🚗 Uber SDE Interview Experience (Platform/Backend Role)

Role: Software Development Engineer Experience Level: 1–3 years (L1/L2) Location: Bangalore (onsite) or Remote Rounds: 5 (including recruiter)

📞 Round 0: Recruiter Call (30 mins)

Topics:

• Brief background check
• Tech stack discussion (e.g., Java, Python, Go)
• Resume walk-through
• Role expectations at Uber
• Availability for interviews

✅ Tip: Be honest about your experience. If you’ve worked on scale, mention metrics (e.g., “handled 10M+ API calls/day”).

🧮 Round 1: Online Coding Round (Hackerrank / Codility) – 90 mins

Structure:

• 2 or 3 DSA problems
• Mostly medium-hard Leetcode-style

Examples:

• LRU/LFU Cache design
• Modify a matrix in-place based on constraints
• Dynamic Programming (DP with memoization)
• Sliding Window or Segment Tree problems

✅ Tip: Know your standard patterns well — sliding window, 2 pointers, binary search on answer, and prefix/suffix optimizations.

🔧 Round 2: Technical Interview – DSA + Low-level Design (60 mins)

Format:

• Start with a coding problem (~30 mins)
• Move to low-level design (LLD)

Examples:

• Implement a Rate Limiter or Parking Lot system
• Coding: Interval merging, Tree traversal variant
• Discuss REST APIs: How would you paginate? How do you handle retries?

✅ Tip: Speak while coding. Explain trade-offs like time/space.

🧱 Round 3: System Design (High-Level Design, 60 mins)

Asked:

• Design Uber-like trip matching service
• Design a scalable Notification Service
• Scaling REST API for millions of requests per sec
• Talk about caching, load balancing, data modeling

Focus Areas:

• Microservice boundaries
• Message queues (Kafka, SQS)
• Consistency vs Availability
• DB choice (SQL vs NoSQL), Sharding

✅ Tip: Mention real-world practices like rate limiting, retries, fallbacks, circuit breakers (Hystrix-style).

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Round 4: Behavioral + Leadership Principles (Bar Raiser)

Pattern:

• Tell me about a time you failed
• Biggest challenge with a teammate or stakeholder
• Decision-making under uncertainty
• Ownership / bias for action scenarios

✅ Tip: Use STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Show Uber's core values: obsession with scale, problem solving, speed.

📝 Round 5: Hiring Manager Discussion (Optional / Final)

Topics:

• Long-term vision of team
• Your preferences (IC vs leadership)
• Growth opportunities
• Technical fit + team alignment

✅ Final Verdict

Status: Selected Offer: ₹30–45 LPA (India) + stock options Feedback:

• Candidate was strong in DSA & LLD
• Communicated clearly

They have asked me about my projects.