Rakuten

Role: Software Engineer

College: Not Specified (Candidate with 2 years 2 months of experience)

Interview Date: Not Specified (experience published October 21, 2025)

Interview Type: Full-Time (Off-Campus)

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 3 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures & Algorithms (Hashmap, Greedy), Spring Boot (AutoConfiguration, Dependency Injection, Bean lifecycle), Hibernate (transactional annotation, save vs persist, performance optimization), Multithreading, OOPs, System Design (Bike Rental System), Design Patterns (Observer, Singleton)

Experience:

This candidate with 2 years and 2 months of experience interviewed for a Software Engineer role at Rakuten Symphony.

Round 1: Technical Round
This round lasted over an hour. It began with a basic introduction and discussion of previous company work experience. Two DSA questions were asked: one medium-level based on hashmap and one easy-level based on greedy algorithms. The interviewer asked the candidate to code, explain time complexity, and optimize the code. Questions then shifted to Spring Boot (AutoConfiguration, Dependency Injection, Bean lifecycle, follow-ups) and Hibernate (transactional annotation, difference between save and persist, performance optimization).

Round 2: System Design
This round also lasted over an hour. After a brief introduction and some questions on multithreading and OOPs, the candidate was asked to design a Bike Rental System based on provided requirements. Additionally, the interviewer asked about implementing the Observer design pattern and Singleton design pattern.

Round 3: HR Round
This final round involved general HR questions and salary negotiation.

Overall Experience: The candidate was selected for the Software Engineer role. Preparation resources included Striver DSA Sheet, Spring Boot Playlist from Engineering Digest, System Design from Udemy course by Shreyansh Jain, and Java OOPs Concepts from tpointtech.com.