Author
Abhinav Rawat
Product Manager @ Interview Kickstart | Ex-upGrad | BITS Pilani. Working with hiring managers from top companies like Meta, Apple, Google, Amazon etc to build structured interview process BootCamps across domains
Do you have enthusiasm and a strong desire to become a data engineer? If you are a data engineer, you must be eager for your data engineer interview prep.
Data engineering is an exponentially rising field, and top tech companies have abundant job opportunities for professional data engineers globally. You should know that top companies’ acceptance rates can be as low as 0.2%, and it is better to be aware of the challenges ahead of you and prepare yourself accordingly.
You must demonstrate your data engineering and soft skills while answering data engineer interview questions to outperform the competition and create a lasting impact on the recruiting panel. The following data engineer interview prep guide will help you ace your next technical interview and land your dream job at FAANG companies.Â
In this article, we explain the data engineer interview process and tips to prepare for the interview. This data engineer interview prep guide provides the technical skills required to crack the interview.
You should know the basic interview pattern to frame a data engineer interview prep plan accordingly. A typical data engineer interview at top technical companies includes:
Source: Quora
Here is a step-by-step guide for boosting your data engineer interview prep. You must follow the below-mentioned guidelines to create a lasting impact on the recruiter.
Your resume is your first impression before the recruiters and hiring managers. You should be specific about the content of your resume and how you represent it. One of the keys to data engineer interview prep is to list your skills on your resume. Remember to include your technical competencies, problem-solving skills, teamwork, and collaboration.
The following points are crucial for your job-winning data engineer resume:
For example: “Developed a data pipeline using Airflow that led to process optimization and a revenue increase of 22%.”
Recommended reading: 15 tips for creating an ATS and recruiter-friendly resume.Â
You must practice your coding skills on a whiteboard instead of only using paper or IDEs that provide syntax support and familiar formatting. This way, you will get comfortable with the actual coding interview rounds. You should be well-versed in basic and the most advanced problems.
Your data engineer interview prep also includes being well-versed in basic and the most advanced problems. You can choose a programming language, such as R or Python, and begin with the basics, such as working on the syntax and commands for the particular language.
Once you are thorough with the basics, progressively advance to algorithm design and development. You must practice some coding questions on programming websites like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable writing code on a CoderPad.
While preparing for your data engineer interview, make sure you brush up on the fundamentals. You should be well-acquainted with SQL, data structure, and algorithms.
It is a critical skill for data engineers, and most companies have an SQL interview in addition to a coding interview. As a data engineer, you are responsible for building reliable and scalable data processing and data modeling solutions. You should be adept at SQL and perform better than data analysts and scientists.
You should know that SQL is a data processing pattern shared by many big data frameworks, such as SparkSQL, pandas, KafkaSQL, in addition to being a query language. You should be proficient in translating complicated business questions into SQL queries and data models with good performance. You must understand how the query engine and optimizer work to efficiently write queries that process data.
Check out 50+ SQL interview questions for practice.
You should be prepared for the following essential data structures and algorithms topics that regularly feature technical interviews at FAANG+ companies.
You must practice the commonly asked data engineer interview question on system design, data modeling, and Python to enhance your data engineer interview prep.
System design data engineer interview questions are often the most challenging part of technical interviews. The interviewer can ask you to design a data solution from end to end, usually composed of three parts: data storage, data processing, and data modeling.
For instance, for data engineer interview questions like designing a data warehouse from end to end, you must first ask follow-up questions to pin down the requirements. You have to choose the best combination of data storage systems and data processing frameworks based on those requirements.
Python is an object-oriented programming language with the exception of control flow. Python is important for data engineers because of its ease of use, strong typing, abundant third-party libraries, and simple syntax. Refer to the table below for a few Python interview questions for a data engineer and boost your data engineering interview prep.
For example, write a function to:
Some theoretical Python data engineer interview questions include:
Recommended reading: Top Database Interview Questions You Should Prepare for Technical Interviews.
You must practice answering the common data engineer interview questions for the behavioral rounds but avoid providing generic or scripted answers. The STAR method is the best approach to structure your answers to data engineer interview questions as this helps the hiring managers follow your chain of thought.
You should practice via mock interviews for hypothetical situation-based questions that form an integral part of the final rounds of the on-site interviews.
As you prepare for your data engineering interview, devote some time to learning about the company and the interviewers. You must conduct proper research and learn about the company’s principles, projects, strategic decisions in the recent past, products, achievements, and current challenges. This knowledge will convey your genuine interest in working with them.
What do experts say?
“If you wanna do data science, learn about cognitive biases, our alarming lack of statistical intuition, and how to correct for themâ€.
Hugo Bowne-Anderson
(Head of Data Science Evangelism and Marketing, Coiled)
Source: DEV Community
Here is a list of top technical skills that will help you crack data engineer interviews. You can include these on your data engineer resume to show that you are a good fit for the potential job position:
You will also require a set of soft skills for data engineering positions. The most sought-after soft skills are as follows:
Learn more about what a data engineer does at FAANG+ companies and follow the guidelines mentioned above to stand out in your next data engineer interview.
You should pay special attention to how you dress up for your interview and how you tackle the data engineer interview questions. The following tips will help you stand out in data engineer interviews.
At Interview Kickstart, we have helped software engineers, software developers, and engineering managers upskill and land top-notch offers at FAANG and Tier-1 tech companies with our tech interview prep programs. Our reviews will tell you how we’ve shaped the careers of thousands of professionals aspiring to take their careers to new heights. Our courses are professionally designed and taught by a team of instructors comprising actual FAANG hiring managers and tech leads.
Enroll in the Data Engineering Interview Course and learn how to develop skills to pursue a career path as a data engineer. You can nail your next Data Engineering interview at FAANG and Tier-1 tech companies with guidance from our experts.
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You should be prepared for the most common situational data engineer interview questions. These help the interviewer judge your character and test your problem-solving abilities under pressure. Talk about your notable achievements under dire circumstances at your previous jobs. You can precisely explain the problem, how you identified the cause, your course of action, and how that helped your company generate increased output.
You should know that interviewees rate data engineer interview questions as medium-hard. They can be challenging, and it is not always easy to tackle technical data engineer interview questions. However, if you brush up on the basic concepts and practice the most crucial data engineer interview questions well, you can nail the most demanding rounds.
Your coding knowledge enables you to easily manipulate and clean the data you work with every day. For data engineer interview prep, you need to understand how to program in at least one language, such as Python, JS, or C++. Top companies have at least one coding interview round to check your ability.
The average data engineer salary is $122,966 annually and $63.06 per hour in the United States (Talent.com).
Scan the job description carefully to understand everything the company seeks in the data engineer position. Visit the company website, go through their “About Us†page, and learn about their values, employee benefits, leadership, products, and more. Also, check out the company’s YouTube channel and research employees on LinkedIn.
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