I applied directly through SAP Labs' career website for a Developer Associate - Java Full Stack position within their Procurements team. About 1.5 weeks later, an AI recruiter sent me an email to schedule my first interview. It was interesting to note that no calendar invites were sent for any of the rounds, so I had to meticulously track all my scheduled interviews.

Technical Round 1 - 45 minutes

This round was conducted by someone with a similar level of experience to mine. It felt less like a formal interview and more like a casual conversation. We discussed my current work, project architecture, and touched upon topics like Redis, resume-based questions, Spring Boot exception handling, dependency injection, and DFS/BFS algorithms on graphs. Towards the end, my interviewer provided insights into the team they were hiring for and the company culture. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this discussion.

Later the same day, I received another email from the AI recruiter to schedule the next round, which was set for two days later.

Technical Round 2 - 45 minutes

A senior developer led this interview. After introducing myself, I was given two coding problems and was expected to provide Java pseudocode solutions.

• Q1. Second Largest Element in an Array (GFG): I was asked to find the second largest element in a given array.
• Q2. Time Conversion (HackerRank): The problem required converting a 12-hour AM/PM time format to 24-hour military time.

Following the coding segment, several technical questions related to my resume were posed:

1. How did you optimise queries in databases?
2. What is the difference between POST and PUT?
3. Can you explain logging and distributed tracing?
4. How is asynchronous communication implemented in microservices?

Finally, I inquired about my potential role in the team, and the interviewer kindly shared her own experiences. This interview also went very well, and the interviewer specifically mentioned that she was primarily assessing my logical thinking, which seemed to meet her expectations.

The next day, the AI recruiter again emailed me to pick a slot for the subsequent round, scheduled for two working days later.

Managerial Round - 45 minutes

This round was with an engineering manager. After introductions, I was presented with a series of behavioral situations. At the close of the interview, we discussed the team culture and the expectations for a new candidate joining. This round also progressed smoothly.

1. Tell me about a time when your manager and you had a different approach to solving a problem, and what you ultimately did.
2. Suppose there is a handover of a component that you have been owning for a long time. What steps would you take during this process?
3. Talk about a specific technical issue your colleague faced and how you helped them.
4. How do you prioritise issues? How do you manage if there are issues that are of high priority to other teams but not to your team?
5. Tell me about a time when you tried and realised you failed. What learnings did you incorporate?
6. Talk briefly about your short and long-term goals.

The following day, I received an email from the actual recruiter requesting some details and my availability for an offer discussion. The HR then responded, confirming we would connect in two days.

HR Round - 30 minutes

A meeting was set up to discuss my interview experience and offer expectations. The HR representative also posed a couple of behavioral questions, such as the pros and cons of working remotely versus from the office, and my approach to cross-collaboration with other teams. In the end, I asked a few questions regarding SAP's role structure, relocation policies, and the onboarding process.

The very next day, another interview was scheduled with the hiring manager.

HM Round - 30 minutes

This call was with the actual hiring manager. Its purpose was to delve deeper into the role and its expectations, provide interview feedback, and understand each other's perspectives to reach an agreement on the offer. It was a fair and productive discussion.

Exactly one week later, I received the letter of intent, and the official offer of employment was released within two days after that. The entire recruitment process took approximately 35-40 days.