I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Rakuten (San Diego, CA) in Feb 2017
Interview
I applied online for a Senior Java Engineer position. I received a follow up email asking why I am looking to leave my company and salary expectations. One month later I got an email with a take home assignment. I was not in a rush to find a job, so I didn't mind the time it took to move to the next step. I had three hours to complete the assignment and turned it back in. A few days later I scheduled a call with one of the managers. He asked a few questions about my experience and what I am looking for, then a few Java specific technical questions. A few days later I got an email requesting an in person interview. The interview was scheduled for two weeks in the future. I met with five different people over the course of about three hours. Lunch was provided which was very nice. Later that day I received an email asking for personal references. My references were able to reach back to the recruiter within the same day. I then received an offer a few days later.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Why are you looking to leave your current position?
General coding questions and programming, culture fit and hiring manager
Usually there are 3 rounds of interviews starting with technical, culture fit and senior management and then HR round and discussion.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Rakuten
Interview
Don't go through 3rd party for interview in Rakuten . Rakuten conducts fake interviews. Inspite of doing well, they block your number after final round conducted. Such a waste of time.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Rakuten (Tokyo) in Aug 2025
Interview
The first interview will be with a recruiter. In this stage, you will introduce yourself and talk about your professional experience. It mainly focuses on evaluating your English communication skills, cultural fit, and overall background.
The second stage was with another interviewer, but the experience felt unclear. The questions were vague and very general, so I often felt like I was just talking to myself. The lack of engagement made the interview feel monotonous, and I found the interviewer yawning throughout entire session.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
In the second stage, the interviewer asked me questions related to Kafka, RabbitMQ, CQRS, Saga Orchestration, and microservices.