Role Guides

Interview Guides by Role

Explore detailed interview guides for 20+ tech roles. Each guide includes common questions, salary ranges, career paths, and preparation strategies.

20 roles

Engineeringvery-high

Backend Engineer

Backend engineers design, build, and maintain server-side applications, APIs, and databases that power modern software products. They work with languages like Python, Java, Go, and Node.js to build scalable systems that handle millions of requests.

API design (REST, GraphQL, gRPC)Database design and optimization (SQL, NoSQL)System design and distributed systemsAuthentication and authorization +4

{ "junior": "$85,000 - $115,000", "mid": "$120,000 - $165,000", "senior": "$165,000 - $230,000" }

EngineeringHigh Demand

Frontend Engineer

Frontend engineers build the user-facing layer of web applications. They translate designs into performant, accessible, and responsive interfaces using frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular, while managing complex state, handling browser APIs, and optimizing for speed.

JavaScript/TypeScript masteryReact, Vue, or Angular in depthHTML semantics and CSS architectureWeb performance optimization (Core Web Vitals) +4

{ "junior": "$80,000 - $110,000", "mid": "$115,000 - $160,000", "senior": "$160,000 - $225,000" }

Engineeringvery-high

Full-Stack Engineer

Full-stack engineers work across the entire application stack, from database queries to pixel-perfect UIs. They are generalists who can own features end-to-end, making them especially valuable at startups and smaller teams where wearing multiple hats is the norm.

Frontend frameworks (React, Vue, Angular)Backend languages (Node.js, Python, Go, Java)Database design (PostgreSQL, MongoDB)API design and integration +4

{ "junior": "$82,000 - $112,000", "mid": "$118,000 - $165,000", "senior": "$165,000 - $235,000" }

EngineeringHigh Demand

iOS Developer

iOS developers build native applications for Apple's ecosystem using Swift and SwiftUI (or UIKit). They work closely with design teams to deliver polished, performant mobile experiences while navigating App Store guidelines, device fragmentation, and platform-specific APIs.

Swift and SwiftUI / UIKitiOS SDK and platform APIsCore Data and persistenceConcurrency (async/await, GCD) +4

{ "junior": "$80,000 - $110,000", "mid": "$115,000 - $155,000", "senior": "$155,000 - $215,000" }

EngineeringHigh Demand

Android Developer

Android developers build native mobile applications using Kotlin (and sometimes Java) for the world's most widely used mobile operating system. They work with Jetpack Compose, Android SDK, and Google Play services to deliver performant apps across thousands of device configurations.

Kotlin and Jetpack ComposeAndroid SDK and Jetpack librariesMVVM / MVI architecture patternsCoroutines and Flow +4

{ "junior": "$78,000 - $108,000", "mid": "$112,000 - $150,000", "senior": "$150,000 - $210,000" }

EngineeringGrowing

QA Engineer

QA engineers ensure software quality through manual testing, test automation, and quality processes. Modern QA engineers write automated test suites, build CI/CD test pipelines, and work with development teams to shift testing left, catching bugs before they reach production.

Test automation frameworks (Selenium, Cypress, Playwright)API testing (Postman, REST Assured)Programming (Python, JavaScript, Java)CI/CD integration for test suites +4

{ "junior": "$65,000 - $90,000", "mid": "$90,000 - $130,000", "senior": "$130,000 - $180,000" }

Engineeringvery-high

Security Engineer

Security engineers protect applications, infrastructure, and data from threats. They perform threat modeling, design secure architectures, conduct penetration testing, build security tooling, and respond to incidents. The role sits at the intersection of software engineering and cybersecurity.

Application security (OWASP Top 10)Penetration testing and vulnerability assessmentSecure code reviewCryptography fundamentals +4

{ "junior": "$95,000 - $125,000", "mid": "$130,000 - $175,000", "senior": "$175,000 - $250,000" }

EngineeringGrowing

Embedded Engineer

Embedded engineers write software that runs on hardware devices with constrained resources -- from IoT sensors and medical devices to automotive controllers and consumer electronics. They work close to the metal with C/C++, RTOS, and hardware peripherals where memory, power, and timing constraints drive every design decision.

C and C++ for embedded systemsRTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, VxWorks)Microcontroller architectures (ARM Cortex-M, RISC-V)Hardware interfaces (SPI, I2C, UART, CAN) +4

{ "junior": "$80,000 - $110,000", "mid": "$110,000 - $150,000", "senior": "$150,000 - $210,000" }

Data & Machine Learningvery-high

Data Engineer

Data engineers build and maintain the pipelines, warehouses, and infrastructure that enable organizations to collect, store, transform, and analyze data at scale. They bridge the gap between raw data sources and the analysts and scientists who derive insights from that data.

SQL and data modeling (star schema, snowflake)Python for data pipelinesApache Spark, Flink, or BeamData warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift) +4

{ "junior": "$85,000 - $115,000", "mid": "$120,000 - $170,000", "senior": "$170,000 - $240,000" }

Data & Machine LearningHigh Demand

Data Scientist

Data scientists extract insights and build predictive models from data using statistics, machine learning, and domain expertise. They formulate hypotheses, run experiments, build models, and communicate findings to stakeholders to drive business decisions.

