Summary
I cleared five rounds for a Senior Software Engineer position at Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) with 2 years of experience. The interviews covered Data Structures & Algorithms, core Java concepts, system design, and behavioral questions, leading to a compensation discussion with HR.
Full Experience
I am currently having 2 Years of experience.
1st Round: Hackerrank Assessment (90 mins)
Consisted of one easy-level DSA question, one straightforward GitHub question, and one hard-level DSA question (I don’t recall the exact questions).
2nd Round: Technical Interview with Lead Software Engineer
Scheduled 7 days after the OA.
Asked one standard DSA question: Rain Water Trapping.
Discussed LRU Cache (LeetCode style).
In-depth discussion about my current project; I was asked to explain everything on notepad.
Given a medium-level question to solve using only Stream APIs.
Verdict- Cleared
3rd Round: Technical Interview with Lead Software Engineer
Held the following Monday.
This round included both development-related questions and one DSA problem:
Compile-time vs. runtime polymorphism.
Internal workings of HashMap.
Difference between sleep and wait in multithreading.
Iterator vs. ListIterator.
Spring Boot-related questions.
SOLID principles.
Several in-depth, resume-based questions.
DSA: Find the Nth node from the end in a singly linked list.
Although there were few questions, the interviewer probed deeply into my resume. The round was scheduled for 45 minutes but lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Verdict-> Cleared
4th Round: Technical Interview with Lead Software Engineer
Straightforward round.
Asked resume-based questions, including a detailed explanation of the ELK Stack, followed by some related questions.
Discussed Apache Kafka.
Asked for a high-level design of my current project.
DSA: Count Distinct Subsequences (took me some time to solve).
Standard multithreading code (I was unable to complete the code fully).
Verdict-> Cleared
5th Round: Techno-Managerial Interview
The interviewer was very calm and friendly. I mentioned I was nervous, and he helped put me at ease.
Discussed the tech stack of the team I would be joining, followed by technical questions on exception handling and multithreading.
Given a coding question to solve without using any data structures, Stream API, or sorting techniques.
Received feedback.
Verdict-> Cleared
A week later, HR contacted me to discuss compensation.
Total Compensation: 22.5 lakhs
Perks: Free gym, quarterly employee reimbursement, free cab, free food, comprehensive medical insurance
Thank you, and best of luck to everyone!
Interview Questions (9)
A standard DSA question: Rain Water Trapping.
Discussed LRU Cache (LeetCode style).
Discussed the difference between compile-time and runtime polymorphism.
Discussion on the internal workings of HashMap.
Discussed the difference between sleep and wait in multithreading.
Discussed the difference between Iterator and ListIterator.
Questions related to SOLID principles.
DSA problem: Find the Nth node from the end in a singly linked list.
DSA problem: Count Distinct Subsequences.
Preparation Tips
My suggestion: Be honest about your approach. The interviewers were very patient; if you get stuck on a DSA problem, ask for hints—they are willing to help. Prepare the basics: Java, Stream API, multithreading, core Java, etc., and you’ll be well-prepared.