Epam

Role: Senior Software Engineer (4 YOE)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: July 2024

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Not Specified

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Rounds: 3 rounds

Topics Asked: Longest common prefix, maximum subarray sum, multithreading (Executor Services, Synchronization, Volatile, Transient), streams, design patterns, CI/CD, Java 8 features, Anagram grouping (using streams), HashMaps, Concurrent HashMaps, database indexing and normalization, Microservices, Kafka, Caching, Distributed Transactions, DNS, REST APIs, HTTP error codes, exception handling in Spring Boot, API gateways, load balancers, Circuit Breaker pattern, SAGA pattern, Redis.

Experience:

The candidate underwent three rounds for a Senior Software Engineer role.

Round 1: Coding + Technical (1 hour)
This round focused on coding tasks and technical questions related to Java.

• Coding problems (20 minutes per question):
  • Return the longest common prefix in a string.
  • Return the maximum subarray sum from an integer array.
• Technical questions (remaining 20 minutes) focused on Java:
  • Multithreading (Executor Services, Synchronization, Volatile, Transient).
  • Streams.
  • Design patterns (familiarity).
  • Discussion on CI/CD pipeline from the candidate's project.

Round 2: Technical Deep Dive (1 hour)
This round focused on understanding the candidate's development experience.

• Discussed microservice patterns and their implementation.
• Asked to write a POST API for a specific scenario, including discussion on HTTP error codes and methods.
• Discussed exception handling in Spring Boot.
• Questions on design patterns, specifically Strategy and Singleton.
• Questions on API gateways, load balancers, and the Circuit Breaker pattern.
• Discussed distributed transactions and the SAGA pattern.
• Questions on caching, Redis, and relevant use cases.
• Understanding of DNS.

Round 3: Managerial/Advanced Technical (45 minutes)
Content included:

• Discussion of Java 8 features and explanations.
• Solving the Anagram grouping problem using streams.
• Understanding HashMaps, Concurrent HashMaps, and their internal workings.
• Indexing and normalization in databases.
• Discussion about projects worked on and expectations from the candidate.