Oracle SMTS (Backend) Interview Experience – July 2026
Summary
I interviewed for a SMTS Backend role at Oracle in July 2026, progressed through an elimination round and four interview loops covering DSA, system design, and behavioral topics, and was selected.
Full Experience
Elimination Round Given an array and an integer k, find the top k most frequent elements. If two elements have the same frequency, the larger element should appear first.
Questions about Java collections, PriorityQueue, HashMap, etc.
Deep dive into projects mentioned on the resume.
This was followed by 4 loop rounds
Round 1(DSA + HLD)
1)Given a string, split it into exactly three non-empty palindromic substrings. Initial solution followed by an optimization using Dynamic Programming for palindrome checking.
2)Design a Healthcare Data Ingestion Pipeline capable of processing millions of records efficiently.
Discussion included:
Data ingestion Queue/message broker selection Storage strategy Processing pipeline Fault tolerance Scalability Monitoring and alerting Handling failed/unprocessed records
Round 2(DSA)
1)Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock.
2)Add one to a number represented as digits. Constraint: Do not use ArrayList.
There were also several follow-up discussions on optimising the approach and handling edge cases.
Round 3(HM Round) System Design Design a Rate Limiter. Discuss different algorithms, caching ,distributed implementation, scalability, and trade-offs. Resume Discussion Detailed discussion on projects. Questions around architecture decisions, Java internals, and design choices.
Round 4(Behavioural)
Entire round was behavioural, and the interviewer expected answers using the STAR format.
Some questions:
Describe a time when you could not meet a tight deadline. Tell me about a conflict within your team and how you handled it. Describe a difficult technical decision you made. How do you use AI in your daily work? What is your opinion on AI and how do you think it improves software engineering?
Verdict : Selected
Interview Questions (11)
Top K Frequent Elements with Tie-breaking
Given an array and an integer k, find the top k most frequent elements. If two elements have the same frequency, the larger element should appear first.
Split String into Three Palindromic Substrings
Given a string, split it into exactly three non‑empty palindromic substrings.
Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock
Given an array where the i‑th element is the price of a given stock on day i, find the maximum profit you can achieve by buying on one day and selling on a later day.
Add One to Number Represented as Digit Array without ArrayList
Given a number represented as an array of digits, increment the number by one. Do not use ArrayList or dynamic array structures.
Healthcare Data Ingestion Pipeline Design
Design a healthcare data ingestion pipeline capable of processing millions of records efficiently. Discuss data ingestion, queue/message broker selection, storage strategy, processing pipeline, fault tolerance, scalability, monitoring and alerting, and handling of failed/unprocessed records.
Rate Limiter Design
Design a rate limiter. Discuss different algorithms, caching, distributed implementation, scalability, and trade‑offs.
Describe a Time When You Could Not Meet a Tight Deadline
Behavioural question asking for a specific example where a tight deadline was missed and how it was handled.
Tell Me About a Conflict Within Your Team and How You Handled It
Behavioural question probing conflict resolution skills.
Describe a Difficult Technical Decision You Made
Behavioural question focusing on decision‑making under technical constraints.
How Do You Use AI in Your Daily Work
Behavioural question about the candidate's practical use of AI tools.
Opinion on AI and Its Impact on Software Engineering
Behavioural question asking for the candidate's perspective on AI advancements in software development.