Arista Software engineer interview| Off campus
- Posted
- 19 Jan 2026
Summary
I recently interviewed off-campus for an SDE 1 role at Arista. The interview included a C debugging question, a circular linked list manipulation problem, and a question about finding the kth smallest value in a BST, along with theoretical questions.
How it went
I recently gave Arista SDE 1 interview, it was an off campus opportunity. College : IIT (2nd Gen), 4th year Prev experience : intern at 2 companies
Questions: It was a debugging question in C. The question was related to pointers, struct data type , forcing string to int then again to char sth sth. It took me some hints to solve.
DSA1 : given a circular linked list, i have to output two lists sth like 1-2-3-4-5-6 is given (circular), output will be two normal linked lists(1-3-5, 2-4-6), i had to do it inplace not making new lists, also had to write whole code from start to end.
also, got segmentation fault once , asked to explain the error, why, segmentation fault, when it happens and why asked difference between binary tree and binary search tree
DSA2: Given a BST, give the kth smallest value.
Did all the questions, in first one i got stucked a bit and took one hints. also wasted time on internet connectivity issue, dont think will get R2
Questions asked (5)
- 01
C Debugging: Pointers, Structs, Type Conversion
Other
A debugging question in C involving pointers, struct data types, and type conversions (string to int, then int to char).
- 02
Split Circular Linked List into Two Normal Lists (In-place)
Data Structures & Algorithms
Given a circular linked list (e.g., 1-2-3-4-5-6), split it into two normal linked lists (e.g., 1-3-5 and 2-4-6). The operation must be performed in-place without creating new lists, and the full code had to be written.
- 03
Explain Segmentation Fault
Other
Explain what a segmentation fault is, why it occurs, and when it typically happens.
- 04
Difference Between Binary Tree and Binary Search Tree
Data Structures & Algorithms · Easy
Explain the differences between a binary tree and a binary search tree.
- 05
Kth Smallest Element in a BST
Data Structures & Algorithms · Medium
Given a Binary Search Tree (BST), find the kth smallest element.