How do I approach Software Engineering Fundamentals interview questions?

Software Engineering Fundamentals questions require understanding of core concepts and practice. PracHub provides solutions with explanations to help you master software engineering fundamentals interviews.

What difficulty level is this interview question?

This is a medium difficulty Software Engineering Fundamentals question, commonly asked during Take-home Project rounds at Bnsf.

What role is this question designed for?

This question is commonly asked for Software Engineer candidates at Bnsf during technical interviews.

Implement CRUD API and tests | Bnsf Interview Question

Quick Overview

This question evaluates proficiency in implementing RESTful CRUD APIs, correct HTTP semantics and content negotiation (text/plain request bodies with JSON responses), robust error handling, and the ability to design unit tests from a function specification to cover edge cases and failure modes.

You are given two software-engineering tasks.

Implement a simple REST API for a resource such as Note or Message .
- Support basic CRUD operations: create, read, update, and delete.
- The request body for create/update is raw text , not JSON, so the input Content-Type is text/plain .
- The API must return appropriate HTTP status codes and JSON responses.
- Handle common failure cases such as missing resources, invalid input, and unsupported media types.
A reasonable interpretation is:
- POST /items with Content-Type: text/plain creates a new item from the raw text body.
- GET /items/{id} returns the item if it exists.
- PUT /items/{id} with Content-Type: text/plain replaces the item's content.
- DELETE /items/{id} removes the item.
Even though requests use plain text, all responses should be JSON, for example:
- success: { "message": "created", "id": 1 }
- error: { "message": "item not found" }
Write unit tests for a function when you cannot see the original implementation code.
- You only have the function's specification or expected behavior.
- Your goal is to design tests that cover as many meaningful scenarios as possible, including edge cases and failure modes.

Explain what behaviors should be tested and how you would structure the tests to maximize confidence in correctness.

Quick Overview

You are given two software-engineering tasks.

Implement a simple REST API for a resource such as Note or Message .
- Support basic CRUD operations: create, read, update, and delete.
- The request body for create/update is raw text , not JSON, so the input Content-Type is text/plain .
- The API must return appropriate HTTP status codes and JSON responses.
- Handle common failure cases such as missing resources, invalid input, and unsupported media types.
A reasonable interpretation is:
- POST /items with Content-Type: text/plain creates a new item from the raw text body.
- GET /items/{id} returns the item if it exists.
- PUT /items/{id} with Content-Type: text/plain replaces the item's content.
- DELETE /items/{id} removes the item.
Even though requests use plain text, all responses should be JSON, for example:
- success: { "message": "created", "id": 1 }
- error: { "message": "item not found" }
Write unit tests for a function when you cannot see the original implementation code.
- You only have the function's specification or expected behavior.
- Your goal is to design tests that cover as many meaningful scenarios as possible, including edge cases and failure modes.

Explain what behaviors should be tested and how you would structure the tests to maximize confidence in correctness.

Implement CRUD API and tests

Quick Overview

Solution

Submit Your Answer to Earn 20XP

Implement CRUD API and tests

Quick Overview

Solution

Submit Your Answer to Earn 20XP