As a Software Engineer at Ubisoft, you are at the intersection of high-performance computing and creative expression. You are not just writing code; you are building the systems that power some of the most complex, immersive, and visually demanding interactive experiences in the world. Whether you are working on core engine technology, gameplay mechanics, internal tools, or data infrastructure, your work directly impacts the experience of millions of players and the efficiency of hundreds of developers. This role requires a unique balance of technical rigor and a passion for the gaming industry. You will be expected to tackle challenging problems related to memory management, real-time performance, and scalable architecture. Because Ubisoft operates as a global network of studios, you will often collaborate across borders, contributing to massive, multi-year projects that push the boundaries of what current hardware can achieve. Success in this role is defined by your ability to deliver robust, performant code while maintaining the flexibility to iterate alongside artists, designers, and fellow engineers.
Initial Screening
reportedThe first step where candidates are assessed for basic qualifications and fit.
What to demonstrate
- The first step where candidates are assessed for basic qualifications and fit
- Depth in C++
How to prepare
- Be able to walk your CV end to end in two minutes, and say why this company specifically.
- Have your salary expectations, notice period and location constraints ready, and ask for the rest of the loop in writing.
Technical Validation
reportedA phase to validate technical skills through coding tests or similar assessments.
What to demonstrate
- A phase to validate technical skills through coding tests or similar assessments
- Depth in C++
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: Can you explain the difference between lvalues and rvalues?
- Answer aloud and timed: What are Templates in C++, and how do they impact binary size and performance?
Team Discussions
reportedInterviews with the immediate team, including engineers and technical leads.
What to demonstrate
- Interviews with the immediate team
- Including engineers and technical leads
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: Describe how you would implement a custom memory allocator for a specific game system.
- Answer aloud and timed: How would you implement gravity or collision detection in a game project?
PracHub editorial advice for the preparation topics above.
Own your code
If you submit a technical test, be prepared to justify every line. If you used a library, know why. If you made a trade-off, explain the benefits and risks.
Be honest about your limits
If you don't know an answer, explain how you would go about finding it rather than guessing.
Prepare for "What if" scenarios
Interviewers love to add constraints to your solutions (e.g., "What if this had to run on a mobile device instead of a PC?").
Choose a category, try a prompt, then open its approach, worked solution or follow-up when you need it.
Explain the difference between malloc and new, and how memory allocation works in C++.
Explain the difference between malloc and new, and how memory allocation works in C++.
Approach
- Say what the runtime actually does before reasoning about the code.
- Name what is shared across threads and what owns each piece of state.
- Identify the window where an invariant is briefly untrue.
- Distinguish a value from a reference to it, and say which one you handed out.
Follow-up
- What happens if two callers reach this at the same time?
- Where could this allocate more than you expect?
Describe how you would implement a custom memory allocator for a specific game system.
Describe how you would implement a custom memory allocator for a specific game system.
Approach
- Say what the runtime actually does before reasoning about the code.
- Name what is shared across threads and what owns each piece of state.
- Identify the window where an invariant is briefly untrue.
- Distinguish a value from a reference to it, and say which one you handed out.
Follow-up
- What happens if two callers reach this at the same time?
- Where could this allocate more than you expect?
How do you optimize memory layout for efficiency on limited hardware?
How do you optimize memory layout for efficiency on limited hardware?
Approach
- Say what the runtime actually does before reasoning about the code.
- Name what is shared across threads and what owns each piece of state.
- Identify the window where an invariant is briefly untrue.
- Distinguish a value from a reference to it, and say which one you handed out.
Follow-up
- What happens if two callers reach this at the same time?
- Where could this allocate more than you expect?
Denormalise tenant onto revisions and backfill it live
resource_revision (revision_id, resource_id, version, actor_user_id, change_kind, patch, request_id, created_at) has 400M rows and no tenant column; tenant_id lives only on resource. Two reads need it: a tenant-scoped audit feed ordered by created_at DESC, and an offboarding purge. Both join back to resource today. Justify adding tenant_id to resource_revision against those two reads, name the anomaly the copy introduces and the constraint that prevents it, then give the ordered migration for a live table taking 1.2k writes/second — the lock each step takes, how the backfill is batched, and where each step stops being reversible. PostgreSQL 16.
