The process had five structured rounds, each focusing on different skill sets:

Hiring Manager Round: A conversational chat about my current role, project scope, and responsibilities. We discussed my experience with system design, coding best practices, and how I approach problem-solving in team settings.

Technical Assignment (Algorithms + Data Structures): A take-home exercise with LeetCode-style problems and a small feature implementation task. The goal was to write clean, efficient code while handling edge cases.

Technical Deep-Dive (Live Interview): A detailed discussion on my past projects, API design, CI/CD workflows, Git branching strategies, and debugging approaches.

System Design Round: I was asked to design a simplified real-time messaging platform, explaining architecture choices, scalability considerations, and trade-offs.

Behavioral / Culture Fit Round: Focused on collaboration, communication with cross-functional teams, and handling ambiguity under pressure.

I had been practicing on Hack2Hire before the interview. Their mock coding sessions and system design drills really helped me organize my answers and stay calm when faced with follow-up questions.

How would you design a notification service that supports both real-time and batch delivery?