Diligent Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process involved a 1st round with a basic JS question covering API creation, bind, call, apply functions, and higher-order functions implementation. The Second Round included basic system design questions and managerial level questions about handling team conflicts.

So, I had this first round for a .Net Developer role. The questions were about SOLID Principles, and I had to explain them really well, plus Dependency Injection. They also asked some basic SQL queries, like finding the second highest salary and one using Partition By. I felt like I nailed all the answers and explained everything clearly. It went great, but then I got a rejection email. I'm not sure what more they were looking for since I got most of it right. Anyway, I probably wouldn't have taken the job after seeing Glassdoor reviews, so the rejection wasn't a big deal.

There were 3 rounds in total. The first two rounds were with interviewers who were good. They inquired about my current projects, the technologies I've used, and my experience with AWS infrastructure. The third round was with the hiring manager. He joined the call 15 minutes late. Initially, he couldn't see my camera even though it was on. I rejoined, but he still couldn't see me. Eventually, he realized it was an internet issue on his end and rejoined after 2-3 minutes. By then, about 20 minutes had passed. He then started asking about my current projects, the technologies involved, and my experience with them, which took another 10 minutes. After that, he asked some other questions and presented me with a system design problem for Airbnb. When I began asking about the requirements, his response was to implement it first. I proceeded to note down what I considered to be the functional and non-functional requirements and asked for his review. He didn't respond initially, but upon asking again, he agreed they looked fine and told me to proceed with the implementation. It seemed like he was preoccupied with something else. I started the implementation, but time ran out before I could finish, and he stopped me 2 minutes early. Later, I learned from HR that I had been rejected. The feedback indicated I wasn't strong on the architecture side. The candidate feels judged without adequate time, which can create self-doubt about their skills. It's frustrating to encounter incompetent interviewers who lack knowledge but still judge candidates.