UKG worst Interview Experience | 3 YOE | Java Developer
Summary
I had a multi-round interview for a Java Developer position at UKG, which included a HackerRank test, DSA questions (Next Permutation, Valid Parentheses, Find Peak Element), design patterns, Java basics, and a system design question on rate limiting. The 4th round was particularly unprofessional due to the interviewer's conduct.
Full Experience
I had a very challenging interview experience, particularly in the 4th round. The interviewer was unprofessional throughout.
1st round
- HackerRank test
2nd round
- Started with 1 DSA question: Next Permutation
- Discussion on design patterns I've used in projects and a deep dive into them
- Questions on CAP and SOLID principles
- Java basics
3rd round
- Contained 2 DSA questions: 1. Valid Parentheses 2. Find Peak Element
- Further basic Java questions
- Spring Boot annotations
- Discussion on my current project architecture
4th round
The interview started off with a quick introduction (though she didn't introduce herself), and then the interviewer jumped into some basic technical questions — things like time and space complexity, immutable classes, and a few Java fundamentals.
The experience wasn’t great. The interviewer had her camera off the whole time. On top of that, she kept picking up phone calls in the middle of the interview, which really broke the flow. Also, when I gave a wrong answer, she started laughing and kept making those awkward breathing noises — which just felt really unprofessional and distracting.
It was hard to stay focused with all that going on. I tried to keep calm and answer as best I could, but the way the interview was handled made it tough to stay confident.
She also asked about rate limiting, so I explained the definition along with different algorithms like token bucket and sliding window. Then she asked, "That's how you implement it, using this?"—so I explained a possible implementation using Spring Boot. However, throughout my answer, she kept making awkward breathing noises (like sehhhhhhh, huuuuuuh), which felt quite awkward.
Also, something seems off with UKG lately—there have been a lot of layoffs happening.
Interview Questions (3)
The third round included a DSA question on validating the syntax of parentheses in a string.
Another DSA question in the third round was to find a peak element in an array.
I was asked about rate limiting, where I explained its definition, different algorithms like token bucket and sliding window, and a possible implementation using Spring Boot.