British petroleum

Role: Data Engineer

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: Not Specified (Experience shared in February 2025)

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 4 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA), SQL, System Design, Spark Internals, Azure Cloud, Behavioral Questions

Experience:

This interview experience for a Data Engineer role at British Petroleum involved four rounds.

Round 1: Coding Round
This round focused on Data Structures and Algorithms and SQL. One specific coding question involved finding all anagrams from a given list of words. The candidate first explained a brute-force approach and then an optimized one. Additionally, two medium-level SQL questions were asked, similar to those found on LeetCode. An interesting question about dictionary hash collision prevention was also posed.

Round 2: Technical Round
This 1-hour round primarily consisted of coding questions (DSA). Some questions on Spark internals and Azure Cloud were also asked, but the main focus was on programming.

Round 3: System Design Round
This was a 1-hour system design round. The candidate was asked to design a system involving two independent components: an HR system and a Security system. These systems were treated as black boxes and could not directly communicate. The challenge was to design how data would flow and how API endpoints would be structured, particularly for managing active/inactive statuses. The round involved significant discussion, and the interviewer expected details on both API and data design.

Round 4: Hiring Manager Round
This 1-hour round started with a small system design discussion based on the candidate's previous project. After explaining the project, the interviewer asked for a system design approach from a customer's perspective (approximately 20 minutes). The rest of the round comprised numerous behavioral questions.