SE-2 Nike Interview Exp

Round 1: Bar-Raiser (Conducted by 3rd Party)
This round focused on core technical competency and fundamental coding.

1. DSA: One Medium-level problem (focused on Array/String manipulation).
2. Technical: Deep dive into Java 8+ features, Spring Boot annotations, and Bean lifecycle.

Round 2: Technical Round (Conducted by Nike SE-3)
A heavy emphasis on algorithmic problem-solving and optimization.

1. Problem 1 (Dynamic Programming): A variation of the Knapsack or Coin Change problem. Focused on transition states and space optimization.
2. Problem 2 (Binary Search): A "Binary Search on Answer" type question.
3. Some AWS theory questions.

Discussion: We discussed time and space complexity ($O(n \log n)$ vs $O(n)$) extensively.

Round 3: Technical & Design (Conducted by Engineering Manager)

This round pivoted toward system architecture and clean code.

1. System Design: Asked to Design a Rate Limiter. We discussed various algorithms like Token Bucket, Leaking Bucket, and Fixed Window Counter.
2. Java/Spring Boot: Questions on multithreading, Exception Handling in Spring, and Dependency Injection.
3. SOLID Principles: I had to explain each principle with real-world examples from my previous projects.
4. The AWS Part: I was honest with the manager that while I’m strong in Java/Spring Boot, I haven't had much "hands-on" production experience with AWS yet.

    - Theory: Because of that, the questions were more theoretical to see if I understood the concepts. We talked about:
    - EC2 vs. Lambda (when to use which).
    - S3 for storage vs. RDS.
    - Using SQS/SNS for decoupling services.

Round 4: Hiring Manager Round
Mostly behavioral but with a few technical "high-level" curveballs.

Behavioral: Focused on Nike’s core values, handling conflict in a team, and my experience with CI/CD (Jenkins).

Technical: Discussed scalability and how I approach learning new technologies.

Vibe: Very casual and conversational.

And finally got the offer from Nike.