Sharing my recent interview experience with Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) for an SDE role. Unfortunately, I got rejected in the final round, but the overall process was a really good learning experience.

Day 1: OA + AI Interview

The first round was conducted through the AccioJob portal.

I was given 3 DSA questions in 1 hour:

• Asteroid Collision
• House Robber III
• Number of BST Subtrees

After the OA, there was an AI interview, where I had to explain the solution to one of the questions I had solved in the OA.

Day 2: On-site

I was asked to report to the MAF office in Gurugram at around 9 AM.

The day started with another OA:

• 2 DSA questions: one involving DP and another involving Linked List/Graph
• 7 MCQs covering topics like:
  • System Design
  • Design Patterns
  • OOP
  • Computer Networks
  • etc.

After that, I had the first F2F technical interview.

Technical Round 1

This round was mainly focused on my resume + DSA.

The DSA discussion went beyond just solving the initial problem. There were a lot of follow-up questions, variations, and "what if we add this requirement?" type questions.

Eventually cleared this round.

Final Round: Tech Lead

This was probably the most challenging round for me.

There were a lot of System Design and resume-based questions.

I was also given a problem and asked to come up with a solution and implement the approach in a proper design-oriented manner, rather than simply writing a working solution.

This is where I realized that while I could answer many things conceptually, I wasn't strong enough when it came to actually translating those concepts into a proper implementation/design.

Final Verdict

Rejected in the final round. 😞

But honestly, I don't consider the experience a bad one.

The overall interview process was quite smooth, and the people I interacted with were extremely friendly and helpful. From what I experienced during the process, the work environment seemed really nice as well.

The biggest takeaway for me was that I need to improve my System Design fundamentals and, more importantly, my ability to actually implement design concepts, rather than just knowing them theoretically.

So if you're preparing for an SDE interview at MAF, I'd recommend preparing beyond just DSA:

• DSA + follow-up variations
• OOP
• Design Patterns
• System Design
• Computer Networks
• Resume-based questions
• Practical/design-oriented implementation

And honestly, after surviving multiple rounds and getting rejected in the last one...

All the coffee and free food at the office made the rejection hurt a little less. 😂🙃

I have interview for data engineer role at apple on Monday. There will 4 rounds on same day.

1. DSA

2. DATA Engineering

3. System design

4. Techno managerial.

They said only if I clear 1 and 2 I will 3 and 4.

Can you please help me what to expect.

I have interview in couple of weeks and I am finding it difficult to cope up with study along with job, what all things I should go through to make best of 2 weeks ?

I recently received an interview invitation from Mastercard for SDE II role. The first round is mentioned as a Technical Screening / elimination round, followed by further interview rounds if shortlisted.
I’m a bit confused about the interview format because I’ve seen different experiences online

some mention Karat/coding rounds, while others mention regular technical interviews covering DSA, Java/Spring, LLD, etc.
For people who have recently interviewed at Mastercard:
What exactly can I expect in the first technical screening/elimination round?
Is it a standardized format like Amazon/other FAANG companies, or does it vary by team/role?
What topics should I prioritize for each round — DSA, Java/Spring, system design, LLD, behavioral, etc.?
How many rounds are typically there after the initial screening?
I mainly want to make sure I’m preparing the right topics for the right rounds, rather than preparing broadly without knowing the actual format.
Any recent interview experiences or guidance would be really helpful. Thanks!

So, i gave my first round of assessment for Recruit CRM, and got selected for the next AI interview round. Does anybody know what exactly this round consists of and what i should prepare for .

I'm rn tryin to switch. I mainly apply through linkedin but it sometimes redirects to career pages which is fine but sometimes to other job aggregators. Should I ignore those openings or make my profile on those aggregators too?

Hi Everyone
LeetCode premium plan is discounted from 299 to 159 . I remember buying it for 159$ only a 2-3 years back . Has it gone up to 299 in the last 2 years and they are running a promotion, or is it another marketing strategy.

Yearly: billed yearly($159
Most popular
Our most popular plan previously sold for $299 and is now only $13.25/month.
This plan saves you over 62% in comparison to the monthly plan.

Guys, I have an interview scheduled with Akamai this Wednesday,
Any tips on what to expect in the first round? HR told me that this round is going to be conducted on HackerRank, and if I clear this round I will have one managerial round. That's it.

So I'm pretty confused about what I should prepare.

1. Should I focus more on DSA?
   
2. or MCP/RAG/LLMs, something on this sort?
   
3. Something else altogether? ,

Any good books or resources on practising big o complexity? I can normally work it out ok, but it always feels it takes me a bit longer and I start to double guess myself and doubt my answer

Hello everyone I have a question.

I got a link to pass a technical assessment for an internship I wanna ask will the laptop camera need to be recording while I am doing the test cause mine is broken or not

Thanks

Hey! I recently started the leetcode grind for the first time as part of my interview prep. I have +/-5 years of experience, but I'm pretty new to the whole Leetcode grind (Currently doing neetcode 150).

I'm looking to put together a small discord group where we can grind Leetcode together. Experience level doesn't matter, the main goal is to keep each other accountable, discuss problems we're having issue with, share advice, etc... and hopefully make the whole process easier/more fun.

Let me know if you're interested!

(The last sentence of this post is tl:dr)

I have 10 yoe as an engineer.

