Pre-Screen(Nov 2024):

1. Given an array, build a BST which has minimal height.
2. Follow-up: how to verify if the above generated tree is valid?

• recruiter mentioned feedback(within 2 days) was positive, proceeding with loop

Loop(Feb 2025)
Round-1(with SDE2 - 45 mins)

1. evaluate an postfix expression, given a string array with operands & operators
   example: input: ["23","2","+"], ans=25
   Behavioral: big obstacle

• this round went well

Round-2(with SDE2 - 45 mins)

1. generate permutations of given string
   Behavioral: prioritized customer needs

• did some mistake while coding but interviwer hinted it's ok, so, this round also went well

Round-3(with senior manager, similar to bar raiser - 45 mins)

1. question from resume - reason for migrating from rabbit to kafka (he kept on asking same question again even after i finished answering it - not sure if he was really paying attention to my answer, he was looking at something and laughing, really unprofessional)
2. advantages of kafka over rabbit - again, why moved from rabbit to kafka?
3. sorting algorithms & their time complexities, what is big O

Behavioral:

1. above & beyond
2. prioritized customer needs over your team needs
3. one project i'm proud of
4. reduced scope of an epic

• This is the round where everything went bad. Idk why the interviewer was laughing, very very unprofessional.

Round-4(Manager of the hiring team - 45 mins)
System Design - Similar to Inventory Management
Requirements:

1. clients are store owners
2. clients should be able to place orders with 3rd party vendors(external api)

• i started off nice, gathered functional, non-functional etc
• i asked him if i'm good to start, he said ok
• but, when i started api section, he asked how can clients view the products? (i missed it in the functional reqs, so i added it)
• i came up with some high level design with single components i.e. server, db
• he stopped me at last 15 mins saying, need time for behavioral and asked me if i want to add anything to the design, so, i mentioned i would use a queue between inventory management system and the external api, gave reasons for what type of db, cache i would choose
• he did not ask me any other questions during the system design other than that 1 functional req i missed
• i'm not sure if this round went well as interviewer did not hint anything & he stopped me even before i finished my design

Behavioral

1. any procedure or process that you've improved in your team
2. foreseen a bug & fixed it

My Thoughts:

• since it's been more than a week and i did not receive any feedback, expecting a rejection
• please comment if you know how long oracle takes to provide decision after loop

TAKE BEHAVIORAL ROUNDS VERY SERIOUSLY - ESPECIALLY ROUNDS WITH SENIOR MANAGERS

Update:
Offered me an IC2 role. In a dilemma to accept or decline the offer.