LinkedIn Interview Questions

LinkedIn Interview Questions

Practice 147 real LinkedIn interview questions for 2026. Covers all top categories — Coding & Algorithms, System Design, Analytics & Experimentation, Data Manipulation (SQL/Python), and Behavioral & Leadership — across Software Engineer, Data Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer, and Data Engineer roles. Real questions from actual interviews with detailed solutions; this collection is designed for focused interview preparation that prioritizes coding and scale-first problem solving alongside rigorous metrics thinking. Expect LinkedIn interviews to evaluate production-ready tradeoffs, clear metricization of ranking and relevance, and the ability to diagnose live-traffic regressions. For Software Engineer candidates, recurring themes include constant-time randomized data structures and frequency-weighted sampling, Top-K ranking service design and distributed-scaling considerations, plus classic array/string and stack-with-max algorithmic problems. Data Scientists should be ready for model fundamentals and optimization (logistic regression, backprop, Adam), causal and experimentation diagnostics for feed/homepage drops, and sampling/variance concerns in ranking metrics. Machine Learning Engineers will see recommendation and skills-inference system design, clustering convergence and probabilistic sampling questions, and production alerting/spike-detection. Data Engineers encounter efficient data-structure implementations tied to measurable production impact.

147 Questions 1 Company06.23.2026
Showing 20 results
Role
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Software EngineerSenior+

Merge Keyed N-Ary Trees

Merge Keyed N-Ary Trees An N-ary tree node contains a unique string key among its siblings and a list of children. Implement merge_trees(a, b) for two...

Coding & Algorithms
8
0
83 people solved
Jun 11, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Software EngineerSenior+

Design a CI/CD Task Scheduler

Design a CI/CD Task Scheduler Design the scheduling core of a continuous-integration and continuous-delivery system. A pipeline is a directed acyclic ...

System Design
5
0
40 people solved
Jun 11, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Design a Calendar System

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design a large-scale calendar backend, covering data modeling for events, recurrence, invitations, an...

System Design
8
0
72 people solved
Jun 23, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Easy
Software Engineer

Review a Web Application Architecture

You are given a high-level architecture diagram for a web application: Client/Web App -> DNS -> Load Balancer -> Application Service -> Database The a...

System Design
11
0
111 people solved
Apr 11, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Data ScientistIntern

Explain Logistic Regression, Backprop, and Adam

Walk through the mathematical foundations that connect logistic regression to modern deep-learning training. The interviewer expects you to write the ...

Machine Learning
158
0
1201 people solved
Apr 5, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Software EngineerSenior+

Scale a Distributed Randomized Multiset

After designing the randomized multiset on a single machine, explain how you would scale it across multiple servers. The distributed system should sup...

System Design
21
0
155 people solved
Apr 2, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Software Engineer

Solve common string and subarray problems

You are given three coding tasks: 1) Reverse a string - Input: a string s. - Output: the string with characters in reverse order. 2) Maximum sum of a ...

Coding & Algorithms
16
0
121 people solved
Jan 9, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Longest Run of Ones After One Flip

This question tests a candidate's ability to solve a sliding window problem involving binary arrays, extending the basic "maximum consecutive ones" pa...

Coding & Algorithms
1
0
11 people solved
Jun 23, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Machine Learning Engineer

Sample uniformly from a circle’s area

How would you generate a point (x, y) uniformly at random from the area of a circle of radius R centered at the origin? - Explain why naive choices (e...

Coding & Algorithms
16
0
122 people solved
Feb 18, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Machine Learning Engineer

Answer practical ML foundations questions

In an ML interview, you are asked a series of practical ML foundation questions: 1) Model outputs probabilities. When do you need probability calibrat...

Machine Learning
24
0
176 people solved
Feb 18, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Easy
Software Engineer Locked

Design a Top-K Ranking Service

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design scalable, real-time Top-K ranking services, testing competencies in distributed systems, strea...

System Design
6
0
87 people solved
Mar 10, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Easy
Data Scientist

Analyze member video posting behavior by country

Question You are given two tables describing LinkedIn members and the videos they upload. Write SQL (and optionally Python where noted) to answer the ...

Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
7
1
104 people solved
Feb 1, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Easy
Data Scientist Locked

Choose single queue vs multiple queues

This question evaluates understanding of queueing theory, stochastic modeling of wait times, variability analysis, and the ability to state modeling a...

Analytics & Experimentation
7
0
68 people solved
Feb 16, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Data Scientist Locked

Explain variance reduction in random forests

This question evaluates understanding of variance reduction in ensemble methods, the impact of inter-tree correlation on averaged predictors, and the ...

