Warner Bros

Role: Senior Software Engineer, Python Backend Developer

College: Not Specified (Completed BC from an IP degree in computer science and engineering)

Interview Date: April 2025 (Based on video upload date)

Interview Type: Off-Campus

Result: Rejected

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Rounds: 5 rounds (Basic Technical/Coding, Coding, System Design, Operational Excellence & Engineering Excellence, HR Discussion)

Topics Asked: Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA), System Design (HLD, LLD), Operational Excellence, Engineering Excellence, Python, Java 8, AWS (CDA, S3), CI/CD, Testing, Production Issue Handling, Monitoring, Project Discussions

Experience:

The candidate applied for a Senior Software Engineer, Python Backend Developer role by directly reaching out to HR. The interview process consisted of five rounds.

1st Round: Basic Technical/Coding Round

This round was coding-based with three questions. The first two were considered easy: "Moving Average" (sliding window) and "Valid Parentheses" (stack-based). The third question was "Coin Change" (DP problem), which is a medium-level LeetCode question. The round went very well.

2nd Round: Coding Round

This round focused on coding, syntax, time complexity, and space complexity. Two questions were asked: "Search in Rotated Sorted Array" (medium-level LeetCode) and "Check if rows and columns are equal in a matrix." The candidate used binary search for the first problem and discussed the approach for the second. This round also went very well.

3rd Round: System Design Round

The question was to "Design a top 10 trending shows for an OTT platform." The candidate followed a standard system design approach, discussing functional and non-functional requirements, required components, database module design, database structure, APIs, and caching mechanisms. The interviewer seemed impressed.

4th Round: Operational Excellence & Engineering Excellence Round

This round involved project-based questions. Topics included: discussing code analysis tools used, AWS services (CDA and S3), CI/CD pipeline setup and usage, different types of testing before pushing code to production, how to identify and fix memory/CPU spikes, handling production issues and generating alerts, and how to record daily login users. The candidate felt this round did not go as well as the others.

5th Round: HR Discussion Round

Details not fully elaborated, but the candidate received feedback that they were rejected due to a lack of customer-facing project experience, which was a requirement for the position.