OA round: Hackerrank
Questions: It was a 2 hours hackerrank test with 2 medium level questions from Leetcode. Solved both in 40 mins.
Candidate's Approach
No approach provided.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
First round: Coderpad
Questions: The interviewer asked a variation of Minimum Path Sum - Minimum Path Sum where I needed to find the maximum path from the bottom left point to the top right point.
Candidate's Approach
I discussed the approach in detail and filled a DP table manually to explain it. I encountered some bugs but later solved it. All test cases passed except one with an empty array, but I didn't have time to handle it as the interviewer said we didn't have time.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Second round: Data structures
Questions:
- Discussed Monolithic vs Microservices architecture and the reasons to use microservices.
- Asked about the testing process and how to ensure that a feature is correct.
- Questions about system performance and latency measurement.
- Designing a scheduler and discussing various approaches.
Candidate's Approach
I provided pros and cons of microservices and described how to handle scalability. I mentioned unit tests and automated testing but struggled with the full testing lifecycle and contract testing. For system performance, I explained latency and suggested using tools like Prometheus for monitoring. I proposed a service for scheduling tasks but was interrupted multiple times and felt the interviewer was dissatisfied with my answers.
Interviewer's Feedback
The first interviewer seemed arrogant and less open to alternative solutions, interrupting frequently and changing requirements during my answers. Overall, it felt like a rapid-fire round with many topics covered in a short time.