Data Engineer Interview Questions at General

Published July 22, 2026 · Updated July 22, 2026

11 real Data Engineer interview questions asked at General. Covers Scenario rounds. Sourced from engineers who cleared the loop.

11 questions
820 upvotes
Rounds: 1
Top topic: domain

Interview Signals — What General Asks Data Engineers

Frequently Asked Topics
domain11x
Interview Rounds
Scenario11q
Experience Level
5–8 Years11q

All Data Engineer Questions Asked at General

General Hard Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakeSQLPython

A query that previously completed in 2 minutes now takes 20 minutes. Describe your systematic approach to troubleshooting and optimizing performance in Snowflake.

↑ 91 upvotes · 65 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
General Hard Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakePySparkAirflow

Design an end-to-end data pipeline using Python, PySpark, Snowflake, Airflow, and AWS S3. Explain data flow, orchestration, monitoring, and failure handling.

↑ 87 upvotes · 62 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
General Hard Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakeSQLPython

Snowpipe is ingesting duplicate records from cloud storage. How would you detect, prevent, and remediate duplicate data in Snowflake?

↑ 83 upvotes · 59 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
General Medium Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakeSQL

A production table was accidentally deleted 2 hours ago. How would you recover the data using Snowflake Time Travel?

↑ 79 upvotes · 57 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
General Medium Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakeSQL

Compare Streams and Tasks in Snowflake. How do they work together to support Change Data Capture (CDC) workflows?

↑ 77 upvotes · 55 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
General Medium Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakeSQL

Your team needs a test environment containing production data without duplicating storage costs. How would you use Zero Copy Cloning and what are its benefits and limitations?

↑ 72 upvotes · 51 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
General Medium Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakeSQL

Compare Temporary, Transient, and Permanent tables in Snowflake. When would each table type be appropriate?

↑ 71 upvotes · 52 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
General Medium Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakeSQL

Compare Snowpipe and COPY INTO. When would you choose one over the other?

↑ 68 upvotes · 49 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
General Medium Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakeAWS S3Python

A file lands in AWS S3 and must be ingested into Snowflake automatically in near real-time. How would you design the solution? Explain the role of Snowpipe, event notifications, and the ingestion workflow.

↑ 67 upvotes · 48 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
General Medium Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakeSQL

Compare Time Travel and Fail-safe in Snowflake. What are the key differences and use cases for each?

↑ 64 upvotes · 46 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
General Hard Scenario round 5–8 YearsSnowflakeSQL

A critical table was dropped 10 days ago and the Time Travel retention period has expired. What recovery options are available? Explain how Fail-safe works and its limitations.

↑ 61 upvotes · 44 engineers asked this · Data Engineer

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Frequently asked questions

What topics does General ask Data Engineers?
Common topics: domain.
What rounds are there in General Data Engineer interview?
Reported rounds: Scenario.
What experience level does General hire Data Engineers at?
Most reported experience: 5–8 Years.