SDE-1 (1+ YOE) Interview Experience

Recently completed my interview process for an SDE-1 role. Sharing my experience and the questions discussed across the rounds.

Round 1 (45 mins)

1. Merge Two Sorted Linked Lists

• Standard DSA problem.
• Expected solution: O(N) time complexity.

2. Find the Orchestrator

Given a list of connections between an orchestrator server and its workers, identify the orchestrator. Workers are never connected to each other.

Input:

[[O,A],[O,B],[C,O]]

Output:

O

Round 2 (45 mins)

1. System Design & Resume Discussion

• Deep discussion on RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines and AWS services.
• Questions around RAG best practices, vector databases, retrieval strategies, and AI agents.
• Picked a Zomato Clone project from my resume and discussed:
  • High-Level Design (HLD)
  • Database schema design
  • Server architecture
  • Possible design improvements
  • Synchronous vs asynchronous workflows

Distributed Systems Discussion

There was also a discussion around distributed systems concepts:

• Handling concurrent orders when only one item is left in stock and two users place orders simultaneously.
• Database locking strategies.
• Concurrency control mechanisms.
• SAGA pattern.
• Two-Phase Commit (2PC).

2. DSA

• Rank Teams by Votes (LeetCode 1366)

Round 3 (30 mins)

Behavioral & Managerial Discussion

• Conflict resolution within a team.
• Managing multiple high-priority tasks simultaneously.

Technical Discussion

• Microservices architecture.
• Kubernetes.

The Engineering Manager explained the product, its use cases, and discussed the responsibilities and expectations for the SDE-1 role.

Final Result

Rejected in Final Round

Sharing this in case it helps others preparing for similar backend and system design interviews.

Good luck to everyone preparing for their interviews!