Zillow Software Engineer interview experience

I was trying to get a realistic sense of how the design questions were framed and what kind of depth they expected, since “design” can mean very different things across companies.

What stood out to me was that I wasn’t asking about a coding exercise at all—I was trying to map the conversation toward architecture and decision-making. I kept coming back to the same theme: whether the focus would land more on tradeoffs, system constraints, or articulating a coherent approach.

I didn’t document an actual interview session from start to finish, but the exchange left me with the impression that