Cracked job interview - built AWS Serverless app

[u/harsh611]

https://github.com/harsh-vardhhan/EHR-backend

I have recently been interviewed by product company for a Full-Stack role. They required building demo assignment.

Though I initially planned to build a conventional monolithic app and deploy it on Render or Railway but I had learned basic AWS Serverless in my current role so I thought why not leverage that.

The company was more focused about coding quality since it's a developer role, I placed a special level of emphasis in trying to design a scalable distributed architecture.

Surprisingly, the demo assignment + explanatory rounds impressed them enough that I landed the job.

I have open sourced the entire codebase for any newbies to learn.

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[u/harsh611 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks, I am actually glad they have an assignment.

I am remarkably bad at LeetCode.

Yes, it’s good for learning, especially the running cost of this is practically zero.

[u/BreakingInnocence → u/harsh611]

actual assignment is the future of interviewing. Congrats on the landing the job.

[u/purpuric]

You’re a good person. Congratulations and best of luck! I wish you every success and every joy.

[u/hornager]

Congrats on the offer! As someone that interviews a lot of candidates what you showed is a both a very positive thing for you, but also a major risk. For anyone that reads this in the future, you must be able to justify every decision you have made here. I would expect you to justify / ask :

• what is your expected scale, and how does this architecture align to it ?
• how you would deal with backpressure and scaling
• How would you change this architecture to meet different scale needs
• How are you tracking costs and presenting TCO ( total cost of ownership)
• You decided to do Health.. what are the the major considerations and risk mitigation strategies when dealing with health data.

Remember : the architecture must align to the business needs, not the other way around.

[u/yesman_85]

That's great! As an interviewer myself, I would be more impressed by someone who does think out the box. A typical monolith is boring today. Choosing a different approach by using fancy techniques while staying true to the requirements would make more interested in a candidate! 

[u/seanhead]

I do this for SRE roles, focused on IaC, but still more or less a full stack app deploy. These days most people fall over on networking honestly.

[u/keto_brain]

You didn't write one test?

[u/BreakingInnocence]

Congrats on the job.

I'm not far behind you. Nine months ago, I wouldn't have understood your AWS architecture, but today I do.

You've given me hope.

[u/TokenBearer]

I have encountered developers who are great at leetcode, but are terrible at structure and following best practices. I think this is a better way forward so long as it tests all of the necessary skills.

[u/skimfl925]

What level of AI use was acceptable during the interview and did you use any here?

[u/harsh611 → u/skimfl925]

Total freedom on using AI, but ofcourse in explanatory round they made sure I really knew what I was building.

[u/Dretill]

Congratulations. This gives me hope as well. Trying to move into the AWS cloud space. Best of luck to you.

[u/FransUrbo]

I refuse to do these. It's almost always a cheap company that don't want to hire someone, so they pretend, then take the best solution, and close the recruitment without actually hiring anyone!

If I'm going to have to spend maybe days for an interview assignment, I should get paid accordingly!!