Chime Software Engineer Phone Screen Questions
7+ questions from real Chime Software Engineer Phone Screen rounds, reported by candidates who interviewed there.
What does the Chime Phone Screen round test?
The Chime phone screen typically lasts 45-60 minutes and evaluates core Software Engineer fundamentals. Candidates should expect 1-2 algorithmic problems, basic system design discussion at senior levels, and questions about relevant experience. The goal is to confirm technical competence before bringing candidates onsite.
Top Topics in This Round
Chime Software Engineer Phone Screen Questions
## Problem Given stock prices over days, find the maximum profit from a single buy-sell transaction. ## Likely LeetCode equivalent LeetCode 121 - Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock. ## Tags arrays, greedy, dynamic_programming
Credit Card Operations Software: Implement Charge, Credit, and Balance Tracking for Multiple Accounts
## Problem Build a simplified credit card processing system. Implement the following operations: - `add_card(name, limit)` -- create a card with given credit limit. - `charge(name, amount)` -- charge the card; silently ignore if it would exceed the limit. - `credit(name, amount)` -- apply a payment (can go above zero, i.e., a credit balance). - `summary() -> list[str]` -- return each card's name and current balance, sorted by name. ```python class CreditCardSystem: def add_card(self, name: str, limit: int) -> None: ... def charge(self, name: str, amount: int) -> None: ... def credit(self, name: str, amount: int) -> None: ... def summary(self) -> list[str]: ... ``` **Example:** ``` sys.add_card("Tom", 1000) sys.charge("Tom", 500) sys.charge("Tom", 800) # ignored -- would exceed limit sys.credit("Tom", 200) sys.summary() -> ["Tom: $300"] ``` ## Follow-ups 1. Operations on an unknown card name -- how should the system handle them? 2. Add an interest calculation method: `apply_interest(rate)` adds `balance * rate` to each positive balance. 3. How would you persist this system to disk so it survives restarts? 4. Concurrency: two threads charge the same card simultaneously. How do you prevent a race condition?
## Problem Given an array of n-1 integers in range 1 to n, find the one missing number using sum formula or XOR. ## Likely LeetCode equivalent LeetCode 268 - Missing Number. ## Tags arrays, math, hash_table
## Problem Given a list of buildings where each building is `[left, right, height]`, return the skyline silhouette as a list of `[x, height]` key points. A key point marks where the visible height changes. ```python def get_skyline(buildings: list[list[int]]) -> list[list[int]]: pass ``` **Example:** ``` buildings = [[2,9,10],[3,7,15],[5,12,12],[15,20,10],[19,24,8]] output -> [[2,10],[3,15],[7,12],[12,0],[15,10],[20,8],[24,0]] ``` ## Approach Sweep-line + max-heap. At each event point (building start or end), update a max-heap of active heights. Emit a key point whenever the current maximum height changes. O(n log n). ## Follow-ups 1. What data structure would you choose for the active-height set if you also need efficient deletions? (Hint: lazy deletion on a heap vs. a sorted multiset.) 2. Two buildings share the same left edge. How do you break ties in your event ordering? 3. Extend to 3D: given box footprints and heights, project the silhouette onto the X-axis. 4. You receive buildings as a stream. How do you output skyline updates incrementally?
Chime SWE Phone - Longest Increasing Path in a Matrix
## Problem Find the length of the longest strictly increasing path in a 2D matrix, moving in four directions. ## Likely LeetCode equivalent LeetCode 329 - Longest Increasing Path in a Matrix. ## Tags matrix, dynamic_programming, graph, recursion
## Problem Select k engineers to maximize team performance defined as sum of speeds times minimum efficiency, using a heap-based greedy approach. ## Likely LeetCode equivalent LeetCode 1383 - Maximum Performance of a Team. ## Tags heap, greedy, sorting
Chime SWE Phone - Stickler the Thief
## Problem Find the maximum sum of non-adjacent elements in an array, a classic house-robber style DP problem. ## Likely LeetCode equivalent LeetCode 198 - House Robber. ## Tags dynamic_programming, arrays
What to Expect in the Chime Phone Screen Round
The Chime Software Engineer Phone Screen round has a specific calibration purpose distinct from other rounds in the loop. Across 7+ verified reports on LeakCode for this exact round type, the consistent expectations: clear scoping of the problem before diving into a solution, explicit reasoning about complexity, structured handling of edge cases, and the ability to discuss trade-offs between two reasonable approaches.
Reports tagged with the Phone Screen round at Chime show recurring patterns in difficulty and topic distribution. The Phone Screen round is typically 45-60 minutes; the interviewer is calibrated against a specific rubric. The discriminator between candidates who advance and candidates who do not is rarely the final correctness of the answer. It is the path: did you clarify, did you verbalize your approach, did you handle edge cases, and did you communicate throughout.
How To Prepare for This Specific Round
Filter the questions below to the most recent reports (past 6-12 months). Questions tagged for this exact round type from this exact company at this exact role level are the highest-signal data available. Older reports may reference questions that have since rotated out of the company's pool.
Practice 4-6 representative problems from this set under timed conditions. The goal is not memorization (companies rotate questions); the goal is to internalize the patterns the interviewer typically reaches for and the depth of follow-up to expect. Reports on LeakCode also tag the typical follow-up depth at this round type, which is the discriminating signal between hire and no-hire calibration.
Phone Screen Round Timing and Format
The Phone Screen round at Chime typically runs 45-60 minutes. Use the first 2-3 minutes to clarify requirements; you should never start coding or designing without verifying the input/output format, constraints, and edge cases out loud. Use the next 5-7 minutes to verbalize your approach before writing any code. The middle 20-30 minutes are implementation. Reserve the final 10 minutes for testing with concrete examples and discussing optimization or trade-offs.
Time budget discipline is one of the most reliable senior-vs-junior discriminators in this round. Strong candidates verbalize where they are in their budget out loud ("I've used about 20 minutes, I have 15 minutes left for testing and one optimization"). This signals engineering maturity to the interviewer and creates positive feedback they can capture in writing.
Common Failure Modes in This Round
Reports tagged "no hire" at Chime Software Engineer Phone Screen commonly cite: coding silently without verbalizing approach, jumping to implementation before clarifying requirements, missing edge cases (empty input, single element, very large input), producing working code that the candidate cannot refactor when asked, and failing to test their solution with concrete examples before declaring done.
The single most predictive failure mode in 2025-2026 reports: not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers at all FAANG companies are explicitly trained to weight this dimension. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's notes.
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