I was approached by a recruiter on LinkedIn regarding a job opening, and the interview process comprised a total of four rounds (three technical and one technical + managerial).
1st Round - DAS + Java:
It was rescheduled for some reason for the next day. The next day, the interviewer came late as he was busy with some other meeting, which is fine as sometimes it happens.
He asked one DSA question - Minimum steps to reach the target by a Knight. This I solved using the BFS approach and the code passed all test cases. I completed it in the first half and the rest time was used for Java-related questions like - volatile, SOLID, String comparison output, serialization, and deserialization, transient keyword.
The first round went well and got the call from the recruiter for the second round.
2nd Round - Java:
This call was also rescheduled for the next day for some reason :(.
One next day - We started the discussion with my current project I am working on, all the tools I have used and worked with. Discussed about Multithreading, LRUCache, and eviction policy. Distributed cache, design patterns, SOLID. For this round, I would say that we had a good discussion.
He asked If I had worked on the advanced level of multithreading, so I said no as I haven't worked.
For me interview went really well and I was confident that I would move to the next round.
After the interview, I asked about the current tech stack of Demandbase and how things are working currently. For that, I suggested a few things that can improve the system overall but I think these things poked him as to why I am suggesting a change and I think people don't like it if they are in their comfort zone and someone says that there are better ways and come out of there comfort zone,
I was waiting for the recruiter to call with a positive response on that. But never received a call from him.
So I rang him as it was Friday and otherwise, I had to wait till Monday. He asked my name and who was calling and immediately said that the feedback was negative. I asked him about some detail about the feedback and he said they are expecting more on multithreading, system design, and design patterns.
Although the interviewer was quite satisfied with the design. I answered almost all the questions. So don't know the exact reason and I think the suggestion that I provided him at the end poked him somehow and he gave a negative result.
Reflecting on the interview process, I find some areas for improvement:
- Multiple reschedules at the last moment
- Lack of timely communication from the recruiter regarding negative feedback. Leaving the candidate in a hanging state.
- Negative feedback despite a positive interview experience
- Absence of specific details on the rejection, leaving me uncertain about the exact reasons.