102 questions · from 14 interviews · 1 asked more than once
Target interview questions
Every question candidates reported from their Target interviews, most frequently asked first. Each links to the write-up it came from, so you can see the round and how it went.
Target coding and DSA questions
- 01
Lucky Numbers in Range
Find all lucky numbers within the inclusive range [l, r] where 1 ≤ l, r ≤ 10^18. A lucky number x is defined as an integer that is divisible by floor(sqrt(x)).
Asked 2 times · From Target OA Completed on July 11th
- 02
String Edit Distance for Multiple Queries
Given a set of S strings, answer Q queries where each query provides two strings. For each query, compute the minimum edit distance (using delete, replace, insert operations) between the two strings and return the string from S that yields the minimum…
- 03
Synchronized Ticket Booking System
Implement a ticket booking system for N seats. For each of Q queries, return the first available seat number. If no seats are available, return -1. When a seat is allocated, it becomes unavailable for subsequent queries.
- 04
Edit Distance Query with Minimum Distance String
Find distance between two strings (delete, replace, insert) for Q queries and return the string with minimum edit distance from a set S of strings.
- 05
Synchronised Ticket Booking System
Implement a synchronised ticket booking system with N total seats. For each of Q queries, return the first available seat; if none are available, return -1. The first available seat should be assigned assuming enough seats remain.
- 06
Numbers Divisible by Sqrt(N) in Range
Given a range [L, R], find numbers divisible by sqrt(n). A stack-based solution is expected.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 07
String minDistance Variation
A variation of the minDistance string problem, likely requiring a dynamic programming solution.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 08
Binary Tree Zig-Zag Level Order Traversal
Implement a zig-zag level order traversal for a binary tree.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 09
Sort Colors
Given an array nums with n objects colored red, white, or blue, sort them in-place so that objects of the same color are adjacent, with the colors in the order red, white, and blue. We will use the integers 0, 1, and 2 to represent the color red, white, and…
Medium · From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 10
House Robber
You are a professional robber planning to rob houses along a street. Each house has a certain amount of money stashed, and the only constraint stopping you from robbing each of them is that adjacent houses have security systems connected and it will…
Medium · From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 11
Count of Active Projects
Write a SQL query to count the number of active projects. An active project is defined as one with a status of 'INPROGRESS'.
Medium · From Target Data Engineer
- 12
Average Days to Complete a Project
Write a SQL query to calculate the average number of days it takes to complete a project. Only consider projects with a status of 'COMPLETED'.
Medium · From Target Data Engineer
- 13
Employees Not Part of Any Active Project
Write a SQL query to list all employee IDs who are not part of any active project.
Medium · From Target Data Engineer
- 14
Employees with Maximum Salary in Each Project
Write a SQL query to list, for each project, the employees who have the maximum salary within that project, along with their maximum salary.
Hard · From Target Data Engineer
- 15
Longest Common Prefix
Write a Python function to find the longest common prefix among an array of strings.
Medium · From Target Data Engineer
- 16
Tower of Hanoi
Discussed or solved the Tower of Hanoi problem.
Medium · From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 17
Kth Largest Element in a Stream
Problem related to finding the Kth largest element from a data stream.
Medium · From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 18
Three Sum
Problem related to finding triplets in an array that sum to a specific target.
Medium · From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 19
Union of Two Sorted Arrays
Problem involving finding the union of elements from two sorted arrays.
Medium · From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 20
Asteroid Collision Variant
A variant of the Asteroid Collision problem (LeetCode 735), which was solved using a stack.
