Software Engineering Questions and Answers

Software engineering is one of the hottest career choices nowadays, as it consists of practical applications to solve the real world’s problems.

When you are interviewing for a software engineer role in an organization, the interviewer would test your conceptual, practical knowledge, and thinking skills. Today we will see a list of some frequently asked software engineering interview questions to get familiar with the types of questions asked in software engineering interviews.

1. What is software engineering?

It is a branch of engineering which focuses on software development. It is the function of a systematic, disciplined, quantified approach to the development, and maintenance of software.

2. What are various types of software?

Various types of software are:

• Scientific software.
• Software embedded software
• System software application
• Web Applications
• Artificial Intelligence software.

3. What is SDLC?

SDLC stands for Software development life cycle, it is the process of systematic software  development by following every stage in the development process which are:

• Planning
• Feasibility analysis
• Software design
• Software development
• Testing
• Deployment
• Documentation
• Time to time Maintenance.

4. What are popular SDLC models & Methodologies? According to you, which one is the best?

Some popular SDLC models are - Waterfall, Iterative, V-Model, Spiral Model, Big-Bang model, etc.

As such no methodology can be said to be the best. Different models can be considered optimal for different requirements. The Waterfall model is suitable for long-term projects and the spiral model is best when one needs a highly customizable product.

5. What is the meaning of software scope?

Software scope is a well-defined boundary, which encompasses all the activities that need to be done to develop and deliver software.

It defines the following aspects to smoothen the software development process:

• What will the end product do?
• What is not related to the project.
• Project estimation.

6. What is modularization?

This is one of the most common software engineering interview questions which you should answer if asked.

Modularization is nothing but a practice to divide software system tasks into multiple modules. Those modules are independent of each other and the execution of each module takes place independently.

7. How can you make your code fast & secure?

In software development, security is the utmost priority, there are several ways of securing the code in almost every programming language.

And to make the code fast, I will analyze the code to identify where the bottleneck is, and then try to remove it to make the code efficient.

8. What are the software requirements?

Requirements are the lists of desired features and functionalities of a software system. Broadly they can be classified into :

• Functional Requirements:  These are the functionalities the software user expects from the end product.
• Non-functional Requirements:  These are related to domains like aesthetics, performance, security, UI/UX.

9. What are software project estimation techniques?

There are so many project estimation techniques available. But these two are very widely used:

• Decomposition Technique: Software sizing (counting lines of code), problem and process based)
• Empirical: Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO), regression analysis.

10. What is software maintenance? Explain its types.

Software maintenance is a process of modifying and updating software to cope with customer needs. It is the last step of SDLC which is done after the launch of the software product.

Its types are -

• Corrective
• Adaptive
• Perfective
• Preventive

11. What is the difference between quality assurance and quality control?

Quality assurance, popularly known as QA Testing, is a regular check to ensure that an organization is following proper development processes to provide the best possible product/service to the clients.

Whereas Quality control is related to maintaining quality in the end product, it includes testing and reviewing function and non-functional requirements of the end product.

12. How will you determine the size of your project?

The size of software can be calculated by calculating lines of code delivered or the function points. Usually, function points are considered more accurate because they represent the features offered by the product.

13. When to declare a class as abstract?

An abstract class can not be instantiated, hence it is recommended to declare a class as abstract under the following conditions:

• When at least one method of the class is abstract.
• When a class that is inherited from an abstract class still contains abstract methods.

14. What is Software prototyping & its benefits?

Software prototyping is an activity of creating software prototypes of software applications that displays the functionality of the product that is under development.

The benefits of software prototyping are:

• Design quality can be improved.
• System usability can be upgraded
• The system can be managed easily.

15. What do you mean by change control?

Change control is a function of configuration management, which ensures that all changes made to software systems are consistent and made as per organizational rules and regulations.

16. What is the difference between Process and Thread?

Process:

• Process means a program in execution.
• It takes more time to terminate.
• Consume more resources.
• The process is not lightweight.

Thread:

• The process is a segment of a process.
• It takes very little time to terminate.
• Consume fewer resources.
• Threads are lightweight.

17. What are the different phases of testing?

Generally, there are 5 phases in testing, these are:

• Unit testing
• Module testing
• Sub-system testing
• System testing
• Acceptance testing

18. What is a data dictionary?

A data dictionary which is also known as meta data is used to capture information related to the naming convention of the objects and files used in the project.

19. What is functional programming?

Functional programming is a paradigm that involves the application of mathematical concepts. It uses expressions instead of statements.

20. What are the function points?

These are the features that are provided by the software product. It is considered the most important measurement for software size.

21. What do you know about CASE tools?

CASE stands for Computer-Aided Software Engineering, these are software tools that are used to develop high quality, defect-free, and highly scalable software.

Type of CASE tools are:

• Diagramming tools
• Analysis Tools
• Code generators
• Documentation generators
• Reverse engineering.

22. What is concurrency and how can it be achieved during product delivery?

This is an advanced software engineering interview question that can be asked in an interview.

Concurrency is a process to execute multiple tasks simultaneously which can be achieved with the help of modules, events, and tasks associated with software product delivery.  

23. What is the difference between Black box testing and White box testing?

Black box testing:

• It is a way of software testing, in which the internal structure of the software is hidden.
• Very little or no programming knowledge is required.
• It is less time-consuming.

White box testing:

• It is a way of software testing, in which the internal structure of the software is known.
• Programming knowledge is a must.
• It is time-consuming.

24. What do you mean by Software metric?

Software metrics are used to measure characteristics that are measurable or countable. They are useful in various things like software performance, measuring productivity, etc.  

25. What do you mean by software re-engineering?

Software re-engineering is a process of software development that is done to improve the maintainability of a software system. Its main objective is to describe cost-effective options for system evolution.

Some of the advantages of Re-engineering are:

• Reduced risk
• Reduced cost
• Revaluation of business models

Wrapping Up:

In this blog, we have discussed types of software engineering questions and answers. We sincerely hope that this blog gave you a quick glimpse of software engineering viva questions and now you are confident to crack any software engineering interview.

If you have a keen interest in software engineering and want to upskill yourself to stand out of the crowd, do check out Board Infinity’s Software Development Course where you will get video lectures, one on one guidance from top-notch software engineers working in your dream company, and a certification.