What is a Software Engineer at Bhi?

As a Software Engineer at Bhi, you are building the digital backbone that powers critical physical infrastructure. Whether it is supporting large-scale electrical projects, optimizing solar field operations, or streamlining aggregates and paving workflows, your code directly impacts real-world engineering and construction outcomes. You are not just building web applications; you are creating robust systems that bridge the gap between software and complex field operations.

Your work empowers Electrical Project Engineers and Solar Field Engineers to make data-driven decisions, track project milestones, and monitor physical assets in real time. The impact of this position is immense because it scales operational efficiency across multiple industrial and energy sectors. You will be tasked with solving unique challenges, such as handling intermittent connectivity from remote solar fields in Utah or integrating complex data streams from paving equipment.

Expect a role that is highly collaborative and deeply tied to physical engineering. You will need to understand the nuances of the business, translating the rugged, dynamic needs of field operations into clean, scalable software solutions. At Bhi, successful engineers blend strong computer science fundamentals with a genuine curiosity about how the physical world is built and powered.

Common Interview Questions

The questions below represent the patterns and themes commonly encountered in Bhi interviews. While you may not get these exact prompts, practicing them will help you adapt to the types of technical and behavioral challenges the team focuses on.

Coding and Algorithms

These questions test your core logic, data structure knowledge, and ability to write clean code under pressure.

• Write a function to merge overlapping time intervals representing equipment usage logs.
• Given a list of project dependencies, write an algorithm to determine the critical path for an electrical installation.
• Implement a rate limiter for an API that receives telemetry data from field sensors.
• Design a class to manage an in-memory cache with an LRU (Least Recently Used) eviction policy.
• Write a script to parse a large CSV file of solar energy output and return the top three highest-producing days.

System Design

These prompts evaluate your ability to architect scalable, resilient systems tailored to industrial use cases.

• Design a notification system that alerts project engineers when a piece of paving equipment requires maintenance.
• How would you design a distributed logging system for hundreds of remote solar field monitors?
• Architect a dashboard backend that aggregates real-time metrics from multiple active construction sites.
• Design a system to handle file uploads (like site photos and inspection reports) from areas with poor mobile connectivity.
• Explain how you would migrate an on-premise legacy project management database to a cloud-native architecture.

Behavioral and Leadership

These questions focus on your soft skills, adaptability, and culture fit.

• Tell me about a time you had to pivot your technical approach because of a change in business requirements.
• Describe a project where you had to collaborate closely with someone outside of the software engineering team.
• How do you prioritize technical debt versus building new features requested by project managers?
• Tell me about a time you identified a process bottleneck and built a tool to fix it.
• Describe a situation where you disagreed with a senior engineer's architectural decision. How did you handle it?

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Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparation is about more than just grinding algorithms; it requires demonstrating how your technical skills can solve practical, industry-specific problems. Your interviewers want to see how you think, how you collaborate, and how you adapt to the unique domain of construction and energy technology.

Here are the key evaluation criteria you will be measured against:

Technical Proficiency – Interviewers will assess your command of core computer science fundamentals, coding capabilities, and system design. For Bhi, this means writing clean, maintainable code and designing systems that can handle real-world constraints like data latency from field sensors.

Problem-Solving Ability – This evaluates how you approach ambiguity and break down complex, multi-layered challenges. You can demonstrate strength here by asking clarifying questions, identifying edge cases, and communicating your thought process clearly before writing a single line of code.

Domain Adaptability – You are not expected to be a civil or electrical engineer, but you must show an aptitude for learning the business context. Interviewers look for candidates who proactively consider the end-user, such as a project engineer managing an aggregates site, and design software that fits their operational reality.

Cross-Functional Communication – Because you will work closely with non-software engineering teams, your ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders is critical. You will be evaluated on your empathy, clarity, and collaborative mindset.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process at Bhi is designed to be rigorous but highly practical. You will not face endless rounds of obscure theoretical puzzles; instead, the focus is on how you solve problems that mimic the actual day-to-day work. The process typically kicks off with an initial recruiter screen to align on your background, location preferences, and basic technical fit.

