Cox software engineer interview questions are role-specific and company-oriented, emphasizing coding and behavioral skills. The Atlanta-based Cox Automotive, a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., deals in facilitating the process of using, owning, selling, and buying vehicles. Cox software engineer interview questions aim to uncover top software engineering talent to drive the company forward in the automotive industry.
Parenting 25+ brands, Cox software engineering interview questions assess engineers with top tech skills to drive its solutions in digital marketing, e-commerce, financial, and wholesale across the entire automotive environment, from manufacturers to dealers to consumers.
Understanding the type of Cox Automotive software engineer interview questions is integral to nailing Cox Automotive’s software engineer interview.
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In this article, we cover:
- Cox Automotive Software Engineer Interview Process
- Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions on Coding
- Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions on System Design
- Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions on Behavioral
- How to Answer Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions
- FAQs on Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions
Cox Automotive Software Engineer Interview Process
You will have to answer Cox software engineer interview questions in a structured format focused on key knowledge areas and conducted via different modes —telephonic, virtually/online, in-person/on-site.
Duration: The entire Cox Automotive software engineer interview process typically takes about 2 or 4 weeks till completion, although in some instances, it can run into a couple of months.
The Cox Automotive software engineer interview process typically comprises the following rounds of interviews:
- Recruiter/Phone Screening; Duration: 30 minutes
This is usually a short phone screen with a recruiter that generally runs up to 30 mins long. In this round, you will be assessed for role and company fitment based on your experience, resume, and career goals.
- Hiring Manager interview; Duration: 1.5 hours
A tech round with a hiring manager is clubbed together with the recruiter’s phone screen or conducted after passing the screening. This usually entails Cox software engineer interview questions on basic tech and programming skills and may run for about one and a half to two hours long.
You will be assessed on skills required for the role. The interview may be conducted online via video conferencing using a browser-based app.
- Coding Exercise; Duration: 1 hour
You’ll be asked to complete a coding exercise that may be a take-home project or a live online assignment. This may be conducted at different times before the on-site interviews, i.e., before the telephonic screening or before or after the hiring manager interview.
- On-site Interviews; Duration: 3 hours
Once you’ve passed the telephonic screening and online tech interviews, you move on to the on-site interviews, which can comprise multiple rounds of interviews lasting for about 3 hours, more or less depending on how many rounds you have to go through.
Typically, the on-site interviews feature many Cox software engineer interview questions conducted as one-on-one and group or panel interviews.
The on-site interviews comprise:
- Coding and Design Interviews
- Technical (Non-Coding) Interviews
- Behavioral Interviews
Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions on Coding
Depending on the role, some of the key topics and knowledge areas Cox software engineer interview questions and Cox senior software engineer interview questions are based on are:
- Databases — MSSQL, DynamoDB, Redis, MySQL, SQL, NoSQL
- JS, C#, CSS
- Java stack, AWS Serverless stack
- GraphQL, REST, SOAP APIs
- AWS SDK, ElastiCache, Lambada, API Gateway, Elastic Beanstalk, S3, Terraform, AWS cloud-native architecture
- OOP languages, OOP analysis, and design
- AWS CodeBuild, Cloudwatch, NewRelic, Splunk, TeamCity
- Java, JavaScript SPA frameworks — REACT, Ember, Angular
- Backend technologies — C#, Node
- AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
- Git, other repository tools
- Understanding of web technologies, systems, the internet, web services architecture
- Agile and Scrum methodologies
- TCP/IP, TLS/SSL, HTTP, load balancing, DNS, other networking technologies
- SLO/SLA/SLI, MTTI, MMTR
- Unit and CI/CD testing, IAC
- Python
The job description and researching the role will help you understand the areas on which Cox software engineer interview questions will be based.
Sample Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions on Data Structures and Algorithms
The Cox software engineer coding interview will be based on coding and data structure concepts and applications. Typical coding questions asked at Cox Automotive and tech interviews at leading tech companies are:
Strings
- Reverse a substring from a string
- How can a given string be reversed using recursion
- Find the longest palindromic substring in a given string ‘str.’
Trees
- Print a tree
- Given a binary tree, calculate the sum of all nodes for each diagonal having a negative slope. Assume the left and right child of a node makes a 45-degree angle with the parent.
Arrays
- How do you search for a target value in a rotated array?
- Find the longest increasing subsequence of a given array of integers.
- Given an array of size n, find the majority element. The majority element is the element that appears more than floor (N/2) times. Assume the array is non-empty and the majority element always exists in the array.
Linked Lists
- How do you check if a given linked list contains a cycle?
- What is the difference between array and linked list?
HashMap
- Can HashMap store duplicate values?
- How does HashMap work in Java8?
Graphs
- Find the shortest path between two nodes u and v, with path length measured by the number of edges.
- Given a directed graph, return true if the given graph contains at least one cycle; else return false.