Approach
- Justify from the access path rather than from taste. Without the column, the audit feed either scans resource_revision by created_at and discards other tenants' rows, or resolves the tenant's resource_ids first and probes with them — both proportional to the tenant's whole history rather than to one page. With (tenant_id, created_at DESC, revision_id DESC) it is a seek that stops at 50 rows, and the purge becomes a ranged delete instead of a join.
- Name the cost exactly: a second copy of a fact can disagree with the first. Make the disagreement unwritable rather than documented — add UNIQUE (resource_id, tenant_id) on resource so it can serve as a foreign-key target, then FOREIGN KEY (resource_id, tenant_id) REFERENCES resource (resource_id, tenant_id) on the revision table. A revision can then only ever carry its parent's tenant.
- Step one, expand: ALTER TABLE resource_revision ADD COLUMN tenant_id BIGINT NULL, with no default, so it is a catalogue change and no rewrite. It still needs ACCESS EXCLUSIVE for an instant, and that instant queues behind the longest open transaction on the table while every later query queues behind it — set lock_timeout to 2s and retry rather than wait.
- Step two, dual-write: deploy the writer that populates tenant_id on every new revision while reads still use the join. Reversible by redeploying the previous build, because nothing reads the column yet.
Follow-up
- The backfill is half finished and a rollback is required. What state is the table in, and what does the previous build do with a half-populated column?
- How do you verify the backfill actually finished, given rows are still being inserted while it runs?
Replace offset paging on the resource feed with keyset
resource holds resource_id, tenant_id, owner_user_id, title, body_ref, version, status ('draft','active','archived','deleted'), created_at, updated_at, deleted_at, with an index on (tenant_id, status, updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC). The listing endpoint returns active resources for one tenant, newest update first, 50 per page, today with LIMIT 50 OFFSET n. Tenants reach page 400 and rows are created while they read. Write the keyset query, define what the cursor carries and how it is encoded, and say which part of the index each predicate uses. Assume PostgreSQL 16.
Approach
- Name the two failures separately. OFFSET 20000 makes the server produce and discard 20,000 rows, so page cost grows with depth rather than with page size. Independently, any write that changes how many rows sort above the offset moves the window between two fetches, and the direction decides which anomaly you get: an insert lands at the head of updated_at DESC and pushes already-returned rows down past the boundary, so they are returned a second time; a delete above the offset, or a row whose updated_at is bumped above the cursor, pulls rows up and one is never returned at all. Nothing in the response reveals either.
- Write the seek: WHERE tenant_id = $1 AND status = 'active' AND (updated_at, resource_id) < ($2, $3) ORDER BY updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC LIMIT 50. The row-value comparison is one index range rather than a disjunction, and both columns are NOT NULL, which is what makes that comparison well defined.
- Map each predicate onto the index: tenant_id and status are equality on the leading columns, (updated_at, resource_id) is the range, and the ORDER BY matches the index order so no Sort node appears and the scan stops after 50 rows. The DESC in the definition only matters for mixed directions — a plain ascending btree on the same columns is read backwards for this query.
- Put both sort columns in the cursor and nothing the client can tamper with into another tenant: base64 of (updated_at, resource_id), validated server-side, with tenant_id taken from the principal.
Follow-up
- The client asks for 'jump to page 400'. What do you offer instead, and what does the honest version cost?
- Sort order becomes user-selectable across four columns. How many indexes is that, and which would you refuse to add?
How do Copy Constructors and Move Constructors function, and when should you use them?
How do Copy Constructors and Move Constructors function, and when should you use them?
Approach
- Clarify what is being asked and what a complete answer contains.
- State your assumptions explicitly before working the problem.
- Say what you would check first and why it is the highest-information step.
- Work from the requirement backwards to the design.
Follow-up
- What assumption would you test first?
- How would you know your answer was wrong?
Can you explain the difference between lvalues and rvalues?
Can you explain the difference between lvalues and rvalues?
Approach
- Clarify what is being asked and what a complete answer contains.
- State your assumptions explicitly before working the problem.
- Say what you would check first and why it is the highest-information step.
- Work from the requirement backwards to the design.
Follow-up
- What assumption would you test first?
- How would you know your answer was wrong?
What are Templates in C++, and how do they impact binary size and performance?
What are Templates in C++, and how do they impact binary size and performance?
