Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Southwest Airlines with 3.1 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 50% positive. To compare, the company-average is 77.7% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 30 days to get hired, when considering 12 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Southwest Airlines overall takes an average of 64 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Southwest Airlines as a Software Engineer according to 12 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 33%
Group panel interview: 19%
Skills test: 11%
One on one interview: 11%
Presentation: 7%
Personality test: 7%
IQ intelligence test: 4%
Other: 4%
Drug test: 4%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Southwest Airlines (Cross Roads, Fisher, TX)
Interview
Initially spoke with a recruiter who explained the culture and some of the benefits at Southwest. She asked about the salary I was looking for and she thought it was reasonable. Then she called back a few days later to explain that Southwest wouldn’t consider paying me what I was asking for because of my lack of experience. I didn’t understand, but I was accepting of what the new negotiating window was because of how good their benefits are. I continued to do a phone screening and then an on-site.
The on-site was split into two parts, first with a manager and a mid level developer who asked personality questions and questions about agile planning and my experience. Then a group of three senior developers who asked me a little more in depth questions about my experience and what I know. I was very candid with what I knew and what I didn’t know and I felt like the interview went really well.
After a week I reached back out to the recruiter and they explained that Southwest didn’t believe I had enough experience to be hired for a mid level development role but they would be interested in me applying for an associate level role and going back through the interview process.
Overall not a terrible experience, but I kind of feel like they based their decision on the amount of time I have in an experienced position instead the amount of work I’ve accomplished. I’ll definitely apply again once I have more time and experience. They seem like really good people and like they have a lot of really good problems to solve.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Describe a REST service that you’ve previously built and how you can scale it.
Coding interview was fairly normal, and for my position/experience, I was also questioned on AWS. I felt it was more geared towards understanding how you think than expecting you to solve an extremely difficult problem while nervous.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Generate a list that meet the criteria of (a) and (b).
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Southwest Airlines
Interview
Got a response from the recruiter 2 months after submitting the application. The first interview was talking to a recruiter about the position and your resume.
The second round was a panel interview with the team, all behavioral questions, going over your resume, and hearing more about the position.
The third round was a second panel interview with the same team; some more behavioral questions, technical questions, and work/background experience.
Didn't hear back after couple weeks despite follow-up with recruiter.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What do you want to work at Southwest?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Describe a time when you had to take business requirements and translate them to technical requirements.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Southwest Airlines (Dallas, TX) in Oct 2024
Interview
The interview process started by applying online and then doing a recorded interview online afterwards you get contacted by a recruiter and get asked to schedule an interview online. The interview itself is team dependent but for this team included a recruiter the manager and an engineer.