Nio·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen
Jun 2026
Nio SWE interview had at least one solid algorithms question that required more than just knowing the answer. You had to actually talk through the tradeoffs, which I wasn't fully prepared for.
- Given an unsorted array of integers and a value k, find the k-th smallest element in expected O(n) time without sorting the whole array. Be ready to discuss pivot selection, average vs worst-case complexity, and the median-of-medians approach if pushed.
“I knew Quickselect going in but fumbled the complexity conversation.”