Zoox Software Engineer Interview Questions to Crack Your Tech Interview

Zoox software engineer interview questions are typical of most technical interviews for software engineers at top tech companies. Working on cutting-edge technologies, interesting projects, and competitive compensation packages are some of the top reasons software engineers and developers choose to work at Zoox. 

Zoox software engineer interview questions may not be as challenging as its parent or other FAANG+ companies but are typically similar to FAANG+ software interview questions. To this effect, answering Zoox software engineer interview questions requires considerable focused practice and preparation.

Typical Process of Zoox Interview Questions for Software Engineer

A typical Zoox interview is divided into different interview rounds, each focusing on distinct knowledge areas.

Duration: 3 to 4 weeks

• Phone Screen

This involves the first-level screening, which will assess you on basic background and fitment parameters like your work experience, goals, salary expectations, expected date of joining, etc.

• Coding Problem

You will be required to solve a coding problem, typically in C++. This could be either a take-home or online exercise, either before or after the recruiter phone screen.

• Technical Phone Screen

This comprises up to two rounds of technical interviews with hiring managers in which you’ll solve up to two coding problems, of easy to medium difficulty, within 90 minutes. Your take-home coding exercise may also be discussed during this round.

• On-site Interviews

The on-site interviews are typically a day-long process comprising three rounds of interviews based on coding, technical, and behavioral skills.

Zoox Interview Questions For Software Engineer on Coding

Zoox interview questions to assess coding skills tend to focus on these key skill and knowledge areas:

• C, C++
• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) trivia and coding; Java theory
• Static and dynamic programming
• Math (usually asked as part of the on-site interviews): Questions on linear algebra, algebra, basic probability, geometry, logic, random math
• Problem-solving; Riddles and Brain-teasers (math and non-math based usually asked as part of the on-site interviews)
• Physics; Machine learning
• General programming
• C++ design; OOP Design; includes designing base cases and optimizing solutions
• Polymorphism, Inheritance, Concurrency, Compiler, Encapsulation

Zoox Interview Questions on Data Structures and Algorithms

Below are sample technical/coding interview questions on different data structures and algorithms and math topics to give you insights on how to prepare for Zoox interview questions for software engineer.

Strings

• How many horses are there a string with multiple ‘neighs’ in it; Given a string (of horse sound ‘neigh’), determine the minimum number of horses possible. ‘Nneigheigh’ should return 2, ‘neighneigh’ returns 1.
• Given two strings , find the shortest edit distance to transform the first into the second.

Linked List

• Reverse a linked list.
• How will you convert a binary tree into a doubly-linked list?

Arrays

• Given a list of query words, return the number of words that are stretchy.
• Given two strings, S and T, find the minimum window in S, which will contain all the characters in T in complexity O(n).

Graphs

• Given a matrix of N rows and M columns. From m[i][j], we can move to m[i+1][j], if m[i+1]>m[i][j], or can move to m[i][j+1] if m[i][j+1]>m[i][j]. Print the longest path length if we start from (0,0).

Hash Tables

• What is the complexity of a hash table?

Recursion

• Given a binary tree, write a function to determine whether the tree is balanced.

Sort

• Implement the bubble sort algorithm.

Search

• Write a code to implement level order search in a binary tree.

Trees

• Given a binary tree, find the maximum path sum. The path may start and end at any node in the tree.
• Given a binary tree, write a recursive algorithm to print all parts from every leaf node to root node in the binary tree

Dynamic Programming

• Given a matrix and a target, return the number of non-empty submatrices that sum to the target.
• Given a matrix of rows x cols binary filled with 0s and 1s, find the largest rectangle containing only 1s and return its area.

Linear Algebra

• Give an example to find the eigenvalues of a matrix.
• What is Ax=b? When does it have a unique solution?
• When does the inverse of a diagonal matrix exist?
• What is an orthogonal matrix

Basics of Probability

• Differentiate between Bayesian probability and Frequentist probability
• What is a probability distribution?
• Given two fair dice, what is the probability of getting scores that equal sum to 4?

Geometry

• You are given two non-empty linked lists representing two non-negative integers. The digits are stored in reverse order, and each of their nodes contains a single digit. Add the two numbers and return them as a linked list.

Technical Zoox Interview Questions  for Software Engineer

Some technical questions that have been asked as part of Zoox interview questions are:

1. Find the area of a shape.
2. Find the shortest distance between a line and a point in a 3D plane.
3. How does a garbage collector work?
4. Implement a basic calculator to evaluate a simple expression string. The expression may contain open ‘(‘ and closing ‘)’ parentheses, the plus ‘+’ and minus ‘-’ signs, non-negative integers, and empty spaces. You may assume the given expression is always valid.
5. There are N lanes, and the speed of each lane is given. There are many cars in each lane. You are given the length of each car, its starting position, and its corresponding lane. There is a frog that can perform two functions — wait() or jump (). Find if there is a path for the frog to go from lane 1 to lane N without getting hit by any of the moving cars.
6. There are ‘n’ cities connected by m flights. Each flight starts from the city ‘u’ and arrives at ‘v’ at a price ‘w.’ Now, given all the cities and flights, and the starting city ‘src,’ and the destination ‘dst,’ find the lowest price from ‘src’ to ‘dst’ with up to ‘k’ stops. If no such route exists, the output is -1.
7. Write a pseudocode for Dijkstra's algorithm.

Zoox Interview Questions: Riddles and Brainteasers

You can expect riddles and brain teasers (typically math-based) to be part of Zoox interview questions. These are aimed at assessing your problem-solving skills.

