Recently, I interviewed for the Senior Software Engineer 2.2 year experience ,role at Arcesium. Although I didn’t make it through the final round, the process gave me a lot of learnings worth sharing.

🔹 Round 1: Online Test (HackerRank)

The journey started with a coding round on HackerRank, focused on DSA & problem-solving.

🔹 Round 2: Technical Interview

Solved the Koko Eating Bananas problem (Binary Search).

Deep dive into my resume projects.

Discussion around Kafka fundamentals and its real-world usage.

🔹 Round 3: Low Level Design (LLD)

Asked to design an Uber-like system.

Broke it down into core entities: User, Driver, Ride, Payment, Location, vehicle.

Emphasis on database normalization and scalability.

🔹 Round 4: Hiring Manager Round

This was a theory-heavy round testing depth of knowledge:

Database Indexing: Clustered vs Non-Clustered Index (with diagrams).

Design Patterns: Factory Pattern — why/when we need it + sample code.

SOLID Principles: Open/Closed Principle, failure cases & resolution strategiesin Factory Pattern .

❌ Outcome

I got rejected in the HM round. The feedback was clear:

“Your theoretical concepts need to be explained with more clarity, depth, and examples.”

🌱 Key Takeaways

Arcesium focuses heavily on core CS fundamentals — not just coding.

LLD should be backed with proper DB design & normalization.

Be ready to draw diagrams, write code snippets, and explain trade-offs in theory-heavy rounds.

Strong fundamentals (DBMS, Design Patterns, SOLID) matter as much as problem-solving.