Sort
- Given the array nums, for each nums [i], find out how many numbers in the array are smaller than it.
- Merge a given array of k linked lists, each sorted in ascending order, into one sorted linked list and return it.
Search
- Given the sorted rotated array nums of unique elements, return the minimum element in this array in O(log n) time.
- Given two sorted arrays, nums 1 and nums 2 of size n, respectively, return the median of the two sorted arrays. The overall run time complexity should be O(log (m+n)).
Recursion
- Write a function that returns all permutations of a given list.
- Write a program to implement a quicksort algorithm using recursion.
Dynamic Programming
- Given an input string s and a pattern p, implement regular expression matching.
- Given n, calculate the Fibonacci sequence.
Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions — Technical (Non-Coding)
Below are some commonly-asked technical Cox software engineer interview questions besides algorithms and data structures.
- Questions on your projects, both past and current
- Questions on your resume tech stack
- Differentiate between RDS and DynamoDB
- Explain the pros and cons of preprocessors
Typical technical questions asked at software engineering interviews at leading tech companies that give you further insight into what you may be asked at Cox Automotive software interviews are:
- Differentiate between Agile and Scrum.
- Explain DOM?
- Explain different open-source cloud computing databases.
- Explain the different S3 storage classes
- What is exception handling?
- What is the NaN property in JavaScript?
- What HTTP methods do Restful web services support?
Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions on System Design
Cox software engineer interview questions feature the following type of systems design questions:
- Questions on design patterns
- Design and code a toaster
- Design a kitchen appliance using object-oriented design
Other typical system design questions asked at top tech companies based that can be part of Cox Automotive software engineer interview questions are:
- How do you design a cache system?
- Is Redis a cache?
- Design an ATM
- Design a parking lot
- Design a car rental system
- Design a URL shortening service like TinyURL, Bitly
- Differentiate between information hiding and data abstraction.
Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions on Behavioral Skills
Cox Automotive places quite a bit of importance on behavioral interviews. Cox automotive software engineer interviews questions to test your behavioral or interpersonal skills are usually situational questions.
Cox automotive behavioral interview questions are best answered using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) approach and drawing on real-life examples from past experiences, where possible.
Why Cox?
You can expect this as one of your Cox software engineer interview questions; or variations of it.
You should be prepared to explain your motivations to join Cox Automotives. Showcase to interviewers that Cox Automotives is a company of choice by highlighting key aspects of its products, performance, or culture that attracted you to apply for a software engineer role at the company.
Highlight how the company and role align with your career path. But, more importantly, emphasize how you can leverage your experience and skills to bring value to the company. This will show a thorough understanding of the technologies Cox automotive uses and the markets it operates in and position you as a must-hire candidate.
Sample Behavioral Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions
- Tell me about yourself
- Explain your work philosophy.
- How would you describe Cox automotive?
- Why do you want to work in the automotive industry?
- What do you consider to be your greatest weakness?
- Why do you think you’re qualified for this position at Cox?
- How would you manage conflict with a teammate?
- How would you rate your communication skills? Explain your rating.
- Describe a time you applied strategic thinking.
- How do you motivate yourself?
How to Answer Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions
The above Cox software engineer interview questions only indicate the kind of questions you can expect at Cox Automotive. Given that each of these subject areas — tech, coding, design, and interpersonal skills — are vast, with many possible questions that can be asked, it is impossible to practice them all before your interview.
The best way to prepare to answer Cox software engineer interview questions is by developing solid problem-solving skills that will enable you to solve any unseen problem. You should also identify key examples from your past experiences that showcase your tech skills and identify key personality traits that showcase your soft skills.
FAQs on Cox Software Engineer Interview Questions
Q1. What are the typical software engineer interview questions for Cox automotive?
Cox Automotive software engineer interview questions will feature technical, coding, design, and behavioral questions.
Q2. What is the average salary of a software engineer at Cox Automotive?
As an indicative figure, the annual average Cox Automotive software engineer salary is $110,909 (indeed.com). Your salary offer will depend, among other things, on your negotiation skills and how well you answer the Cox software engineer interview questions.
Q3. Are Cox Automotive’s senior software engineer interview questions difficult?
While Cox software interviews may not be as challenging as FAANG interviews, answering Cox software engineer interview questions effectively requires competitive expertise in coding problem-solving. Mock interviews are recommended to get through Cox software interviews.
Q4. How many rounds of interviews do software engineers have at Cox Automotive?
Candidates are asked Cox software engineer interview questions in a structured format over multiple rounds of interviews — up to 3 rounds of telephonic/virtual screening and first-level interviews and about 3 - 4 rounds of coding, design, technical, and behavioral interviews.
Q5. How should I prepare for Cox Automotive software interviews?
To answer software engineering questions for Cox Automotive interviews, you should thoroughly research the company and role. Understand the kind of technologies used and develop strong coding and design skills.
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