Senior Backend Engineer Interview Questions

2,042 senior backend engineer interview questions shared by candidates

- How to efficiently delete records from a relational database table with millions of rows - Practical understanding and application of SOLID principles - How to monitor and observe the health of running microservices - The differences and trade-offs between a monolithic architecture and microservices
avatar

Senior Backend Engineer

Interviewed at Bettermile

4.2
Jun 20, 2025

- How to efficiently delete records from a relational database table with millions of rows - Practical understanding and application of SOLID principles - How to monitor and observe the health of running microservices - The differences and trade-offs between a monolithic architecture and microservices

Principles: KISS, DRY, and YAGNI principles and their relationship Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) based on my previous experience context Shared context-related code like the Singleton design pattern SOLID principles Loose Coupling vs. Tight Coupling, Inversion of Control mechanism Security: XSS and SQL injection handling, Auth handling security like use of Cookie HttpOnly Best practices for storing JWT shared keys (e.g., session storage or secure-flagged cookies) Testing: Unit tests: Testing state vs. testing interaction, their relation with the maintainability of the code Database: SQL: Different join types, optimizing slow MySQL queries Comparison between DB engines, mainly InnoDB vs. MyISAM Strategies for changing a DB field name in production without disrupting other long running processes (maybe discussing transactional differences between engines) Coding Challenge: Fixing a state test function without using PHPUnit, but with assertions The payload transformation encapsulated within a private function (which we need to test), also called by another log function which call logger->log, the logger was not injected rather created by new, so it need ot be injected as an interface (e.g., PSR LoggerInterface) and creating a concrete logger to output the tested payload and assert with the given input of the test assertion function and maybe others I forgot
avatar

Senior PHP Backend Engineer

Interviewed at Smoobu

3.7
Apr 9, 2024

Principles: KISS, DRY, and YAGNI principles and their relationship Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) based on my previous experience context Shared context-related code like the Singleton design pattern SOLID principles Loose Coupling vs. Tight Coupling, Inversion of Control mechanism Security: XSS and SQL injection handling, Auth handling security like use of Cookie HttpOnly Best practices for storing JWT shared keys (e.g., session storage or secure-flagged cookies) Testing: Unit tests: Testing state vs. testing interaction, their relation with the maintainability of the code Database: SQL: Different join types, optimizing slow MySQL queries Comparison between DB engines, mainly InnoDB vs. MyISAM Strategies for changing a DB field name in production without disrupting other long running processes (maybe discussing transactional differences between engines) Coding Challenge: Fixing a state test function without using PHPUnit, but with assertions The payload transformation encapsulated within a private function (which we need to test), also called by another log function which call logger->log, the logger was not injected rather created by new, so it need ot be injected as an interface (e.g., PSR LoggerInterface) and creating a concrete logger to output the tested payload and assert with the given input of the test assertion function and maybe others I forgot

Viewing 951 - 960 interview questions

Glassdoor has 2,042 interview questions and reports from Senior backend engineer interviews. Prepare for your interview. Get hired. Love your job.