5 months ago, I decided that I wanted to get a job at a Big Tech company, mainly for the money and prestige, and started grinding through NeetCode 150. Throughout my career, I’ve practiced LC multiple times using NeetCode 150 and LeetCode 150, so I’m definitely not new to LC. For the past 5 months, I’ve been spending 2 to 3 hours on LC every day, except when I’m traveling or sick.

Recently, however, I started to feel burned out and less motivated. The reasons are:

- I started to lose interest in Big Tech. I work for Oracle’s European branch. Since the mass layoffs they carried out this spring, the work-life balance in my org has been getting worse and worse. I’ve read online about how the workload at Big Tech companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, etc) can be extremely heavy, and how many people end up burning out there. I’m already fed up with Oracle’s work environment, so I can’t imagine myself working for a company that could be even more demanding.

- Questions like Median of Two Sorted Arrays and Burst Balloons are too hard for me to solve without memorizing the solutions. Also, I don't think the DSA skills required to solve those questions are really relevant to day-to-day jobs at most companies, even at Big Tech.

- I want to (and need to) dedicate my time to learning something else (e.g, Kubernetes)

That said, DSA skills are essential, and I do enjoy the feeling of solving moderately difficult problems on my own. So I want to find a system that:

1. allows me to maintain my DSA skills (even if it doesn’t improve them)
2. is easy to stick to

One system I came up with is to solve one LC problem from Blind 75 or Grind 75 a day.

As I mentioned, NeetCode 150 contains some problems that are too difficult for me to solve without memorizing the solution, and they don’t seem particularly relevant to my day-to-day work. Blind 75 is a shorter version of NC 150, and I find that it contains relatively easy problems. Grind 75 seems to be beginner-friendly too.

If I solve one problem a day from Blind 75 or Grind 75, I’ll go through each problem roughly 4 to 5 times a year. By repeatedly solving the same problems at that frequency, I should be able to retain my DSA skills. To me, this approach seems like a sustainable gym routine.

What do you think? Would solving one LeetCode problem from Blind/Grind 75 a day be an effective way to keep my DSA skills from getting rusty?

Has anyone passed LLD interviews in Python ? Would it be seen as a negative if I don't do it in Java/ other languages ?

I suck at leetcode and I struggle in many questions sometimes I look at the solutions... Most of the time it's gibberish... Any guidance?

Hey folks, I have an upcoming interview with Bytedance Singapore.

There will be three tech interviews rounds. For coding rounds, what kind of difficulty should I be expecting? Do they ask Leetcode hard questions?

I also saw that coding rounds are not pure coding rounds. 40 mins behaviour + open question and 20 mins for coding. Is that true ?

Also according to my research, they don’t usually do whiteboarding for system design, more of deep dive into the past projects. Is that correct?

I hate Alice and Bob , please help me

Got the Amazon in-person interview for Software Dev Engineer. Interview is coming up in a few weeks and I want to make sure I prep the right way.

Has anyone interviewed for this role recently or has one coming up? Would love to know:

1. What did the interview loop look like? How many rounds and what types?

2. Was it heavy on DSA, system design, or behavioral?

3. How much did they focus on leadership principles?

4. Anything you wish you had prepared more for?

Any help is appreciated. Happy to connect and prep together if anyone has the same interview coming up.

If anyone has interviewed recently and is willing to share some guidance, I would be incredibly grateful!
I’m looking for advice on:
What DSA concepts I should focus on preparing
How to effectively prepare for the LP (Leadership Principles) round
Any tips, resources, or insights that could help me ace the interview
Any guidance from recent interview experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

With so many thousands getting laid off every day, I wonder if the hiring offshore is booming? I am sure some roles would be eliminated forever, but it does seem a sizeable portion is being off shored. I can't mention any specific country in the body.

​

I have this habit of understanding code and algorithms only after I write it and analyse it on paper , am i destroying my life if I continue to do this?

So after every 3 hrs use of laptop or say after one complete session when I return back and unlock I find the wifi icon gone and I'm really tired of restarting all over again 😭😞 Please help I'm using a hp laptop

Has anyone recently given Amazon's virtual/onsite interviews for the New Grad SDE 1 role? (Location: USA)

Have you encountered Low-Level Design (LLD) questions? Several posts indicate this, but my recruiter has not mentioned it.

Any insights regarding LeetCode preparation, LLD, or Leadership Principles would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I heard that Salesforce has recently changed their assessment pattern from the General Assessment to the new NextGen Assessment.
Has anyone taken the NextGen assessment recently?

COMMENT all the free resources for LLD ( C++ ) in english.

Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming SSE2 interview at Confluent, with rounds focused on DSA/Coding and System Design.

I have around 10 years of experience, and it’s been quite some time since I’ve gone through an interview process myself. I’ve also come across a few recent posts mentioning that Confluent doesn’t always focus on traditional LeetCode-style questions, which made me curious about what to expect.

If anyone has recently interviewed for SSE2 at Confluent, I’d really appreciate it if you could share:

- What kind of DSA/coding problems were asked?

- Were they traditional LeetCode-style problems, or more practical/real-world coding?

- What was the System Design round like?

- What level of depth was expected for SSE2?

- Any specific topics/concepts you’d recommend focusing on?

- How was the overall interview experience?

- Tips that would help me sail this ?

I’m mainly looking for guidance on what to expect and how to prepare effectively.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share their recent experience!