Approach
- Clarify what is being asked and what a complete answer contains.
- State your assumptions explicitly before working the problem.
- Say what you would check first and why it is the highest-information step.
- Work from the requirement backwards to the design.
Follow-up
- What assumption would you test first?
- How would you know your answer was wrong?
How would you implement gravity or collision detection in a game project?
How would you implement gravity or collision detection in a game project?
Approach
- Clarify what is being asked and what a complete answer contains.
- State your assumptions explicitly before working the problem.
- Say what you would check first and why it is the highest-information step.
- Work from the requirement backwards to the design.
Follow-up
- What assumption would you test first?
- How would you know your answer was wrong?
Explain your approach to pathfinding or animation systems.
Explain your approach to pathfinding or animation systems.
Approach
- Clarify what is being asked and what a complete answer contains.
- State your assumptions explicitly before working the problem.
- Say what you would check first and why it is the highest-information step.
- Work from the requirement backwards to the design.
Follow-up
- What assumption would you test first?
- How would you know your answer was wrong?
Why did you choose a specific library (e.g., Raylib, Unity, Unreal) over others for your project?
Why did you choose a specific library (e.g., Raylib, Unity, Unreal) over others for your project?
Approach
- Clarify what is being asked and what a complete answer contains.
- State your assumptions explicitly before working the problem.
- Say what you would check first and why it is the highest-information step.
- Work from the requirement backwards to the design.
Follow-up
- What assumption would you test first?
- How would you know your answer was wrong?
Read latency spikes on a sixty-second sawtooth
The cached listing read path serves about 14k reads/second at an 85% hit rate. p99 sits at 35 ms for 57 seconds, jumps to 900 ms for 3, and repeats. During each spike the primary shows several hundred identical listing queries starting within the same millisecond, all carrying one large tenant's id. Cache entries use a 60-second TTL. Give the mechanism, the ordered checks, the fix, and the correctness hazard your fix must not introduce.
Approach
- Match the period to a configured number before theorising about load. A spike every 60 seconds against a 60-second TTL is an entry expiring, and you confirm it by correlating spike timestamps with the entry's write time rather than with the traffic curve. If the period had matched a cron or a GC interval instead, this is a different investigation.
- Establish the concurrency of the miss. Several hundred identical queries in one millisecond means the miss path has no coalescing: every request that arrives between expiry and repopulation recomputes. The herd size is that key's arrival rate times its recompute time, so at 1.2k reads/second for the hot key and a 250 ms recompute you expect about 300 concurrent misses, which matches what is observed.
- Add single-flight on the miss path so one caller per key recomputes under a short-lived lock while the rest wait for its result. Prefer stale-while-revalidate where the read tolerates it: return the expired value immediately and refresh asynchronously, which removes the latency spike rather than serialising it into a queue of waiters.
- De-synchronise the keys. Write TTLs with jitter, for example 60 seconds plus or minus 10%, so a deploy or a mass invalidation does not align every key on the same second and turn a per-key herd into a fleet-wide one.
Follow-up
- The same sawtooth appears on a key that is invalidated on write rather than expired. Is that the same bug?
- How does your answer change if the recompute takes 4 seconds instead of 250 ms?
Built from the rounds and topics Ubisoft candidates report.
Prepare, practise & reflect
One practical outcome each day. Spend longer where you need it.
0 / 7 done01Map the Ubisoft loop
- Write out the reported sequence: Initial Screening, Technical Validation, Team Discussions.
- For each round, write one sentence on what it is judging, from the description above, and mark the one you are least ready for.
Deliverable: A one-page map of the 3 reported rounds, with the weakest marked.
02Work C++
- Spend the session on C++, which Ubisoft candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in C++ and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in C++.
03Work Memory Management (manual allocation concepts)
- Spend the session on Memory Management (manual allocation concepts), which Ubisoft candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Memory Management (manual allocation concepts) and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Memory Management (manual allocation concepts).
04Work malloc vs new (C/C++ allocation semantics)
- Spend the session on malloc vs new (C/C++ allocation semantics), which Ubisoft candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in malloc vs new (C/C++ allocation semantics) and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in malloc vs new (C/C++ allocation semantics).
05Answer out loud: Technical Fundamentals and C++
- Answer aloud, timed: Explain the difference between malloc and new, and how memory allocation works in C++.
