Brightmoney SDE 2 interview experience
- Posted
- 12 Mar 2026
Summary
I interviewed for an SDE-2 role at BrightMoney, encountering DSA and System Design rounds. While I navigated the DSA problems, I struggled with the consistency trade-offs in the global rate limiter design during the System Design round, ultimately leading to rejection.
How it went
Recently interviewed for the SDE-2 role at BrightMoney and wanted to share my experience.
Round 1 – DSA: Two medium-level problems were asked. Both required applying common patterns like two pointers and sliding window. The interviewer mainly focused on problem-solving approach, edge cases, and code clarity.
Round 2 – System Design: The discussion was around designing a global rate limiter that works across multiple services and regions. The challenge was maintaining consistency across distributed nodes/datacenters while enforcing rate limits.
I was able to discuss some approaches but got stuck on the consistency trade-offs in a globally distributed setup, and eventually got rejected.
Overall, it was a good learning experience and highlighted the importance of being comfortable with distributed systems concepts (especially consistency vs availability trade-offs) along with strong DSA fundamentals.
Questions asked (1)
- 01
Design a Global Rate Limiter
System Design
Design a global rate limiter that works across multiple services and regions. The challenge is maintaining consistency across distributed nodes/datacenters while enforcing rate limits.