Following the screen, you will move into a technical assessment phase, which often involves a live coding interview or a practical take-home assignment. This stage filters for baseline coding competency and algorithmic thinking. If successful, you will advance to the virtual or onsite loop, which consists of several focused sessions covering system design, deep-dive coding, and behavioral interviews.

Bhi places a strong emphasis on cross-functional alignment. During your final loop, expect to speak not only with fellow software engineers but also with engineering managers or product leaders who understand the solar, electrical, or paving operations your software will support. They are looking for a pragmatic builder who values operational reliability over theoretical perfection.

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This visual timeline outlines the typical stages of your interview journey, from the initial recruiter screen through the final onsite loop. Use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you allocate enough time to practice both technical problem-solving and behavioral storytelling. Note that specific stages may vary slightly depending on your seniority level and the specific project team you are interviewing for.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed, you must understand exactly what the hiring team is looking for in each interview round. Below is a breakdown of the core evaluation areas for the Software Engineer role.

Coding and Algorithmic Thinking

This area tests your ability to translate logic into working, efficient code. Interviewers want to see that you can choose the right data structures and optimize for time and space complexity. Strong performance means writing bug-free code while clearly explaining your trade-offs.

Be ready to go over:

• Data Structures – Arrays, hash maps, trees, and graphs, focusing on how to store and retrieve data efficiently.
• Algorithms – Sorting, searching, and dynamic programming, particularly applied to parsing logs or processing telemetry data.
• Code Organization – Writing modular, readable, and easily testable functions.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Concurrency, handling asynchronous data streams, and memory management in resource-constrained environments.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Given a stream of sensor data from a solar field, write a function to detect and filter out anomalous temperature spikes within a sliding window."
• "Design an algorithm to optimize the scheduling of paving equipment across multiple active construction sites based on distance and priority."
• "Implement a robust error-handling mechanism for a script that parses daily electrical project logs."

System Design and Architecture

System design at Bhi focuses on building reliable, scalable systems that can bridge cloud infrastructure with field operations. You are evaluated on your ability to design APIs, manage databases, and ensure high availability for tools used by project engineers.

Be ready to go over:

• Data Pipelines – Designing systems to ingest, process, and store large volumes of data from remote sites.
• API Design – Creating RESTful or GraphQL APIs that allow mobile or field applications to communicate with the backend.
• Database Selection – Choosing between SQL and NoSQL based on the shape of the data and the read/write requirements.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – IoT device integration, edge computing basics, and building offline-first applications for areas with poor connectivity.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Design a system that tracks the real-time location and status of heavy machinery across several aggregates sites."
• "How would you architect a backend service to aggregate daily energy output metrics from hundreds of solar inverters?"
• "Design a synchronized offline-first mobile application backend for field engineers conducting electrical site inspections."

Behavioral and Cross-Functional Collaboration

Because you are building software for industrial and physical engineering domains, your ability to collaborate is paramount. Interviewers evaluate your past experiences to gauge your resilience, leadership, and ability to navigate conflicting priorities.

Be ready to go over:

• Navigating Ambiguity – How you proceed when requirements are vague or changing.
• Stakeholder Management – Communicating technical constraints to non-technical project managers or field engineers.
• Conflict Resolution – Handling disagreements regarding system architecture or project timelines.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Leading cross-functional incident response or driving adoption of a new internal tool.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to explain a complex technical limitation to a stakeholder who was pushing for an impossible deadline."
• "Describe a situation where a system you built failed in a production environment. How did you handle the immediate fallout and the post-mortem?"
• "Give an example of how you gathered requirements from users who were not accustomed to using software tools in their daily workflow."

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Key Responsibilities

As a Software Engineer at Bhi, your day-to-day work revolves around building and maintaining the applications that keep operations running smoothly. You will be responsible for developing scalable backend services, designing intuitive APIs, and ensuring that data flows seamlessly between the field and the central office. This includes writing code that processes telemetry from solar fields, tracks materials for paving projects, or manages workflows for electrical installations.

Collaboration is a massive part of your routine. You will frequently interact with Electrical Project Engineers and Solar Field Engineers to understand their pain points. For instance, if a field team is struggling with manual data entry for aggregates tracking, you will scope, design, and implement an automated digital solution. You are expected to take ownership of your projects from the initial requirements gathering phase all the way through deployment and maintenance.

