NetApp System Software Engineer Interview Experience — A 45-Minute C/C++ and OS Assessment

Job description

NetApp's flagship storage operating system.

C, C++, and Unix/Linux system programming are required.

Familiarity with the design and development of system software.

A strong understanding of operating-system internals.

Personal background

I worked in China from 2018 through 2025, then came to Ireland for a master's degree in 2025. I have about six years of work experience, so I am neither a new graduate nor an intern.

My work in China involved socket programming, or network programming. As graduation approached, I was applying broadly and felt my background matched this role fairly well.

The original plan after HR was an onsite interview, but I suddenly received an email adding a 45-minute technical assessment.

Interview questions

The questions focused on three areas: my resume, operating systems, and C++. I will leave out the resume questions.

• Explain the conditions that cause a deadlock in an operating system and how deadlocks can be avoided.
• What methods can be used for thread synchronization?
• What is false sharing?
• What is a spinlock, how is it implemented, and when is it appropriate?
• Explain your understanding of threads and their characteristics, such as shared data and unshared thread-local storage.
• What are the ways to move from user mode into kernel mode? System calls, interrupts, and exceptions.
• How can you trigger a segmentation fault?
• How can C implement something similar to template programming? The discussion covered void pointers and macros.
• Can C support overloading, and why or why not?
• Explain unique_ptr and shared_ptr.
• How does unique_ptr prevent copying?

That is everything I can remember for now. Overall, it did not feel difficult. Reviewing the knowledge points mentioned in other interview reports should basically be enough.

The interview lasted 45 minutes, and half of it was spent on my resume. The interviewer also said an onsite might ask about the same material, which was why there was not enough time to ask every question on the list. I hope I receive the onsite invitation soon.