My interview journey with Target for a Backend Engineer-L4 position began when a recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn. The entire process took about 25 days from the initial contact to the final verdict.

Online Assessment

The online assessment consisted of three coding questions:

1. A straightforward question involving simple loops and if-else conditions.
2. A problem where I needed to find numbers divisible by sqrt(n) within a given range [L, R], for which a stack-based solution was expected.
3. A dynamic programming problem that was a variation of the classic minDistance string problem.

Technical Interview Round 1 (60 minutes)

This round focused on a mix of DSA, system design, and theoretical concepts:

1. I was given a DSA question on performing a zig-zag traversal of a binary tree.
2. There was a quick discussion on designing an E-commerce site, though it didn't delve into deep discussions beyond my initial design explanation.
3. I faced several theoretical questions covering topics like SOLID principles, the CAP theorem, and key considerations for upgrading Java from version 8 to 17.
4. Finally, I was asked how I would sort all strings starting with a specific character 'c' within a List<String> strList using only Java streams.

Technical Interview Round 2 (60 minutes)

This round was purely dedicated to system design. I was tasked with designing a Personalized Promotion System. This involved gathering all requirements, providing rough API contracts, explaining my choice of database and why, and illustrating with sample database contracts. This round extended by about 10 minutes due to the engaging discussion.

Hiring Manager Round (45 minutes)

The final round with the hiring manager covered various aspects:

1. I provided a high-level overview of my current organization's projects.
2. I answered multiple STAR-based behavioral questions.
3. We discussed the differences and use cases for RDBMS versus NoSQL databases.
4. I shared my exposure to AI technologies.
5. I talked about my contributions and responsibilities within my present team.
6. Lastly, there was a discussion about my current compensation details.

I was happy to receive the final verdict of "Selected" after the entire process.

My interview journey for the Software Engineer L4 role at Target India began with an Online Assessment. This round consisted of three questions: two were LeetCode medium-level Data Structures & Algorithms problems, and the third was a problem that required knowledge of locks or the synchronized keyword.

The second round was a combination of Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA) and Low-Level Design (LLD). For the DSA part, I was given the "Sort Colors" problem. In the remaining 20 minutes, we discussed a System Design problem to create an ATM. This involved outlining the requirements, identifying key entities, and sketching their UML diagram.

Following this, the third round again focused on DSA and LLD. The DSA question was "House Robber". Interestingly, the interviewer asked me to open LeetCode and show my last submission for this problem. The LLD part of this round involved designing the low-level architecture for a platform similar to Stack Overflow.

The final round was with the Hiring Manager. This round was primarily behavioral and project-focused. The interviewer asked me about my most recent project, a significant bug I had fixed in the last month, and my motivations for wanting to join Target. We also discussed how I integrate AI into my daily work, and since I manage a microservice, how I ensure its regular monitoring. Finally, I was asked about any new technical skillsets I've acquired outside of my daily responsibilities and specific design patterns I've implemented in my past projects.

Overall, I felt the technical DSA and LLD rounds went quite well. However, I believe I could have performed better in the Hiring Manager round.

I had my interviews with Target today after completing the Online Assessment previously. All the interviews were scheduled for a single day.

Round 1 - DSA + LLD
This round focused on Data Structures & Algorithms and Low-Level Design.
1. Rotten Oranges: I was given the classic problem of finding the minimum time for all fresh oranges to rot in a grid.
2. Design Notification system LLD: I was asked to design a notification system at a low level, focusing on its various components and interactions.

Round 2 - HLD
This round was centered around High-Level Design.
1. Design Distributed Logging System: I was tasked with designing a distributed logging system, discussing its architecture and key considerations.

I was ultimately rejected after the second round. I didn't actually have a strong desire to join Target, but I used this experience as a crucial mock interview for upcoming, more significant opportunities. It was a valuable learning experience, and it clearly showed me that I need to dedicate more focus to improving my High-Level Design (HLD) and Low-Level Design (LLD) skills.