Amex

Role: Engineer II

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: February 2025

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Not Specified

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 3 rounds

Topics Asked: Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, GCP, Data Structures, Algorithms, System Design, Project Discussion, Behavioral, React, JavaScript

Experience:

This experience was for an Engineer II role at American Express, applied via referral by a candidate with 2 years of experience as a Software Engineer at a food-tech startup. The interview process consisted of three rounds.

Round 1: Technical Round (Java + DSA + System Basics)

This round involved two interviewers. Topics covered included in-depth questions on Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, and GCP, with a focus on real-world usage of frameworks and deployment practices.

• DSA Questions: "Modified Celebrity Problem" (using Stack), "Fruit Into Baskets" (Sliding Window, classic LeetCode problem).
• Machine Coding (React): Build a carousel with data fetching, implement a 5-second delay per item with pause & play functionality.

Round 2: System Design + Project Discussion

This was a deep-dive discussion round focusing on the candidate's current and past projects, including design decisions, trade-offs, and scaling strategies. A detailed discussion on "Payment Gateway Design" was also conducted, covering aspects like retries, failure handling, idempotency, and third-party integrations. The interviewer was particularly interested in the "why" behind design choices.

Round 3: Hiring Manager Round (Behavioral + Tech)

This round was face-to-face and covered the candidate's overall experience, contributions, and tech stack. A sequence-based logical reasoning question (non-coding) was also asked. The last 20 minutes were dedicated to behavioral questions, such as handling disagreements in a team, meeting tight deadlines, seeking help, and learning from failures.