Rubrik

Role: Software Engineering Role

College: VIT Vellore (graduated 2022)

Interview Date: Applied April 2023, Offer received in the first week of July 2023.

Interview Type: Full-Time, Off-Campus (through senior referral)

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Challenging yet rewarding. DS-Algo Leetcode Medium to Hard. System Coding crucial. System Design low-level.

Rounds: 6 rounds

Topics Asked: System Coding (Multithreading and Concurrency), Data Structures, Algorithms, System Design, Behavioral

Experience:

The candidate, a 2022 graduate from VIT Vellore with 9+ months of experience, applied for a Software Engineering position at Rubrik in April 2023 through a senior referral.

Round 1: System Coding - Screening Round: Not specific questions were shared due to NDA, but it focused on system coding.

Round 2: DS Algo - Screening Round: This round focused on Data Structures and Algorithms. Rubrik doesn't stress DS-Algo as heavily as some other tech giants, and the questions were expected to be in the Leetcode Medium range, with some leaning towards harder.

Round 3: System Coding: This round was considered the "real test" at Rubrik, emphasizing strong fundamentals in concurrency. Candidates are expected to implement concurrent handling or logic using fundamental datatypes like mutex and locks. Knowledge of how complex structures like BlockingQueue or ConcurrentHashMap are implemented is vital, though not necessarily using them directly.

Round 4: System Design: The candidate prepared for large-scale application designs (e.g., Facebook, WhatsApp) but was asked to design a software-defined networking component, as it was mentioned in a previous conversation. It was more of a low-level design exercise. The interviewers primarily evaluated the thought process and basic approach. Later, the interviewer asked to design a cache system, where the user could choose the caching method, which the candidate implemented using inheritance.

Round 5 & 6: Discussion with Engineering Director and Team Manager (Non-Technical): These rounds involved standard employee-leadership discussions. Some technical questions related to current problems the managers were working on were also asked, allowing the candidate to showcase understanding of system design.

After a month-long interview process, the candidate received an offer from Rubrik in the first week of July 2023.