Python (pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn)Statistics and probabilityMachine learning algorithmsSQL for data analysis +4

{ "junior": "$90,000 - $120,000", "mid": "$125,000 - $170,000", "senior": "$170,000 - $240,000" }

Data & Machine Learningvery-high

Machine Learning Engineer

ML engineers bridge data science and software engineering. They take machine learning models from prototype to production, building the infrastructure for training, deploying, monitoring, and scaling ML systems. They focus on MLOps, model serving, and making ML reliable in production.

Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow)ML system design and architectureModel training and optimizationMLOps (MLflow, Kubeflow, SageMaker) +4

{ "junior": "$100,000 - $135,000", "mid": "$140,000 - $190,000", "senior": "$190,000 - $280,000" }

DevOps & Infrastructurevery-high

DevOps Engineer

DevOps engineers build and maintain the CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and tooling that enable development teams to ship software reliably and frequently. They bridge development and operations, focusing on automation, monitoring, and infrastructure as code.

CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins)Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation)Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) +4

{ "junior": "$85,000 - $115,000", "mid": "$120,000 - $165,000", "senior": "$165,000 - $230,000" }

DevOps & Infrastructurevery-high

Site Reliability Engineer

SREs apply software engineering principles to infrastructure and operations problems. Originated at Google, the role focuses on ensuring systems are reliable, scalable, and efficient through SLOs, error budgets, incident management, and eliminating toil through automation.

SLOs, SLIs, and error budgetsIncident management and postmortemsDistributed systems and reliability patternsObservability (metrics, logs, traces) +4

{ "junior": "$95,000 - $125,000", "mid": "$130,000 - $180,000", "senior": "$180,000 - $260,000" }

DevOps & Infrastructurevery-high

Platform Engineer

Platform engineers build internal developer platforms (IDPs) that abstract away infrastructure complexity, enabling product teams to deploy, monitor, and scale their services independently. They create self-service tooling, golden paths, and reusable infrastructure components.

Kubernetes and container orchestrationInternal developer platforms (Backstage, Port)Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Crossplane)Service mesh (Istio, Linkerd) +4

{ "junior": "$100,000 - $130,000", "mid": "$135,000 - $180,000", "senior": "$180,000 - $260,000" }

DevOps & Infrastructurevery-high

Cloud Architect

Cloud architects design and oversee an organization's cloud infrastructure strategy. They make high-level decisions about cloud services, multi-cloud or hybrid approaches, security posture, cost optimization, and ensure architectures meet scalability, reliability, and compliance requirements.

AWS, GCP, or Azure in depth (ideally multi-cloud)Architecture patterns (microservices, event-driven, serverless)Networking (VPC, peering, DNS, CDN)Security architecture and compliance +4

{ "junior": "$120,000 - $150,000", "mid": "$155,000 - $200,000", "senior": "$200,000 - $280,000" }

DevOps & InfrastructureGrowing

Database Administrator

Database administrators (DBAs) manage, optimize, and secure an organization's database systems. They handle performance tuning, backup and recovery, capacity planning, and ensure data integrity across production environments running databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, and SQL Server.

SQL optimization and query tuningDatabase internals (indexing, query plans, storage engines)Backup, recovery, and replicationPostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQL Server administration +4

{ "junior": "$70,000 - $95,000", "mid": "$95,000 - $140,000", "senior": "$140,000 - $200,000" }

ProductHigh Demand

Product Manager

Product managers define the what and why of software products. They sit at the intersection of business, technology, and user experience, working with engineering, design, and stakeholders to prioritize features, define roadmaps, and ship products that solve real user problems.

Product strategy and roadmappingUser research and customer interviewsData analysis and metrics (SQL, analytics tools)A/B testing and experimentation +4

{ "junior": "$90,000 - $120,000", "mid": "$125,000 - $170,000", "senior": "$170,000 - $250,000" }

Management & LeadershipHigh Demand

Engineering Manager

Engineering managers lead software engineering teams, balancing people management with technical leadership. They hire and grow engineers, remove blockers, set technical direction, and ensure their teams deliver high-quality software while maintaining healthy team dynamics.

People management and coachingHiring and interviewingProject planning and executionTechnical architecture awareness +4

{ "junior": "$140,000 - $175,000", "mid": "$175,000 - $230,000", "senior": "$230,000 - $320,000" }

Management & LeadershipHigh Demand

Technical Lead

Technical leads are senior individual contributors who guide the technical direction of a team or project. They design systems, mentor engineers, make architectural decisions, and write code -- all while ensuring the team's technical output is high-quality, maintainable, and aligned with business goals.

System design and architectureCode review and mentorshipTechnical decision-making and RFC writingCross-team technical coordination +4

{ "junior": "$140,000 - $175,000", "mid": "$175,000 - $225,000", "senior": "$225,000 - $300,000" }

Management & LeadershipHigh Demand

Solutions Architect

Solutions architects design end-to-end technical solutions that meet business requirements. They work at the intersection of sales, engineering, and customers -- translating complex business problems into technical architectures, often spanning multiple systems, teams, and technologies.

Enterprise architecture patternsCloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)Integration patterns (APIs, messaging, ETL)Technical pre-sales and customer-facing communication +4

{ "junior": "$120,000 - $155,000", "mid": "$155,000 - $200,000", "senior": "$200,000 - $275,000" }

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