VMware | MTS3 | Bangalore | July 2023 [Offer]

Round 1 - Technical (Screening Interview on Zoom) - 30min (extended by 15min)

This round began with my introduction and an overview of my current project. The interviewer then asked me to rate myself on Java (Java 8) and front-end technologies (like React/Angular/JavaScript). I rated myself pretty low on front-end as I primarily work on backend, though I had some full-stack experience. Being honest was a key tip here.

I was then given a medium-level question, which was a modified version of Sort Colors but with custom objects. A follow-up question asked me to make the solution generic for any type of objects. Additionally, there was a question related to Java 8 functional programming (Stream API) with follow-up questions, including modifying the solution to be generic.

I was able to answer all the questions very well and received a callback in one day for the next round.

Round 2 - Technical (CodePair) - 90min (Finished in 70min)

After an introduction, the interviewer presented a custom problem (not a LeetCode-like problem) to check my knowledge of SOLID principles, generics in Java, and basics. Following this, I was given a LeetCode Medium problem: Online Stock Span.

I answered all questions very well and received a callback the next day for the next two rounds: High-Level Design (HLD) and Low-Level Design (LLD).

Round 3 - High Level Design (CodePair) - 90min

This round started with an introduction and a discussion about my current project and its architecture. The main task was to design and discuss a solution for managing long-running operations. The interviewer wanted to delve into:

• REST APIs: How I would design the APIs.
• Classes: How I would structure the classes.
• Design: How I would design a robust solution.
• Status/Outcome Tracking: How to manage and track the state/status of submitted asynchronous jobs throughout their lifespan and afterwards.
• TimeOut Mechanism: Implementing an optional timeout for job processing and handling timeouts.
• Retry Mechanism: Similar to the timeout mechanism.
• Limit on parallelism (configurable): How to limit/control the number of parallel processes the system allows at a time.

Having already implemented a similar solution in my current project, I found this round easier. I was able to answer all questions very well.

Round 4 - Low Level Design (CodePair) - 90min (Finished in 70min)

This round consisted of two questions:

1. Designing a Retry Mechanism for HTTP calls.
2. Given a SQL DB table with employee data (id, fname, lname, dept, managerId where managerId is a self-referencing ID), design a suitable data structure to store this static data. This data structure needed to efficiently support two operations: search-by-name (e.g., name.contains("abc") returning a list of employee IDs) and search-by-emp-id (returning employee details).

I successfully answered both questions and received a call back the next day for the Hiring Manager round.

Round 5 - Hiring Manager Round - 90min (Finished in 30min)

I prepared for a mix of technical, behavioral, managerial, and situation-based questions, as I work as a Tech Lead. Although the interview invite included a CodePair link, the round was primarily a discussion. The Hiring Manager was very pleasant, and we discussed their expectations for the role, the team's work, the project, and my career aspirations. Researching the organization beforehand helped me make a great impression in this round.

The entire interview process took about 10 days, which was accelerated by HR due to my impending release date. Ultimately, I was selected and received a job offer.