Security questions in senior interviews test whether you treat security as an afterthought or a first-class engineering concern. Interviewers expect you to explain authentication vs authorization clearly, reason about threat models, and identify common vulnerability patterns in system designs.
These 7 questions cover the security concepts that come up most in engineering interviews: OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities, encryption at rest vs in transit, token-based authentication, and the principles behind secure system design. Every senior engineer should be able to discuss these confidently.
Authentication (AuthN) and authorization (AuthZ) are sequential security steps that are often confused but solve distinct problems.
Read full answer →A JSON Web Token (JWT) is a compact, self-contained token format for transmitting claims between parties.
Read full answer →SQL injection is a vulnerability where an attacker supplies input that is interpreted as SQL syntax rather than data, allowing them to manipulate queries, bypass authentication, exfiltrate data, or destroy database contents.
Read full answer →Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is an attack where a malicious site causes an authenticated user's browser to send a forged request to a target site.
Read full answer →Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a code injection vulnerability where an attacker injects malicious scripts into content served to other users.
Read full answer →The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code Flow is the recommended grant type for web applications where a server-side backend can securely hold a client secret.
Read full answer →Symmetric and asymmetric encryption are the two fundamental paradigms of modern cryptography.
Read full answer →Focus on understanding concepts deeply enough to explain them in your own words. For each topic, practice articulating the trade-offs and real-world applications — interviewers care about practical judgment, not textbook definitions.
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