Recruiter contact was made through LinkedIn, followed by an initial screening and a couple of phone interviews. These interviews included basic algorithm questions, scalability, basic OO concepts, and some very specific front-end questions (JavaScript).

After these initial stages, I was scheduled for an on-site interview. While in the process, a different team expressed interest (for a Senior Software position), so I interviewed with both teams on the same day.

Team 1 interviews included a Data Scientist, the Hiring Manager, and a Senior Engineer. Questions covered understanding of front-end techniques and frameworks (JavaScript, CSS, HTML), and some actual problems the team was dealing with.

Team 2 interviews included basic WS design, scalability and big data, concurrency, and other OO concepts. A lunch interview at Walmart's cafe was also included. The interviewer asked some tough questions, which made it difficult to enjoy lunch.

In general, every single engineer working there was extremely friendly and helpful during questioning, with a single exception (the most senior guy interviewing me).

Walmart handled the arrangements for flights and hotel, and asked to save receipts for reimbursement. The coordinators and recruiters managing the process were very professional and helpful, and were very good at following up and providing timely updates.

In general, Walmart seems to place more focus on specific technologies and techniques knowledge rather than looking for the skills that big players like Google and Facebook seek (general CS, algorithms, and problem-solving). The problem with these is that you either know them or you don't – it's fairly hard to come up with an answer if you haven't been exposed to them before.

The impression I got is that now is a good time to join the company. They are trying to rebuild their complete e-commerce infrastructure, so there are opportunities to work on projects from the early stages. Plus, at the scale Walmart demands, the challenge is certainly welcome by any software professional looking to take the next step.

All questions seemed fair and kind of expected.