Arista Networks Interview Experience for Software Engineer (On-Campus)
Question Details
I applied to Arista Networks through the Placement Cell of my institute and everyone who applied received the online test link.Round 1(Coding and Aptitude - Duration: 60 M...
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I applied to Arista Networks through the Placement Cell of my institute and everyone who applied received the online test link. Round 1(Coding and Aptitude - Duration: 60 Minutes): Platform: HackerRank The format was as follows:- Section No of Questions Type Duration 1 15 MCQ 15 2 1
Coding Easy 20 3 1
Coding Medium 25 Total 17 60 The MCQs were from core CSE subjects like Computer Networks, Database Management Systems, Operating Systems, Data Structures, and Algorithms. The coding questions are as follows:- You are given two hammers type 1 and type 2. Along with hammers there are n wooden planks with varying strengths. The type 1 hammer can reduce the strength of any plank to 0 with a single blow whereas type 2 hammer can only reduce the strength by 1 with every hit. You can use type 1 hammer only k times. Find:- The minimum number of hits to break all the planks. Indexes of wooden planks that you would break using type 1 hammer arranged in descending order of their strengths. Number of hits by hammer type 2. https://snippets.cacher.io/snippet/e08f0fec1e61bf8f22a6 Round 2(Data Structures and Algorithms - Duration: 45 Minutes): Platform: Google Meet This round was based on Data Structures and Algorithms. The interviewer asked me to open any online IDE I was comfortable with and share my screen. The questions asked were as follows:- https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/decimal-equivalent-of-binary-linked-list/ https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/design-a-stack-that-supports-getmin-in-o1-time-and-o1-extra-space/ The code was expected to compile and pass a few test cases given by the interview. She also corrected me wherever she felt the code was not fully optimized or there were redundant statements. Round 3(
System Design Duration: 50 Minutes): Platform: Google Meet We had a long discussion about the design of a URL shortener. It should have the following characteristics:- Creation of new shortened URLs for a given and URL from the user. Deletion of old URLs after a certain period of time. The system should work in multiprocessor environment where simultaneous read and write operations may occur. We had an interesting discussion over a variety of aspects that involved concepts of Operating Systems, Data Structures, Advanced Data Structures and Algorithms. At the end he asked a few basic questions related to C language about dynamic memory allocation and how to implement vector (C++ STL) in C.
Result Placed
About This Question
This is a reported interview question from a arista networks interview for a eng manager role during the oa round reported in 2025.
It covers the following topics: Linked List, Sql, Stack Queue, Os, System Design, Stack .
Difficulty rating: Easy
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More Arista Networks Interview Questions
About Arista Networks Interview Reports
This question was reported by a candidate who interviewed at Arista Networks. LeakCode aggregates interview reports from 10+ sources, including 1Point3Acres, Glassdoor, LeetCode Discuss, Blind, Reddit, Indeed, and Nowcoder. Each report is translated where necessary, deduplicated against existing entries, and tagged by company, role, round type, and reporting date.
Use this question as one calibration data point, not a memorization target. Companies typically rotate their question pools every 2-4 months; the exact wording of a 2024 question may differ from what you encounter today. The underlying pattern, difficulty level, and follow-up depth at Arista Networks are the higher-signal extractions to take from this report.
For broader preparation context, the Arista Networks interview process typically includes a recruiter screen, one or two technical phone screens, and a 4-5 round on-site loop covering coding, system design (at L4+ levels), and behavioral. Reports tagged on LeakCode show the round-by-round distribution and typical difficulty calibration. To browse questions filtered by round type and seniority, use the company hub linked above.
How To Practice This Type of Question
Solve similar problems on LeetCode under timed conditions (25-35 minutes per medium difficulty). The goal is pattern recognition: recognize the underlying technique (sliding window, two-pointer, BFS, memoized recursion, etc.) within 60-90 seconds of reading. Strong candidates verbalize their hypothesis out loud before coding, then iterate based on feedback. Weak candidates dive into implementation immediately, lose time on the wrong approach, and run out of time for follow-ups.
Companies update their question pools every 2-4 months. The exact wording of any given question may have been retired by the time you interview. Focus your prep on the pattern, not the specific problem. The patterns that appear in Arista Networks reports consistently are the ones worth investing in; one-off niche problems are not.
During Your Arista Networks Round
Apply the standard interview round template: clarify requirements (2-3 minutes), state your approach out loud and confirm direction with the interviewer (3-5 minutes), code with narration (15-25 minutes), test with concrete examples including edge cases (5 minutes), discuss optimization or trade-offs if time permits (5 minutes). This template is universally accepted across FAANG and adjacent companies; deviating from it produces weaker interviewer feedback signal.
The single most predictive failure mode in Arista Networks reports tagged "no hire": not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers are explicitly trained to weight this. 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 written notes.