AvalonBay Communities, Inc., a leading equity REIT, specializes in developing, acquiring, and managing distinctive apartment homes across top U.S. markets. Known for delivering outsized, risk-adjusted returns to shareholders, AvalonBay emphasizes creating a better way to live through collaboration, innovation, and value creation for customers, investors, and associates.

As a Senior Software Engineer, based in Arlington, VA (or other specified locations), you’ll collaborate with Agile teams to design and support full-stack solutions using technologies like ReactJS, NodeJS, TypeScript, AWS, and more. Ideal candidates will have a strong background in engineering, cloud-based solutions, and a passion for tech trends and community engagement. AvalonBay offers comprehensive benefits, growth opportunities, and a culture focused on integrity, caring, and continuous improvement.

Explore AvalonBay further on Interview Query to navigate your interview journey.

Submitting Your Application

The first step is to submit a compelling application that reflects your technical skills and interest in joining AvalonBay Communities as a Software Engineer. Whether you were contacted by an AvalonBay recruiter or have taken the initiative yourself, carefully review the job description and tailor your CV according to the prerequisites.

Tailoring your CV may include identifying specific keywords that the hiring manager might use to filter resumes and crafting a targeted cover letter. Furthermore, don’t forget to highlight relevant skills and mention your work experiences.

Recruiter/Hiring Manager Call Screening

If your CV happens to be among the shortlisted few, a recruiter from the AvalonBay Talent Acquisition Team will make contact and verify key details like your experiences and skill level. Behavioral questions may also be a part of the screening process.

In some cases, the AvalonBay Software Engineer hiring manager stays present during the screening round to answer your queries about the role and the company itself. They may also indulge in surface-level technical and behavioral discussions.

The whole recruiter call should take about 30 minutes.

Technical Virtual Interview

Successfully navigating the recruiter round will present you with an invitation for the technical screening round. Technical screening for the AvalonBay Software Engineer role is usually conducted through virtual means, including video conference and screen sharing. Questions in this 1-hour long interview stage may revolve around AvalonBay's technology stack, including ReactJS, NodeJS, and AWS tools.

In the case of software engineering roles, take-home assignments regarding coding challenges, system design, and problem-solving are incorporated. Apart from these, your proficiency against software development methodologies, agile practices, and cloud-based technologies may also be assessed during the round.

Depending on the seniority of the position, case studies and similar real-scenario problems may also be assigned.

Onsite Interview Rounds

Followed by a second recruiter call outlining the next stage, you’ll be invited to attend the onsite interview loop. Multiple interview rounds, varying with the role, will be conducted during your day at the AvalonBay office or virtually if location is a constraint. Your technical prowess, including programming, system design, and architectural capabilities, will be evaluated against the finalized candidates throughout these interviews.

If you were assigned take-home exercises, a presentation round may also await you during the onsite interview for the Software Engineer role at AvalonBay.

Quick Tips For AvalonBay Communities Software Engineer Interviews

• Emphasize Cloud Expertise: AvalonBay leverages a variety of AWS tools and services. Brush up on your knowledge of cloud-based technologies and demonstrate your proficiency during interviews.
• Demonstrate Agile Practices: As part of AvalonBay's Digital Squad initiative, familiarity with agile methodology and practices will be crucial. Show how you have successfully implemented these in past projects.
• Highlight Full-Stack Experience: The role involves full-stack development with technologies such as ReactJS, NodeJS, TypeScript, and SQL. Make sure to highlight your comprehensive experience and skills across the full stack.

Typically, interviews at Avalonbay Communities vary by role and team, but commonly Software Engineer interviews follow a fairly standardized process across these question topics.

• Write a SQL query to select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department. Write a SQL query to select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department. If more than one person shares the highest salary, the query should select the next highest salary.

• Write a function precision_recall to calculate precision and recall metrics from a 2-D matrix. Given a 2-D matrix P of predicted values and actual values, write a function precision_recall to calculate precision and recall metrics. Return the ordered pair (precision, recall).

• Select the top 3 departments with at least ten employees and rank them by the percentage of employees making over 100K. Given employees and departments tables, select the top 3 departments with at least ten employees and rank them according to the percentage of their employees making over 100K in salary.

• Write a function traverse_count to determine the number of paths in an (n\times n) grid. Given an integer (n), write a function traverse_count to determine the number of paths from the top left corner of an (n\times n) grid to the bottom right. You may only move right or down.

