Mastercard SDE-II
Summary
I recently completed my first interview round for the SDE-II role at Mastercard, which covered a mix of data structures, system design, and core Java concepts.
Full Experience
I had my initial interview round for the SDE-II position at Mastercard. The discussion was quite comprehensive, starting with a fundamental data structure problem. Following that, we delved into my previous project experiences. The interview then transitioned into system design, covering topics like architectural choices and scalability techniques. Towards the end, there were specific questions related to Java streams, object-oriented design principles, and general software development practices like code reviews.
Interview Questions (8)
Given a singly linked list, find and return its middle element.
Discuss the circumstances and trade-offs that lead to choosing between a monolithic architecture and a microservices architecture.
Explain the concept of sharding in distributed systems, including its purpose, different strategies, and potential challenges.
Describe consistent hashing, its benefits, and how it is applied in distributed systems for load balancing and fault tolerance.
Write a function to convert a numerical value into its word representation according to the Indian numeral system. For example, 1,23,45 should be converted to 'one lakh twenty three hundret fourty five'.
Provide a practical example demonstrating the Interface Segregation Principle (ISP) from the SOLID principles.
How do you approach and conduct code reviews effectively? Describe your typical process and what you look for.
Explain the Template Method design pattern, its structure, and when it is appropriate to use it.