A Software Engineer at Freshworks plays a critical role in designing, developing, and scaling the company's suite of business software products, including flagship platforms like Freshdesk, Freshservice, and Freshsales. Freshworks is dedicated to creating business software that is intuitive, easy to set up, and highly effective for teams worldwide. As a Software Engineer, you will work on high-throughput, multi-tenant architectures that serve millions of active users globally, making your contributions directly impactful to the business's bottom line and user satisfaction.

In this role, you will tackle complex engineering challenges related to system scalability, real-time data processing, and seamless user experiences. Whether you are optimizing backend APIs, designing robust database schemas, or crafting responsive user interfaces, your work ensures that Freshworks applications remain fast, reliable, and secure. The engineering culture here values rapid innovation, clean code, and a strong sense of ownership over the products you build and maintain.

The following questions are representative of what you can expect during the Freshworks interview process. These questions have been compiled from real candidate experiences to highlight key patterns and core areas of focus.

Data Structures & Algorithms

This category evaluates your fundamental problem-solving skills, code efficiency, and familiarity with core computer science concepts.

• Find the middle element in a singly Linked List in a single pass.
• Given a perfect cube, find its cube root without using any built-in mathematical library methods.

To succeed in the Freshworks selection process, you must demonstrate a balanced mix of technical excellence, structural problem-solving, and strong communication.

Core Computer Science Fundamentals – You must have a strong grasp of data structures, algorithms, object-oriented programming (OOP), database management systems (DBMS), and computer networks. Interviewers frequently ask conceptual questions alongside coding challenges to test your foundational knowledge.

Scalable System Design – For mid-to-senior roles, your ability to design systems that are reliable, performant, and scalable is critical. You need to confidently discuss trade-offs, such as read-heavy versus write-heavy architectures, SQL versus NoSQL databases, and microservices design patterns.

Coding and Implementation – It is not enough to just explain an algorithm; you must write clean, syntactically correct, and optimized code. Whether on a whiteboard, paper, or an online editor, pay close attention to corner cases, error handling, and runtime complexities.

Cultural and Collaborative Fit – Freshworks values engineers who are proactive, receptive to feedback, and customer-centric. During behavioral rounds, showcase your ability to work collaboratively, resolve conflicts constructively, and maintain a growth mindset.

The interview process for a Software Engineer at Freshworks is designed to thoroughly evaluate your technical capabilities and cultural alignment over several stages. The process typically takes between two to four weeks to complete, depending on the role level and location.

The process begins with an initial recruiter screening or an online assessment containing coding challenges and multiple-choice questions on CS fundamentals. Candidates who clear this stage are invited to a series of technical interviews. These rounds focus heavily on data structures, algorithms, low-level design (LLD), and high-level design (HLD). Depending on the specific team, you may also participate in a "Bar Raiser" or architectural evaluation round led by senior engineering leaders.

The timeline above outlines the typical progression of stages from your initial application to the final offer. Use this visual guide to pace your preparation, ensuring you allocate sufficient time to practice both coding problems and system design scenarios before your scheduled technical rounds.

Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)

The DSA round is designed to evaluate your analytical thinking and coding efficiency. You will be expected to write working code on paper, a whiteboard, or an online coding environment.

Be ready to go over:

• Array and String Manipulation – Focus on two-pointer techniques, sliding windows, and string parsing algorithms.
• Advanced Data Structures – Be prepared to implement and utilize structures like Heaps, Tries, and Binary Trees to solve optimization problems.
• Complexity Analysis – You must explicitly state the time and space complexity of your solutions and actively seek opportunities to optimize them.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Dynamic programming, graph traversals (DFS/BFS), and complex recursion.

Example scenarios:

• "Given a stream of integers, find the $k$-th largest element at any point in time."
• "Optimize a string search algorithm to find patterns within a large body of text using a Trie."

System Design & Architecture

System design rounds test your ability to translate vague product requirements into concrete, scalable software architectures.

Be ready to go over:

• Low-Level Design (LLD) – Focus on class diagrams, database schemas, relationships (e.g., child tables, foreign keys), and object-oriented design patterns.
• High-Level Design (HLD) – Understand load balancing, caching strategies, message queues, and microservices communication.
• Database Scalability – Discuss partitioning, indexing, and choosing between SQL and NoSQL based on read/write patterns.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Event sourcing, distributed consensus, and global data replication.

Example scenarios:

• "Design a real-time notification system that guarantees message delivery while handling sudden spikes in traffic."
• "Model the database schema and service communication for a collaborative document editing platform."

Front-End & UI Engineering

For front-end and full-stack positions, interviewers will assess your depth of knowledge in browser environments and modern JavaScript frameworks.

Be ready to go over:

• Core JavaScript – Currying, closures, prototypes, event loop, and asynchronous programming.
• Web Performance – Asset optimization, lazy loading, caching strategies, and rendering pipelines.
• Plain CSS vs. Frameworks – Be ready to implement responsive designs using vanilla CSS, even if you typically use modern CSS-in-JS libraries.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – State management internals, shadow DOM, and custom build configurations.

Example scenarios:

• "Implement a custom autocomplete search bar in React without using any third-party libraries."
• "Explain how you would debug and resolve a memory leak in a single-page application."