Background

Education: B.Tech in Computer Science from a Tier-3 college
Current Role: SDE-1 at a FinTech company
Experience: 3.5 years

Online Assessment

Platform: HackerRank
Questions: 2 DSA problems
Outcome: Solved both successfully
Interview call came after ~2 months of completing the assessment

Interview Rounds

Round 1: Coding + Code Review : 1 hr

Question 1 – Code Review

I was given a pull request and asked what review comments I would add.
Focus was on Spring Boot fundamentals, best practices.

Question 2 – DSA

Problem based on arrays (circular array concept).
I was able to solve it and pass all test cases.

Round 2: System Design (HLD) : 1 hr

Task: Design a High-Level Design for an API Rate Limiter.
Discussion included:

• Design choices
• Trade-offs
• Scalability and failure handling
  There were strong disagreements on some decisions.
  I defended my approach with proper reasoning, Some points were accepted, Some were rejected.
  Overall, it was a very intense and deep technical discussion.
  In hindsight, I feel I could have done better on a few design decisions.

Round 3: Managerial / Behavioral : 45 min

Focus areas:

• Communication skills
• Leadership principles
• Real project experience

Questions included(sample):

• Challenges faced
• Conflict resolution
• Decision-making under pressure
  I answered using real examples from my past projects and work experience.

Final Outcome

Offered: SDE-3

All the rounds were scheduled back to back on the same day with 5 mins gap between rounds.
After 2 days of interview, I have called Recuiter and got a positive feedback.
They mentioned team matching was in progress.
After ~10 days, I had a 15-minute hiring manager round (team match).
Shortly after that, I received the official SDE-3 offer.

My Takeaway

I strongly feel that the System Design round and the Behavioral round played a major role in leveling the offer from SDE-2 to SDE-3.