roles you are applying for (they are even asked for other roles like Data Engineering, Data Analytics).
  • Nevertheless, there are also domain-specific questions for the different specializations, such as questions about JavaScript and Frontend frameworks for the Frontend engineering roles.

While Shopee's hiring process can be challenging, it is, undoubtedly, rewarding. With a good amount of preparation and sufficient determination, you can be sure to ace the interview process and receive a much-desired job offer. 

Shopee Leetcode and Interview Questions

There appears to be a question bank that’s being used, regardless of the roles and seniority. It is not surprising to find similar questions being asked for a fresh graduate role and internship.

Companies like Shopee are always aiming to stay ahead of the curve and try new things. Questions asked at Shopee interviews are always changing, so memorizing specific questions and answers won't work. However, you can review recently asked questions to get a general idea of what to expect.


Popular Interview Questions

These questions have been a common and consistent occurrence as shared by multiple users. They are almost a must-know and if you do not have sufficient time to prepare for the interview, you should focus on these questions and topics.

Online Assessment, Leetcode and Live Coding Questions

Networking and Web Security

Operating Systems

System Design

Questions specific to Shopee Frontend Engineer

  • In-depth Javascript (especially tricky stuff)
  • Mock a layout in CSS
Source: giphy

Less common Interview Questions

These questions are not as common as the ones above but have been asked before at some point(s) in previous candidate interviews at Shopee. Practising them will prepare you better for the interviews as you will have a better understanding of what are the types of questions to expect. 

System and Database Design

Online Assessment, Leetcode and Live Coding Questions

Linked List

Sorting

  • Explaining the difference between Merge Sort and Quick Sort
  • How to sort an array O(nlogn)
  • Implement quicksort
  • Merge stage of merge sort (given 2 arrays)

Array

Tree

  • Balanced BST and Red-Black Tree
  • Count number of nodes that are less than k unit from the binary tree (parent pointer is not given)
  • Given a binary tree (not ordered, not search tree nor heap), root node and a list of initially infected nodes, return the number of quarantined nodes (nodes that are children of infected or quarantined nodes)
  • Traversal e.g. Inorder, Postorder

Graph

  • Find the longest route in a non-directed graph
  • Find all paths from a node
  • Find if a path is searchable from a given node
  • Find the shortest hop between 2 nodes in a graph

Others

Networking and Web Security

Operating Systems

Database

Indexes

  • Drawback of indexing
  • Importance of ordering in the indexing of multiple columns
  • Complexity of queries

Cache

Load Balancer

  • Design a load balancer
  • Given a group of weighted servers to select load balance
  • Create algorithm based on inputs

Questions for Backend and Server roles

Fundamentals

Networking and Web Security

Database

Other concepts

Others

  • Given a file of numbers, how would you go about sorting this file?
  • Design a hash table that can expand dynamically
  • Basic calculator

Questions for Frontend roles

Critical rendering path

JavaScript and Frameworks

CSS

Implementation from scratch

Other language-specific questions

Source: tenor

BONUS: How well does Shopee pay?

Based on NodeFlair Salaries, the average salary (compared to market's median) is:

  • Junior: $6,445 ($4,750)
  • Mid: $7,043 ($6,500)
  • Senior: $9,310 ($7,500)

Regardless of your experience, Shopee pays 8%-36% higher than the industry average!

Find this article useful? Here’s how you can benefit from it more!

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Got a job offer from Shopee? Contribute it anonymously!

NodeFlair is improving salary transparency to empower tech talents with the correct salary information so they are not lowballed by companies. Salary is a taboo subject in Singapore, so we have built it with anonymous compensation sharing in mind. Sharing your job offer anonymously will help the tech community inch one step towards salary transparency.

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