Park+

Role: SDE1-Backend

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: July 23, 2024

Interview Type: Off-Campus (Applied through LinkedIn post, initial screening by JobTwine)

Result: Rejected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 3 rounds (Telephonic HR, Technical Round 1 (JobTwine), Technical Round 2)

Topics Asked: CS Fundamentals, OOP (Inheritance, Abstract Class, Polymorphism, Aggregation vs Composition), DSA (Linked List - Reverse Linked List, 2 DSA questions in Round 2), SQL (third highest salary, LIMIT, OFFSET), Project discussions (Java, Spring, Dependency Injection, IoC)

Experience:

The candidate, with 1.5 years of experience as SDE-2 at Sabre, applied for an SDE-2 role but was suggested for SDE-1 due to less than 2 years of experience. The process involved a telephonic HR screening and two technical rounds.

Telephonic Conversation with HR (10-15 mins): This was a resume screening round. HR asked about the current organization, CTC, tech stack, and reason for the switch. The candidate agreed to the SDE-1 role. HR informed that Round 1 would be a third-party screening from JobTwine.

Technical Round 1 (JobTwine - 45 mins): The interviewer joined late due to technical issues. The round started with an introduction, followed by rapid-fire questions on CS fundamentals and OOP concepts. Questions included: What is Inheritance? What is an abstract class? Difference between run-time and compile-time polymorphism. Difference between aggregation and composition. Then, a DSA problem was given: "Reverse a Linked List" (LeetCode problem). The candidate had to code the logic on Notepad from scratch, including creating the linked list, without an IDE. Time and space complexity analysis was also required. Basic questions on projects (Java, Spring, Dependency Injection, Inversion of Control) were asked.

Tip: The interviewer expected concrete, one-liner answers for conceptual questions.

Technical Round 2 (1 hour): The interviewer was late. The round comprised 2 DSA questions, some CS fundamentals, and SQL questions. Due to time constraints (40-45 minutes passed), the interviewer asked a SQL query to find the third highest salary of an employee and questions about LIMIT and OFFSET. The candidate was not well-prepared for Computer Networks and denied familiarity. The interview concluded with the candidate asking questions. The candidate felt they wouldn't make it to the next round.