Medium · From Target Engineer L4 | Interview Exp | Face 2 Face
- 21
Product of Array Except Self
Given an integer array, return an array answer such that answer[i] is equal to the product of all the elements of nums except nums[i]. The problem required providing brute-force and optimal solutions, handling edge cases, and identifying where the code might…
Medium · From Target Engineer L4 Interview Experience - Offline
- 22
Two Sum Problem (Large Data, No HashMap)
Given an array of integers and a target sum, find two numbers that add up to the target. The discussion involved brute force, sorting, and an optimal solution using HashMaps. A specific constraint was added for millions of data points where HashMaps were…
Medium · From Target Engineer L4 Interview Experience - Offline
Target system design questions
- 01
Design a product rating and review service
Design a service for an e‑commerce platform where customers can submit ratings and written reviews for products they have purchased. The service must also aggregate feedback and provide insights to product owners so they can reward teams or improve products…
From Target Lead Enginner Interview Experience | May 4th, 2026
- 02
REST API Design Best Practices
Discussion on REST API design best practices.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 03
REST API Scalability Considerations
Discussion on scalability considerations for REST APIs.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 04
Database Connection Pooling
Explain what connection pooling is, why it's used, and how it works.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 05
Kafka Topics and Partitions
Explain Kafka topics and partitions.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 06
Kafka Producer Acks
Explain Kafka producer acknowledgements (acks).
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 07
Kafka Offset Commit
Explain offset commit mechanisms in Kafka (auto vs manual).
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 08
Kafka Exception Handling in Consumers
Discuss exception handling strategies in Kafka consumers.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 09
Why Use Multiple Kafka Consumers
Explain why one would use multiple consumers for a Kafka topic.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 10
Kafka Partition Decision for Messages
Describe how Kafka decides which partition to send a message to.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 11
Kafka Partition Key and Hash Key Definition
Define Kafka partition key and hash key.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 12
Kafka Ordering Guarantees
Discuss Kafka's ordering guarantees.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 13
Role of ZooKeeper in Kafka
Explain the role of ZooKeeper in a Kafka cluster.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 14
CAP Theorem with Real-world Example
Explain the CAP theorem and provide a real-world example.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 15
One-to-one vs One-to-many Relationships
Discuss the differences between one-to-one and one-to-many relationships in databases or system design.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 16
E-commerce Site Design
Design an E-commerce site. The discussion was mainly around the design explanation.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 17
Personalized Promotion System Design
Design a Personalized Promotion System. This included gathering requirements, providing rough API contracts, justifying the chosen database, and showing sample database contracts.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 18
Design ATM
Design an ATM system. This involved discussing requirements, identifying key entities, and sketching their UML diagram.
From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 19
Design LLD of Stack Overflow
Design the Low-Level Design (LLD) for a Stack Overflow-like platform, considering its core functionalities and components.
From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 20
Microservices Monitoring Strategies
Given my ownership of a microservice, how do I regularly monitor its health, performance, and reliability?
From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 21
Design Patterns in Projects
Discuss specific design patterns I have utilized in my most recent projects and their application.
From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 22
Design Notification System (LLD)
Design a Low-Level Design (LLD) for a notification system. Consider various notification types (e.g., email, SMS, push), user preferences, templates, delivery mechanisms, and handling of different message states (sent, failed, read).
- 23
Design Distributed Logging System (HLD)
Design a High-Level Design (HLD) for a distributed logging system. Consider components like log producers, aggregators, storage (e.g., Elasticsearch, S3), indexing, search, real-time processing, scalability, reliability, and data retention policies.
- 24
Design Uber-like Ride Booking Service
Design a ride booking service similar to Uber, covering aspects like system architecture, database design, API endpoints, etc.
Medium · From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 25
Scaling Application (100 to 1M Users)
Strategies and considerations for scaling an application from 100 to 1 million concurrent users.
From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
12 more in the Target write-ups.
Target behavioural and HR questions
- 01
Current Project Overview
Discuss a high-level overview of projects in my current organization.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 02
STAR Based Questions
Answer multiple behavioral questions using the STAR method.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 03
Team Contributions and Responsibilities
Discuss my contributions and responsibilities within my current team.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 04
Discuss Latest Project
Discuss details about my most recent project, including its scope, challenges, and my contributions.
From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 05
Recent Bug Fix Experience
Describe a significant bug I fixed in the last month, including the debugging process and resolution.
From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 06
Motivation for Joining Target
Explain my reasons for wanting to leave my current role (if applicable) and my motivation for joining Target.
From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 07
AI Usage in Daily Workflow
Describe how I incorporate AI tools or concepts into my daily work or personal use cases.
From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 08
Learning New Technologies
Share details about any new technical skillsets I have learned or added beyond my regular day-to-day work responsibilities.
