First, they emailed some screening questions. They were standard Java questions, and as an experienced Java developer, I had no problems with them.

After sending my answers back, they arranged a phone interview a few days later. Again, they asked mostly Java questions, with topics including arrays, Lists, Maps, equals()/hashCode(), and some design patterns. Solid Java programmers should have no problems with these questions, but a few were a bit harder, requiring a more in-depth understanding to answer correctly.

I didn't get two of the harder questions right in the phone interview, but they still progressed me to the next round. This was a coding test with a programmer. He showed me a piece of confusing code and a JUnit test case. The test was failing, and I had to find the bug in the code so the test would pass. It wasn't that hard, but I was quite nervous, so it took me a while to find and fix the bug. The guy basically sat next to me and watched me code, like in pair programming. You could talk to him about your thoughts.

This is actually a very tough test for those who are not comfortable with pair programming or being watched. I can be more efficient when working alone. They asked about my favorite IDE before the coding test; I could choose either IntelliJ or Eclipse, or even Notepad if I liked.

I didn't think I did well in the coding test, but they still progressed me to the next round. (I have to go; I'll finish this later.)

What's the difference between a String and a StringBuffer?

What are the things you need to look at when you make an object the key of a Map?