NetApp SDE 1 Onsite Interview
Summary
I recently completed the NetApp SDE-1 interview process, which consisted of three rounds covering coding, system design, and behavioral topics, and was ultimately rejected in the final round.
Full Experience
SDE-1 (1+ YOE) Interview Experience
Recently completed my interview process for an SDE-1 role. Sharing my experience and the questions discussed across the rounds.
Round 1 (45 mins)
1. Merge Two Sorted Linked Lists
- Standard DSA problem.
- Expected solution: O(N) time complexity.
2. Find the Orchestrator
Given a list of connections between an orchestrator server and its workers, identify the orchestrator. Workers are never connected to each other.
Input:
[[O,A],[O,B],[C,O]]
Output:
O
Round 2 (45 mins)
1. System Design & Resume Discussion
- Deep discussion on RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines and AWS services.
- Questions around RAG best practices, vector databases, retrieval strategies, and AI agents.
- Picked a Zomato Clone project from my resume and discussed:
- High-Level Design (HLD)
- Database schema design
- Server architecture
- Possible design improvements
- Synchronous vs asynchronous workflows
Distributed Systems Discussion
There was also a discussion around distributed systems concepts:
- Handling concurrent orders when only one item is left in stock and two users place orders simultaneously.
- Database locking strategies.
- Concurrency control mechanisms.
- SAGA pattern.
- Two-Phase Commit (2PC).
2. DSA
- Rank Teams by Votes (LeetCode 1366)
Round 3 (30 mins)
Behavioral & Managerial Discussion
- Conflict resolution within a team.
- Managing multiple high-priority tasks simultaneously.
Technical Discussion
- Microservices architecture.
- Kubernetes.
The Engineering Manager explained the product, its use cases, and discussed the responsibilities and expectations for the SDE-1 role.
Final Result
Rejected in Final Round
Sharing this in case it helps others preparing for similar backend and system design interviews.
Good luck to everyone preparing for their interviews!
Interview Questions (3)
Merge Two Sorted Linked Lists
Given two singly‑linked lists sorted in non‑decreasing order, merge them into a single sorted linked list and return its head. The solution should run in O(N) time where N is the total number of nodes.
Example
Input: 1→3→5, 2→4→6
Output: 1→2→3→4→5→6
Find the Orchestrator
You are given a list of connections represented as pairs [A,B] where one element is the orchestrator server and the other is a worker. Workers never connect to each other. Identify the orchestrator server.
Input: [[O,A],[O,B],[C,O]]
Output: O
Explanation: The node that appears in every pair as the first element (or never appears only as a second element) is the orchestrator.
Rank Teams by Votes
Given an array of strings votes where each string is a ranking of teams from first to last place, return a string of teams sorted by the ranking rules: first by the number of first‑place votes, then by second‑place votes, and so on. If tied after all positions, sort alphabetically.
Example
Input: ["ABC","ACB","BAC","BCA","CAB","CBA"]
Output: "ABC"