Senior Application Engineer | Oracle interview experience | Feb 2026
Summary
I interviewed for a Senior Application Engineer role at Oracle in February 2026, which involved three rounds covering Java, SQL, data structures, algorithms, and a logic puzzle, ultimately resulting in a rejection. I also included insights from a previous Oracle interview experience.
Full Experience
Round 1 (Virtual)
- Java HashMap implementation
- Two Sum implementation
- Follow-up: Print all unique answers in single traversal
- SQL question (Joins and Order By)
Round 2 (On Site)
- Java Stack implementation
- Java Queue implementation
- SQL question: Find Kth highest employee salary without considering duplicates (DENSE_RANK)
- Given a sorted array in asc order where 2 elements are swapped:
- Return true if only 2 elements are swapped
- Return false if more than 2 elements are misplaced
- Puzzle: 1000 wine bottles, 10 rats, poisoned bottle question
- Difference between exception and error and asked about NoClassDefFoundError and ClassNotFoundExcetion
Round 3 (On Site)
- SQL question (NOT IN)
- Find your name’s index from a dictionary (name has 5 letters, all unique)
- Given 2 strings s1 and s2, check if s2 is a rotated string of s1
Verdict: Rejected
Previous interview experience for Oracle:
Round 1 (Virtual)
- Reverse linked list in k groups
Verdict: Rejected
Interview Questions (11)
Implement Java HashMap
Implement a basic Java HashMap.
Implement Two Sum with unique answers
Implement the Two Sum problem. Follow-up: Print all unique answers in single traversal.
Implement Java Stack
Implement a basic Java Stack.
Implement Java Queue
Implement a basic Java Queue.
Find Kth Highest Employee Salary (without duplicates)
Find the Kth highest employee salary without considering duplicates.
Check if only two elements are swapped in a sorted array
Given a sorted array in ascending order where elements might be swapped. Return true if only two elements are swapped. Return false if more than two elements are misplaced.
1000 Wine Bottles and 10 Rats Puzzle
You have 1000 bottles of wine. One of the bottles is poisoned. You have 10 rats. A rat dies exactly one hour after drinking from the poisoned bottle. How do you find the poisoned bottle in one hour?
Java Exception vs. Error and specific exception types
Discuss the difference between an exception and an error in Java. Explain NoClassDefFoundError and ClassNotFoundException.
Find Name's Index in Dictionary
Given a dictionary, find the index of your name. Assume the name has 5 unique letters.
Check if one string is a rotation of another
Given two strings s1 and s2, determine if s2 is a rotated string of s1.
Reverse Linked List in K Groups
Reverse a linked list in groups of k.