McKinsey SDE - 2 Interview [Rejected]

A little about me I am 4 years exprienced Backend Developer working with Service Based BS MNC.

I applied through careers portal and got a call within a week from recruiter after applying.

First round was OA and had four questions:

• Question on DSA was easy(Don't remember but prolly an Array or list).

• A SQL question.

• A REST API Question on country and its top university(need to know by heart logic to call an external API in any chosen language and need to know how to use HashMaps, nothing complicated)

• Fourth question was to design an add to list button, expectation was to enhance HTML and JS Scripting on already given implementation(This question is present on internet) Managed to clear all questions successfully.

A few days later got a call for onsite rounds, both the code pair round and discussion with Architect round were scheduled on one day.

Code Pair Round:

• First I was given a simple DSA question (Easy) which I could solve easily.

• I was given a requirement and was asked to implement interfaces. Nothing fancy, no overthinking..Simple implementation of what is asked. Had I gone unprepared I would have aced this. I wasted a lot of time figuring out if there is any hidden requirement but it was actually do what is asked and pass test cases.

• After this (15 mins remaining) a System design question was given based on what I mentioned on my resume. Expectation was to write APIs and be clear about the flow. What database and services to be used. Again no complicated flows, just discussion on basics.

I was rejected and further rounds were cancelled as each round was elimination round.

Overall interview was easy, had a great experience interviewing here.. just need to prepare the basics, unless you mentioned something fancy on your resume.

Cheers!