This page is based on my personal research. Please note that the information may not be fully up to date.
Companies may use different titles for SRE-related roles, such as SRE, DevOps Engineer, Production Engineer, Systems Engineer, or Platform Engineer, but the underlying concepts and interview topics are largely similar.
Meta has a standardized interview loop where all applicants go through several screening and onsite interviews. If they pass all the interviews, they will enter a team matching phase at the end of the process.
Screening
Coding
Troubleshooting
On-site
Coding
Troubleshooting
OS internal / systems
System design
Behavioral
Apple doesn't have a standardized interview process, it depends on the team. Generally, you will have 1–2 screening calls, and if you pass them, you'll proceed to 4–6 onsite interviews. Multiple topics may be covered in a single interview session. The topics include:
Coding
Troubleshooting
Linux
Networking
System Design
Behavioral
Like Meta, Google has a standardized interview loop.
Screening
Coding
Linux internals
On-site
Coding
Troubleshooting
Linux internals
NALSD (Non-Abstract Large System Design)
Behavioral
However, there are 2 types of SRE roles at Google: SE-SRE (SE stands for Systems Engineer) and SWE-SRE (SWE stands for Software Engineer). This distinction is usually mentioned in the job posting, or you will be asked during the interview which path you intend to take.
The SE-SRE interview places more emphasis on Linux and troubleshooting, while the SWE-SRE interview focuses more on coding and system design.
If you are a Linux expert who can effectively use various profilers (memory, network, disk), the SE-SRE interview may be easier for you. On the other hand, if you can design robust systems (including understanding how many machines are needed to meet SLOs) and solve LeetCode medium problems, you might be better suited for SWE-SRE.
Google looks for both “sysadmins who can code” and “software engineers who can sysadmin.” It hires people along that spectrum and tries to balance those skills within individual SRE teams.
SWE-SRE and SWE can switch between roles without much friction, whereas SE-SRE can only switch by either passing additional coding interviews or demonstrating substantial development work.
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