Rakuten

Role: SDE Intern

College: Not Specified (Pool Campus)

Interview Date: Not Specified (experience published July 15, 2025)

Interview Type: Internship (On-Campus/Pool Campus)

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium-Hard

Rounds: 4 rounds

Topics Asked: Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, Verbal, Reasoning, Data Structures, Algorithms (Stack, Optimization, 2048 game), OOPs, Low-Level Design (browser backend), DBMS (SQL queries, NoSQL vs RDBMS), Java, Exception Handling, Polymorphism

Experience:

The recruitment process for the SDE Intern role at Rakuten India (Bangalore office) consisted of four rounds.

Round 1: Online Assessment
This round had over 1000+ candidates. It comprised 40+ Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, Verbal, and Reasoning MCQs. Additionally, there were four coding questions. The first was a simple math-based problem. The second was a stack-based problem, a modified version of the Stock Span problem. The third was a medium-hard optimization problem, and the fourth involved implementing the 2048 tile-based puzzle game.

Round 2: Technical Interview 1
Around 70-90 candidates were shortlisted for this round. This technical interview lasted about 45-50 minutes with a senior engineer. Questions covered algorithms and data structures (linked lists, graphs, stacks, queues), OOPs, simple low-level design, and DBMS. The candidate was asked to design a browser (high-level backend) including state-management and various functionalities. Other scenario-based questions included comparing NoSQL against RDBMS, exception handling, and polymorphism. The interviewer was well-versed in RDBMS and Java, leading to tricky questions. SQL queries for system design were also part of the discussion.

Round 3: Technical Interview 2
This was another technical interview. The experience suggests a similar grilling by the level of questions. The candidate was surprised to get selected after this round, indicating a high difficulty.

Round 4: HR Round
This was an optional round for the internship role and involved a face-to-face discussion with an HR representative. It focused on basic behavioral and scenario-based questions.

Overall Experience: The candidate was selected for a 6-month internship at Rakuten India (Bangalore office) and later received a Macbook Pro for work and worked on live projects.