Experience: 17 Years

Specialization: Engineer Chapter Lead/Vice President (in Banking GCC Terminology)

Present Employer Tech Stack:

• Java Spring Boot for microservice design/development
• Red Hat OpenShift for containerization of microservices
• Kubernetes for orchestration
• Secure code practices such as Black Duck, Checkmarx, Twistlock
• Usage of RDBMS such as Oracle
• NoSQL DB such as Mongo
• Application design involving REST API, Batch, Event-Based

Day-to-Day Responsibilities:

• Application design for specific business use cases
• Code review
• Performance analysis
• Continuous improvement of solutions
• Regular technology/product evaluation
• Involvement in strategic initiatives
• Vendor resource management
• Full-time employee management

I applied for the role of Staff Engineer on their website (not through third-party job sites).

I had an initial exploration call (30 minutes) with the hiring manager. He discussed the current requirements for this role and used the opportunity to understand my current roles and responsibilities.

The next round was a coding interview. An interviewer verbally presented two DSA problem statements over Zoom. The expectation was to solve them using screen sharing within 1 hour (30 minutes for each problem).

I anticipated a coding interview but was unsure of the format. Some organizations use third-party platforms, while others present a problem statement to evaluate the candidate's thought process, logic, and analytical skills.

I was surprised by the format for two reasons:

1. In real-world scenarios, I don't spend time solving hypothetical puzzles to sharpen my skills. Industry requirements differ significantly from these hypothetical puzzles.
2. In an era of AI and online assistance, coding without help feels outdated.

I informed the interviewer that I don't typically spend my day-to-day dealing with DSA-related puzzles. I took some time to arrive at a possible solution but did not complete it within the allotted timeframe.

I started my career as a developer and progressed through stages such as Senior Developer, Lead Developer, and Application Lead. Returning to an evaluation at the early career level for a Staff/Principal Engineer role didn't make much sense to me. Architects/Staff/Principal Engineers typically engage in different use cases rather than focusing solely on arriving at code-level solutions.

Asked in Coding Interview

Maximum Product Subarray

Trapping Rain Water

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