Here are some popular questions of this nature asked at technical interviews at top tech companies:

1. A box has 12 red cards and 12 black cards. Another box has 24 red cards and 24 black cards. You want to draw two cards randomly from one of the two boxes, one card at a time. Which box has a higher probability of getting cards of the same color and why?
2. Describe a sunset to a blind person.
3. How do you measure exactly 4 gallons using a 3-gallon and a 5-gallon bucket?
4. How can you tell if a given coin is biased?
5. Why is it hotter in the summer?
6. You are standing outside a room that has no windows. The room has three light bulbs and three switches outside of the room. Each switch controls one of the light bulbs. You can only enter the room one time. How do you find out what switch goes to which light bulb?

Zoox Interview Questions For Software Engineer on C++ and OOPS

Some popular C++ and OOPs questions that can help you prepare for Zoox interview questions are:

1. Explain why C++ is called OOPs.
2. Explain polymorphism and its types in C++.
3. List the features of OOPs in C++.
4. What are ‘class’ and ‘object’ in C++?
5. What is a storage class used in C++?
6. What are encapsulation and inheritance in C++?
7. Name popular OOPs languages.
8. What are the main OOPs features?
9. Differentiate between class and structure.
10. Differentiate between polymorphism and inheritance.
11. What is coupling?
12. What is structured programming?

Zoox Interview Questions on Machine Learning (ML)

Zoox interview questions may include some on machine learning so you need to be prepared with at least the fundamental concepts of machine learning.

1. Differentiate between variance and bias.
2. Explain the Bayes’ Theorem.
3. Explain your favorite algorithm.
4. How is machine learning different from deep learning
5. How will you perform cross-validation for a time series dataset?
6. What is big data? Name some big data tools.
7. What are some of the best data visualization libraries and tools?
8. What data types does JSON support?
9. What is the most valuable data for our business?

Zoox Interview Questions on System Design

Zoox candidates have been asked to design a system in C++ that is functional, i.e., it is compiled and can be run, given the input and output format. Some Zoox software engineer interview questions on system design include:

1. Design a class
2. Design a lift system
3. Design a URL shortening service like bit.ly
4. Design a traffic control system
5. Design A vending machine in Java
6. How do you design a parking lot system
7. How do you design an e-commerce website?

Also read: System Design Interview Guide

Zoox Interview Questions on Behavioral Skills

“Why Zoox?” or “Why do you want to work at Zoox?” are commonly asked Zoox software engineer interview questions. This question aims to assess your interest in working at Zoox, your understanding of the company and its competitors, and how your experience, skills, and goals align with Zoox’s business requirements and culture.

Some other sample Zoox interview questions to gauge your interpersonal and behavioral skills and assess your motivations for working at the company are:

1. How is your job search?
2. Tell me something about yourself that isn’t on your resume.
3. What does Zoox value in its employees?
4. How is Zoox different from its competitors?
5. How long will you stay with Zoox if given an offer?
6. Which Zoox team do you want to work with if given the opportunity?
7. What biggest challenge do you think you’ll face as a Zoox software engineer?
8. What do you think are the key success metrics for a software engineer?
9. Have you attended craft conferences? If so, explain a recent experience.
10. How do you handle difficult feedback?
11. How do you demonstrate ownership?
12. How would you handle situations where teammates don’t attend scheduled meetings?
13. Tell me about a time you recovered from failure.
14. Tell me about a time you demonstrated creativity.
15. Tell me about a time you had to work on a project with a difficult teammate.

Besides the above questions, you should get a strong understanding of your potential role since Zoox software engineer interview questions are likely to be based on role requirements.

Land Your Dream Job at Zoox With Interview Kickstart

While software interviews at Zoox are not as challenging as at FAANG, Zoox software engineer interview questions are popularly based on FAANG software engineer interview questions. With these Zoox interview questions, you can anticipate the questions and prepare well for the interview. With Interview Kickstart you can fast track your interview prep, and nail any job interview.

Led by industry experts (from the likes of Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn), our instructors will help you build a strong foundation in the subject, and give you all the tools required to be successful in your career and land your dream job.  You can check out some of the success stories of our alumni who have advanced their careers with the help of Interview Kickstart.

FAQs: Zoox Software Engineer Interview Questions

Q1. What are some software engineer questions for Zoox interviews?

Zoox software engineer interview questions feature questions on coding technical system design and behavioral skills. Expect questions based on C++, OOP, design, math, Java theory, static and dynamic programming, physics, problem-solving, and general programming.

Q2. What is the Zoox math interview?

Zoox software engineer interview questions on math are usually asked as part of the on-site interviews. You can expect questions on linear algebra, algebra, basic probability, geometry, logic, and random math.

Q3. How much do software engineers at Zoox earn?

The annual average software engineer salary at Zoox is $173,177 (glassdoor.com). However, this is only an indicative figure. Your offer will depend on how well you answer the Zoox software engineer interview questions and your negotiation skills during the hiring process.

Q4. How long does it take to get hired at Zoox?

Zoox software engineer interview questions are asked over multiple rounds of interviews during the Zoox interview process. The Zoox hiring process takes about three to four weeks to complete before making an offer.

Q5. Is it hard to get hired at Zoox?

While Zoox software engineers are not as challenging as FAANG interviews, Zoox software engineer interview questions are typical of FAANG software engineer interview questions. Hence, focused and structured interview prep is needed to nail Zoox technical interviews.

Related reads:

• Best Companies and Top Cities to Work for as a Software Engineer
• How Long Does It Take to Prepare for Coding Interviews?
• Complete Study Plan to Prepare for Senior Software Engineer Interviews