Machine Learning
12
0
82 people solved
Feb 19, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Software EngineerSenior+

Design a Global Calendar Service

Design a calendar system for users in multiple time zones. The system should support: - creating, updating, deleting, and viewing calendar events - on...

System Design
9
0
101 people solved
Feb 16, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Software EngineerSenior+

Discuss Projects and Tradeoffs

You are asked to do a deep dive on two past software projects. For each project, explain: 1. The business or engineering problem. 2. Your exact role, ...

Behavioral & Leadership
7
0
58 people solved
Feb 16, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Machine Learning Engineer

Plan and lead a large recommendation project

You are given a recommendation design problem, but the interviewer focuses on leadership and execution rather than detailed modeling. Explain how you ...

Behavioral & Leadership
6
0
69 people solved
Feb 18, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Easy
Data Scientist Locked

Handle imbalance, sampling, and overfitting

This question evaluates a data scientist's proficiency in machine learning topics including handling class imbalance, selecting and interpreting evalu...

Machine Learning
10
0
102 people solved
Feb 16, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Design a malicious-URL checking service using an isMalicious API

This question evaluates system design competencies such as scalable API design, caching and cache invalidation strategies, rate limiting and backpress...

System Design
15
0
202 people solved
Jan 12, 2026
LinkedIn logo
LinkedIn
Easy
Software Engineer

Handle Issues and Onboard Teammates

The manager and communication rounds focused on two prompts: 1. Tell me about a time you handled a cross-functional issue, operational incident, or di...

Behavioral & Leadership
4
0
68 people solved
Mar 10, 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

How difficult are LinkedIn interview questions?
LinkedIn interview difficulty varies by role and level but is generally medium-to-hard for technical roles. For software engineers expect algorithmic coding problems that are often LeetCode-medium-to-hard complexity, plus harder system design for senior levels. Data scientist and machine learning engineer rounds emphasize applied statistics, experiment design, model evaluation, and production ML system tradeoffs rather than purely theoretical proofs. Data engineer and analytics roles focus on scalable data pipelines, SQL performance, and practical ETL challenges. Interviewers expect clear thinking under time pressure, scalable designs, and strong communication; failing to justify tradeoffs or to explain assumptions is the most common failure mode.
What is the LinkedIn interview process and where do these 147 LinkedIn interview questions appear?
LinkedIn hires through a staged process starting with a recruiter screen, a technical phone screen or online assessment, then a virtual onsite loop of four to five interviews that combine coding, system or ML design, and behavioral rounds. The 147 questions in this set map across Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, and Data Engineer tracks: expect coding and data-structure problems in software engineering rounds, SQL and experiment/statistics problems in data science rounds, ML system and recommendation design for MLE roles, and pipeline and performance problems for data engineers. Senior candidates face heavier design and leadership evaluation.
How should I structure a preparation timeline to cover 147 LinkedIn interview questions before my onsite?
Plan a 6–10 week timeline depending on your starting level. Spend weeks 1–2 refreshing fundamentals: data structures, SQL, probability, and core ML concepts. Weeks 3–6 alternate focused practice blocks for each role represented in the 147 questions: two days of coding problems, one day of systems or modeling design, and one day of SQL/experimentation work per week. Reserve the final 1–2 weeks for timed mock interviews, behavioral STAR stories, and reviewing weak spots. Spread practice across real interview-like conditions with a shared editor for coding and a whiteboard or doc for designs.
What are the key subtopics I should prioritize across positions at LinkedIn?
Prioritize role-specific themes revealed by actual question titles: for data scientists focus on logistic regression and backprop intuition, causal experiment design, diagnosing traffic or feed relevance drops, imbalance handling, and variance reduction methods in ensembles. For software engineers prioritize efficient randomized data structures, O(1) insert/delete, top-K ranking services, common string and subarray algorithms, and debugging distributed queues. Machine learning engineers should emphasize recommender-system design, feature sampling and weighted-index sampling, K-means convergence, and practical ML pipeline monitoring. Data engineers should demonstrate robust stack implementations and measurable impact from pipeline projects.
Any standout tips and common pitfalls for LinkedIn interviews I should watch for?
Emphasize clear assumptions, measurable success metrics, and tradeoffs in every design or analysis answer. For data roles always tie model or experiment choices back to business metrics and experiment validity; avoid asserting causation without addressing confounders. For coding, prioritize correctness with clear complexity analysis and then optimize incrementally. In system and ML design, call out data pipelines, monitoring, alerting, and rollback strategies. Common pitfalls include vague requirements, skipping edge cases, ignoring scale and reliability, and weak communication; rehearse concise explanations and have two to three strong impact stories ready.

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