From Target India Software Engineer L4(Interview Exeperience)
- 09
Motivation and Learning (Behavioral)
Behavioral questions: How do you stay motivated? What are you learning currently?
Hard · From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 10
Behavioral: Production Bug Resolution
Describe a production bug that required significant engagement but had a quick solution. What did you learn from this experience?
- 11
Behavioral: Handling Design Conflicts
How do you handle conflicts between proposed design solutions?
- 12
Behavioral: Scenarios of Pride
Describe any two scenarios where you accomplished something you were very proud of.
- 13
Behavioral: Why Switch?
Explain your reasons for wanting to switch jobs.
Target other questions
- 01
Spring Boot Order and Inventory Service Implementation
Hands-on Spring Boot assessment where I implemented or worked on an Order Service and an Inventory Service. Focus areas included REST API design, business logic correctness, and service interaction & data flow.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 02
Spring Boot save() vs saveAndFlush()
Explain the differences and use cases of save() vs saveAndFlush() in Spring Boot.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 03
Spring Boot Transaction Behavior
Discussion on transaction behavior in Spring Boot.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 04
Core Java Concepts
Discussion on core Java concepts.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 05
Improvements in Existing Systems
Discussion about improvements I had implemented in existing systems.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 06
Request and Response Metrics Measurement
Discussion on how request and response metrics were measured in my projects.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 07
Performance Impact of Optimizations
Discussion on the performance impact of optimizations I had made.
From Target | Software Engineer | ~2+ YOE | Bengaluru | 2025
- 08
SOLID Principles
Discuss the SOLID principles of object-oriented design.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 09
CAP Theorem
Explain the CAP theorem.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 10
Java 8 to 17 Upgrade Considerations
Discuss key considerations and changes when upgrading Java from version 8 to 17.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 11
Sort Strings by Starting Character using Java Streams
Given a List strList, sort all strings starting with a specific character 'c' using only Java streams.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 12
RDBMS vs NoSQL Comparison
Discuss the differences and trade-offs between RDBMS and NoSQL databases.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 13
AI Exposure Discussion
Discuss my exposure and experience with Artificial Intelligence.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 14
Current Compensation Details
Discussion about my current compensation details.
From Target Interview Experience | Backend Engineer-L4 | Septemper 2025
- 15
API Design: Fetch External Data with DB Check
Design an API that fetches data from an external source and checks for its existence in a database before processing.
Medium · From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 16
Debugging Multithreading Scenarios
Debugging exercises or questions related to common issues in multithreaded applications.
Medium · From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 17
Partitioning vs. Sharding
Explain the difference between database partitioning and sharding.
From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 18
Drawbacks of NoSQL
Discuss the disadvantages or drawbacks of using NoSQL databases.
From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 19
Purpose of @Valid in Spring
Explain the purpose and usage of the @Valid annotation in Spring Boot applications.
From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 20
Java 8 Features
Discuss key features introduced in Java 8 in detail (e.g., Lambdas, Stream API, Functional Interfaces).
From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 21
Drawbacks of Microservices
Discuss the disadvantages or challenges associated with a microservices architecture.
From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 22
Microservice Transaction Rollback Strategies
Explain different strategies for handling transaction rollbacks in a microservices environment (e.g., Saga pattern, Two-Phase Commit).
From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 23
Mockito Internals
Questions about the internal workings and implementation details of the Mockito testing framework.
From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 24
@Service vs @Controller - Impact
Explain the differences and impact of using @Service versus @Controller annotations in Spring.
From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
- 25
@Bean vs @Component
Explain the differences and use cases for @Bean versus @Component annotations in Spring.
From Target Interview Experience – Software Engineer Role (Location: Bangalore, Year: 2025)
5 more in the Target write-ups.
Target interview questions FAQ
What questions are asked in Target interviews?
Candidates reported 102 distinct questions across 14 Target interviews. 22 coding and DSA questions, 37 system design questions, 13 behavioural and HR questions, 30 other questions.
Which Target interview questions are asked most often?
The most repeated are "Lucky Numbers in Range" (2 times).
How difficult are Target interview questions?
Of the questions candidates rated, 0% were easy, 85% medium and 15% hard.