• Write a function is_subsequence to check if one string is a subsequence of another. Given two strings, string1 and string2, write a function is_subsequence to find out if string1 is a subsequence of string2. A subsequence can be derived by deleting some elements without changing the order of the remaining elements.

• What considerations should be made when testing hundreds of hypotheses with many t-tests? When testing hundreds of hypotheses using multiple t-tests, what factors should you consider to ensure the validity and reliability of your results?

• How does random forest generate the forest and why use it over logistic regression? Random forest generates a forest by creating multiple decision trees using bootstrapped samples of the data and averaging their predictions. It is preferred over logistic regression for its ability to handle non-linear relationships and interactions between features.

• How do we deal with missing square footage data to construct a housing price model? To predict housing prices in Seattle with 20% of listings missing square footage data, consider using imputation methods such as mean, median, or regression imputation, or use algorithms that handle missing data natively.

• How would you combat overfitting when building tree-based models? To combat overfitting in tree-based models, use techniques like pruning, setting a maximum tree depth, using a minimum number of samples per leaf, or employing ensemble methods like random forests or gradient boosting.

• Will increasing the number of trees in a random forest always increase model accuracy? Increasing the number of trees in a random forest generally improves accuracy up to a point, after which the gains diminish and the model's performance plateaus.

• How would you implement the k-means clustering algorithm in Python from scratch? Given a two-dimensional NumPy array data_points, number of clusters k, and initial centroids initial_centroids, implement the k-means algorithm to return a list of cluster assignments for each data point. The algorithm iteratively updates centroids and reassigns points to the nearest centroid until convergence.

• How would you explain what a p-value is to someone who is not technical? Explain the concept of a p-value in simple terms to someone without a technical background. Use analogies or everyday examples to make it understandable.

• How should you handle a right-skewed distribution when predicting real estate home prices? If home prices in a city are skewed to the right, should you take any actions or considerations when building a predictive model? If so, what steps should you take?

• Bonus: How should you handle a left-skewed target distribution in a predictive model? If the target distribution is heavily left-skewed, what actions should you take to address this in your predictive model?

What is the average salary for a Software Engineer at Avalonbay Communities?

Q: What does AvalonBay Communities specialize in? AvalonBay Communities, Inc. is an equity Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) that focuses on developing, redeveloping, acquiring, and managing distinctive apartment homes in top U.S. markets. The company aims to create a better way to live while delivering risk-adjusted returns to shareholders.

Q: What are the primary responsibilities in the Software Engineer role at AvalonBay? As a Software Engineer at AvalonBay, you'll collaborate with Agile teams to design, develop, test, and implement technical solutions using full-stack development tools and technologies. You'll stay on top of tech trends, engage in tech communities, mentor others, and deliver cloud-based solutions using AWS tools and services.

Q: What qualifications are required for the Senior Software Engineer position? The position requires a Bachelor's Degree and at least 6 years of experience in software engineering, with a focus on NodeJS and JavaScript. Preferred qualifications include extensive experience with ReactJS, AWS, TypeScript, SQL, and open-source frameworks.

Q: What kind of support and benefits does AvalonBay offer to its employees? AvalonBay offers comprehensive benefits including health, dental, vision insurance, 401(k) with company match, paid vacation and holidays, tuition reimbursement, and an employee stock purchase plan. The company also fosters growth, recognizes achievements, and offers a 20% discount on apartment homes.

Q: How can I prepare for an interview at AvalonBay Communities? To prepare for an interview at AvalonBay, research the company's core values and mission. Practice technical skills relevant to the role and familiarize yourself with tools and technologies mentioned in the job description. Utilize Interview Query for mock interviews and brushing up on typical questions to maximize your chances of success.

If you want more insights about the company, check out our main AvalonBay Communities Interview Guide, where we have covered many interview questions that could be asked. We’ve also created interview guides for other roles, such as software engineer and data analyst, where you can learn more about AvalonBay Communities' interview process for different positions.

At Interview Query, we empower you to unlock your interview prowess with a comprehensive toolkit, equipping you with the knowledge, confidence, and strategic guidance to conquer every AvalonBay Communities software engineer interview question and challenge.

You can check out all our company interview guides for better preparation, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Good luck with your interview!