Akamai Technical Interview Experience: What Every Developer Should Know

The Talent Acquisition team first reached out to me, informing me that my resume had been shortlisted for the Software Engineer II position at Akamai. I promptly shared my availability for the initial interview.

First Technical Round (HackerRank)

The first round was scheduled on the HackerRank platform. After a brief introduction, the interviewer delved into my resume, specifically focusing on my most recent projects. He showed particular interest in the security-related components of my work.

Following the resume discussion, I was given a coding question:

Problem: Given a linked list, return a new linked list containing only odd numbers.
Input: 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7 → 8
Output: 1 → 3 → 5 → 7

I was able to solve this problem quickly and proceeded to explain its time and space complexity. The interviewer also asked follow-up questions about circular linked lists and other variants.

Next, we transitioned to conceptual questions, covering a range of topics:

• The distinction between HTTP and HTTPS
• The application of HTTP protocols in development
• What is JWT? Its elements and functions
• The significance of the JWT signature element
• The role of public and private keys in token signing
• OAuth token functionality
• The distinction between a refresh token and an access token
• Deadlock: Semaphore vs. Mutex
• CAP theorem and ACID properties
• The distinctions between CAP and ACID
• Concepts of Phantom Read and Dirty Read
• There were also several experience-based inquiries about my prior work.

At the end of the session, the interviewer mentioned that he enjoyed our conversation and appreciated my confidence.

HR Follow-up and Outcome

Soon after, I received a call from HR informing me that I had successfully passed the first round and would be moving forward to an interview with a senior team member.

However, there was a twist. I later discovered that the position had already been filled due to a personnel shortage. Despite this, the HR staff assured me that my profile would be updated in Akamai's “Silver medalist” community, and I would be given priority for any future relevant opportunities. They even confirmed this via email.

Even though the immediate outcome wasn’t in my favor, I truly value this experience and the knowledge I gained. Every interview contributes to making me better prepared for the next one.