A Software Engineer at Press Ganey plays a vital role in shaping the technology that powers the healthcare industry's leading patient experience and workforce engagement platforms. By developing high-performance, secure, and scalable software, you directly contribute to products that collect and analyze millions of patient touchpoints daily. The insights generated by your code help hospitals, health systems, and medical practices across the United States improve clinical quality, safety, and patient care.

In this role, you will work on mission-critical applications that handle large-scale data ingestion, complex analytics, and highly secure reporting dashboards. Because Press Ganey deals with sensitive healthcare information, your work will involve building robust, compliant architectures using modern backend systems, cloud technologies, and relational databases. You will be tasked with solving complex problems around data processing speeds, API reliability, and system scalability.

Whether you are joining as a Senior Software Engineer, a Software Engineer II, or a Senior Platform Ops Engineer, you will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams of product managers, data scientists, and system architects. The engineering culture here values clean code, robust design patterns, and an iterative approach to software development. You will have the opportunity to make a tangible impact on the healthcare experiences of millions of people while working with a highly motivated, collaborative team.

To help you prepare effectively, we have compiled a list of representative questions based on real interview experiences at Press Ganey. These questions are grouped into key technical and behavioral categories to help you identify patterns and focus your preparation.

Java & Backend Technology

These questions evaluate your deep understanding of backend architecture, core language features, and framework-specific implementations.

• Explain the JVM architecture and how garbage collection works under the hood.
• What are the major differences between Java 8 features (like Streams and Lambdas) and older Java versions? How do they improve performance?

Preparing for an interview at Press Ganey requires a balanced approach that demonstrates both your technical execution and your collaborative mindset. You should approach your preparation with a focus on writing clean, production-ready code while keeping system-level architecture and security in mind.

The hiring team evaluates candidates across several key pillars:

Technical Execution – You must demonstrate a strong grasp of core backend technologies, particularly Java, Spring Boot, and SQL databases. Interviewers look for clean coding practices, appropriate use of data structures, and a solid understanding of framework internals.

Problem-Solving & Architecture – You need to show how you approach ambiguous technical challenges. This includes your ability to design scalable APIs, optimize database queries, and structure code using recognized design patterns.

Collaboration & Communication – Because Press Ganey engineers work closely with cross-functional teams, you must be able to articulate your technical decisions clearly. You should be prepared to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Domain & Mission Alignment – Showing an interest in healthcare technology, data privacy (such as HIPAA compliance), and the company's mission to improve patient care will set you apart from other candidates.

The interview process at Press Ganey is structured to evaluate your technical skills, system design capabilities, and team fit. While the process is organized and thorough, the exact steps and timeline can vary depending on the team, location, and seniority of the role you are applying for.

Typically, the process begins with a brief recruiter screen to discuss your background and high-level alignment with the role. This is followed by a technical screening, which may involve a video interview with a hiring manager or a take-home coding exercise. The final rounds consist of deeper technical panel interviews and behavioral assessments with senior engineers and department management.

The timeline shown above represents the typical progression for a Software Engineer candidate. You should use this visual roadmap to pace your preparation, ensuring you focus on core coding skills early on and transition to system architecture and behavioral scenarios as you approach the final rounds.

To succeed in the Press Ganey interview process, you must perform well across several distinct evaluation areas. Understanding what interviewers look for in each area will help you structure your preparation.

Java & Spring Boot Development

This is a core technical focus for backend roles. You will be evaluated on your ability to write clean, efficient, and idiomatic Java code and leverage the Spring ecosystem effectively.

Be ready to go over:

• JVM Memory Management – Understanding heap vs. stack memory, garbage collection tuning, and diagnosing memory leaks.
• Spring Boot Best Practices – Dependency injection, configuration management, and securing endpoints.
• Concurrency & Multithreading – Managing thread pools, handling asynchronous execution, and avoiding deadlocks.

Advanced concepts (less common):

• Custom Spring Boot starters and auto-configuration.
• Reactive programming with Spring WebFlux.
• JVM performance profiling and thread dump analysis.

Example scenarios:

• "Explain how you would design a multi-threaded data ingestion service in Spring Boot that processes incoming patient surveys without blocking the main application thread."
• "How do you handle global exception mapping and custom error responses in a RESTful microservices architecture?"

Database Design & Query Optimization

Your ability to interact efficiently with relational databases is critical. Interviewers will test your SQL knowledge and your understanding of data modeling.

Be ready to go over:

• SQL Query Optimization – Analyzing execution plans, indexing strategies, and avoiding N+1 query problems.
• Database Schema Design – Normalization, denormalization trade-offs, and defining relationships.
• Transaction Management – ACID properties, isolation levels, and handling concurrent database updates.

Advanced concepts (less common):

• Database partitioning and sharding for large datasets.
• Optimizing database connection pools (e.g., HikariCP) under heavy load.

Example scenarios:

• "Given a slow-running report query that joins patient, clinician, and survey response tables, how would you identify the bottleneck and optimize the query?"
• "Design a database schema to track patient feedback over time, ensuring historical data remains immutable."

Software Design Patterns & Clean Code

Press Ganey values maintainable, extensible code. You will need to demonstrate that you can apply standard software design patterns to solve common architectural challenges.

Be ready to go over:

• Creational, Structural, and Behavioral Patterns – Knowing when and how to apply patterns like Factory, Singleton, Strategy, and Observer.
• SOLID Principles – Demonstrating how to write code that is easy to test, maintain, and extend.
• API Design – Designing clean, RESTful APIs with proper status codes, versioning, and payload structures.

Advanced concepts (less common):

• Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles.
• Event-driven architecture and message broker integration (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ).

Example scenarios:

• "Walk me through how you would refactor a monolithic class that handles multiple responsibilities (e.g., validation, database saving, and email notification) using SOLID principles."
• "Describe how you used a specific design pattern to solve a complex business logic requirement in a past project."