- Answer aloud, timed: How do Copy Constructors and Move Constructors function, and when should you use them?
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Technical Fundamentals and C++ question(s), under time.
06Answer out loud: Game Engineering and Math
- Answer aloud, timed: How would you implement gravity or collision detection in a game project?
- Answer aloud, timed: Explain your approach to pathfinding or animation systems.
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Game Engineering and Math question(s), under time.
07Answer out loud: Behavioral and Project-Based
- Answer aloud, timed: Walk us through a personal project you have built; what were the biggest technical challenges you faced?
- Answer aloud, timed: How do you handle disagreements regarding technical architecture with your peers?
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Behavioral and Project-Based question(s), under time.
Expand any day for tasks and deliverables. Your progress is saved on this device.
Behavioural rounds judge the decision you made and what it cost.
How do you handle Linear Algebra (vectors, matrices, quaternions) when calculating object orientation or movem
How do you handle Linear Algebra (vectors, matrices, quaternions) when calculating object orientation or movement?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
Walk us through a personal project you have built; what were the biggest technical challenges you faced?
Walk us through a personal project you have built; what were the biggest technical challenges you faced?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
How do you handle disagreements regarding technical architecture with your peers?
How do you handle disagreements regarding technical architecture with your peers?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
Why do you want to work at Ubisoft specifically?
Why do you want to work at Ubisoft specifically?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
Describe a time you had to optimize a piece of code that was performing poorly.
Describe a time you had to optimize a piece of code that was performing poorly.
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
How do you balance the need for "perfect" code with the fast-paced nature of game production?
How do you balance the need for "perfect" code with the fast-paced nature of game production?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
- 01
How do you handle Linear Algebra (vectors, matrices, quaternions) when calculating object orientation or movement?
- 02
Walk us through a personal project you have built; what were the biggest technical challenges you faced?
- 03
How do you handle disagreements regarding technical architecture with your peers?
- 04
Why do you want to work at Ubisoft specifically?
How long should I prepare for the interview?
Dedicate at least 2–3 weeks for deep technical review, specifically focusing on C++ and data structures. If you have a project to present, spend extra time refactoring it.
Ubisoft Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Is gaming experience mandatory?
While it is not always strictly required, having a portfolio of game-related projects significantly boosts your standing. It shows you understand the unique constraints of the industry.
Ubisoft Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What is the typical timeline from start to finish?
The process can take anywhere from one month to several months, depending on the studio and the urgency of the role. Stay patient and follow up professionally if you haven't heard back within the expected timeframe.
Ubisoft Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Should I expect remote work options?
Ubisoft is increasingly moving toward hybrid models, but it varies by studio location. Always clarify remote expectations during your initial HR screening.
Ubisoft Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What topics does Ubisoft test in interviews?
Ubisoft interviews most often cover SQL, ETL (Extract, Transform, Load), Communication Skills, Stakeholder Communication, and Problem Solving. The exact emphasis depends on the specific role you apply for.
Ubisoft Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Sources & methodology 3 sources ↗
No official company page is cited. Rounds and questions come from candidate reports and PracHub editorial material; each source shows the date it was read.
- 01Ubisoft Software Engineer candidate reports ↗
Company-reported rounds, questions and FAQ.
Candidate reports · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 02PracHub Software Engineer practice ↗
PracHub practice material, not company-reported.
PracHub page · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 03PracHub preparation framework ↗
PracHub preparation guidance.
PracHub page · Accessed 2026-09-22
Explore related engineering environments and compare the preparation focus.
Cognition Software Engineer Interview Guide
What Cognition asks Software Engineer candidates, from reported rounds and questions.
Discord Software Engineer Interview Guide
Database practice for Discord candidates: how an index changes a query plan, and which anomalies survive a given isolation level, since read committed still permits non-repeatable reads.
CoreWeave Software Engineer Interview Guide
Failure-handling practice for CoreWeave software engineer candidates: requests whose outcome a timeout leaves unknown, where a retry is safe, and deduplicating at the receiver instead of assuming exactly-once delivery.
Aerospike Software Engineer Interview Questions & Guide 2026
Aerospike database-engine preparation through an original single-owner Python key-value store with bounded logical index accounting, disk-offset reads, conditional writes, tombstones, process-restart recovery and 3,240 checks. Existing 14 p