You will also drive initiatives to modernize legacy systems. Many industrial environments rely on older software or fragmented spreadsheets; part of your mandate is to architect modern, unified platforms. This involves participating in code reviews, writing comprehensive technical documentation, and mentoring junior engineers to elevate the overall quality of the engineering organization.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be competitive for this role, you need a strong foundation in software engineering coupled with a pragmatic approach to problem-solving. Bhi values engineers who are adaptable and eager to learn the business context behind the code.

• Must-have technical skills – Strong proficiency in at least one modern programming language (such as Python, Java, C++, or Go). Solid understanding of relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and API development.
• Must-have experience – A degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Proven ability to write clean, testable, and maintainable code in a production environment.
• Must-have soft skills – Excellent verbal and written communication skills. The ability to translate complex operational workflows into technical requirements.
• Nice-to-have skills – Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), familiarity with IoT or SCADA systems, and a background or interest in the renewable energy, construction, or electrical engineering sectors.
• Nice-to-have experience – Previous work building internal tools, enterprise software, or applications with offline-sync capabilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How difficult are the technical interviews at Bhi compared to big tech companies? The technical interviews focus heavily on practical application rather than obscure competitive programming puzzles. While the coding standard is high, the scenarios are usually grounded in real-world engineering problems, making them feel more intuitive if you focus on clean, logical problem-solving.

Q: Do I need a background in electrical engineering, solar energy, or construction? No, a specialized background is not required. However, demonstrating a strong curiosity and willingness to learn about these domains will significantly set you apart. You just need to show that you can understand the context of the users you are building for.

Q: What is the typical timeline from the initial screen to an offer? The process usually takes between three to five weeks. This includes the recruiter screen, a technical assessment or initial technical interview, and a final onsite or virtual loop, followed by a few days for the hiring committee to make a decision.

Q: Are these roles remote, hybrid, or onsite? Many of the engineering and project roles are based in Utah (such as Salt Lake City and Cedar City). Depending on the specific team, there may be hybrid flexibility, but a willingness to collaborate closely with local field and project teams is highly valued.

Other General Tips

• Understand the Physical Counterpart: Always remember that your software supports physical operations. When answering system design questions, explicitly mention how you would handle edge cases like hardware failure, sensor latency, or offline field workers.
• Communicate Trade-Offs Clearly: Interviewers want to know why you chose a specific database or algorithm. Be prepared to discuss the pros and cons of your decisions regarding speed, memory, and maintainability.
• Ask Clarifying Questions: Do not jump straight into coding. Take a few minutes to ask about the scale of the data, the expected user behavior, and any operational constraints. This shows maturity and a product-focused mindset.
• Structure Your Behavioral Answers: Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to keep your stories concise and impactful. Focus heavily on the "Action" and "Result" parts to highlight your specific contributions.
• Show Genuine Interest: Ask your interviewers about the current challenges they face in the field. Asking insightful questions about how software is transforming their solar or paving operations demonstrates your engagement with the company's mission.

Summary & Next Steps

Interviewing for a Software Engineer role at Bhi is a unique opportunity to blend high-level software development with tangible, real-world engineering projects. You will be challenged to think beyond the screen and design systems that withstand the rigors of industrial, energy, and construction environments. By focusing on practical problem-solving, clear communication, and robust system architecture, you will position yourself as a candidate who can truly drive operational success.

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The compensation data above reflects the variance across different engineering roles at Bhi. While core Software Engineering and Electrical Project Engineering roles command competitive salaried ranges ($80,950 -$123,423), field-adjacent or specialized project engineering roles may be structured on an hourly basis ($20 -$36/hr) depending on location and operational scope. Use this data to understand the broader compensation philosophy and align your expectations based on your specific track and seniority.

As you finalize your preparation, review your core data structures, practice designing resilient APIs, and refine your behavioral stories to highlight cross-functional collaboration. You can explore additional interview insights, mock questions, and resources on Dataford to further sharpen your edge. Trust in your preparation, stay curious about the domain, and approach your interviews with the confidence of a builder ready to make a physical impact.