What was the largest network that you built from the ground up? How has your experience prepared you for a senior position? As a senior network engineer, we might rely on you to manage a team of engineers. How do you see yourself in a leadership position?
Network engineers are the unsung heroes of the tech industry with an excellent take-home salaries. They are the ones who keep everything humming along by designing, installing, and maintaining the complex networks that keep us connected. While this makes you feel like an important person, however becoming a network engineer is not easy. You have to go through many rounds of interviews. You also have to be well prepared and know all the basic and advanced level interview questions of network engineer. It is a tedious process, especially when you don’t know where to start. I’m a network engineer myself, so I understand what you’re going through. That’s why I created a blog post with Tips and Network engineer Interview questions with answers. It’s aimed to help you be prepared and perform your best at your next (or any) job interview.
Network Engineer Interview Questions and Answers
Interview Questions for Senior Network Engineers:
Demonstrates the candidate’s knowledge of network limitations and expansion techniques.
How would you deal with a junior staff member that fails to implement proper networking protocols?
Demonstrates the candidate’s managerial skills.
What safeguards should be put in place in a network to limit data loss?
Shows an understanding of network design.
8 Network Engineer Interview Questions and Answers
How have you scaled networks to accommodate an organization’s changing needs?
It’s expensive to recruit talented network engineers, so you want someone who is suitable for the long term. As your organization grows and adapts to changes in the business world, your network should be capable of keeping up with new needs. Look for an answer that displays familiarity with various scaling methods.
What to look for:
- Understanding of scaling methods
- Experience with network scaling
- Willingness to learn new scaling methods
Can you draw a network topography you worked on before and explain the design to me?
One of the primary duties of a network engineer is creating the network blueprints for your organization. The applicant should be able to quickly sketch out a diagram and explain their decision-making process behind that topography.
What to look for:
- Well-illustrated design
- Easy to understand explanation
- Solid network design
Can you walk me through your troubleshooting process when you aren’t getting the expected performance out of your network configuration?
This question gives you a first-hand look at the way the applicant approaches a complex problem. There are countless ways to approach this issue, and it’s valuable to see how the applicant goes about it.
What to look for:
- Analytical thinking
- Solid process
- Willingness to ask for help
What is the largest size network you have engineered?
This question allows you to gauge whether the applicant has hands-on experience with networks sized similarly to yours. They don’t necessarily have to be in the same industry or use identical technology to your organization. You’re looking for a general familiarity with the challenges and requirements that come with a company of your size.
What to look for:
- Lots of details
- Similar sized network
- Hands-on experience
You’ll likely need to explain complex technical ideas to coworkers and clients without the same level of technical knowledge as you. How will you ensure they understand what you’re saying?
Network engineers must perform technical work and effectively communicate with internal and external stakeholders. The network engineer you hire should be able to handle technical tasks and clearly explain what’s happening while doing so. Your candidate’s answer should be easy to understand and provide concrete strategies for communication.
Look for these qualities in your candidate’s answer:
- Uses layman’s terms
- Provides communication strategies
- Understands the importance of communication in the role
A quality candidate answer might reflect this example:
Have you coordinated with development teams and other stakeholders while deploying network resources?
Cross-collaboration between teams and departments is a common trend in the business world. The available network resources can significantly impact an organization’s software development and other projects. The applicant should provide an answer that makes you feel confident in their ability to communicate and work with multiple people.
What to look for:
- Strong communication skills
- Ability to coordinate
- Experience working with other teams
What resources do you use to stay on top of innovations in the industry?
The technology industry is fast-paced, and new network solutions could significantly improve your infrastructure. The network engineer should have the initiative to continually learn about the latest and greatest technology. You’re not looking for any particular resource in the applicant’s answer, simply that they do stay on top of things.
What to look for:
- Dedication to learning
- Reasons for choosing the resources
- Ability to stay on top of trends
What safeguards do you put in a network design to limit data loss?
Data loss can cause systems to stop and productivity to grind to a halt. This risk is a common one that the network engineer should be prepared for. Look for an answer that goes into detail on the type of safeguards they use and why they have selected them.
What to look for:
- Selection process
- Understanding of data loss risk
- Experience with this situation
Network Engineer Interview Questions (With Example Answers)
When you’re interviewing for a network engineering position, it’s important that you come prepared.
You work in a high-demand, technical field that companies heavily rely on. They’re going to want to make sure that they’ll be able to trust you and your expertise if they hire you, so interviewers are likely to ask you a wide variety of questions.
While you can never be completely prepared for every interview question, practicing your answers to some of the most common ones is a great way to help get yourself into the right frame of mind and have some idea of what you want to say.
In this article, you’ll find 27 common interview questions with sample answers that you can use to practice with. It’s also a good idea to review the more technical aspects of your field so that you’ll be prepared for those questions when they come your way as well.
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Are you talking to a tech expert?
A variety of bodies can lead your interview. It can be an HR generalist, a tech expert, or event a recruitment consultant from an external agency–someone who doesn’t work for the company. In many cases, your interviewers will know little about network engineering. Actually they may know nothing about it at all. This is the case of HR generalists, and sometimes also of external recruiters.
If you happen to interview with one of these guys, mark my words: they will focus mostly on your education, personality, and attitude to work. They will ask you some personal and some behavioral questions, while trying to create a good picture of your personality, motivation, and skills. They may not use a single technical question. The situations differs when you interview for a job with a senior network engineer, or with other tech expert.
Senior Network Engineer Interview
Are you an experienced Network Engineer for at least 3 years? Then you are a senior Network Engineer Candidate. So, the next level of your career will be Senior Network Engineering. If you continue in your previous job, you can continue your career as senior. But what if you change your company? Firstly, you should apply to a new role and then you should be successful in Senior Network Engineer Interview.
The difficulty of this Senior Network Engineer Interviews is in the middle. They are not as simple as Entry Level Network Engineer Interviews and not difficult as Expert Level Network Engineer Interviews. Whichever it is, you should be ready before this Network Expertise Interviews. Because, if you are not ready, the easiest questions become the most difficult one.
In a Senior Network Engineer Interview, generally, there are one to three expert engineer or manager. Each of them asks you senior level network questions about the specific network lessons. So, what will they ask to you during these Senior Level Interviews?
FAQ
What are the interview questions for network engineer?
- What’s your troubleshooting process? …
- What is the largest network you’ve ever engineered/deployed? …
- What is your stance on network security? …
- How have you worked in/led a team to deploy network resources? …
- How would you handle an angry customer?
What are the 10 most common interview questions and answers engineering?
Tell me about the most challenging engineering project you’ve worked on. Describe a written technical report or presentation you had to complete. Explain a time you had to use logic to solve an engineering problem. Describe a time you demonstrated leadership skills at work.
What makes you the ideal candidate for this position network engineer?
What questions should I ask at a senior management interview?
- Describe your leadership style.
- Can you describe a time when you led a team to solve a problem?
- How would you handle an underperforming employee?
- As a leader, how do you deal with difficult colleagues?
- How do you evaluate your team members’ performance?
- How do you approach giving employee feedback?
