Increff

Role: SDE1(Backend)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: September 2024

Interview Type: Not Specified

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 3 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms, DBMS (Database locking), Low-Level Design (Inventory Management), Query Optimization, Spring Boot, SOLID principles, Design Patterns

Experience:

This candidate, with 1 year and 4 months of experience as a Backend SDE at a startup, interviewed for an SDE1 position in Bangalore, resulting in an offer.

Round 1: DSA

This round focused on Data Structures and Algorithms.

• One medium-level question similar to "Koko Eating Bananas" was solved.
• A second question was related to the sliding window technique. The candidate explained the approach even without full implementation.

The round concluded with questions on DBMS concepts, specifically database locking.

Round 2: Low-Level Design (LLD)

Scheduled for 1.5 hours but extended to 2 hours, this round involved a Java-based inventory management application. The candidate was asked to identify and fix bugs, implement missing methods, and then optimize the algorithms. There was also a brief discussion on database locking.

Round 3: Hiring Manager Round

This 1.5-hour round started with introductions and a discussion about the candidate's current tech stack. It then delved into detailed discussions on database locking and query optimization. Questions were asked about the "@Transaction" annotation in Spring Boot, followed by SOLID principles and design patterns.

The candidate received an offer.