Metadata Interview Questions
& Process

The Java interview process has several rounds to check if you're technically good, can code, and fit the company. First, there's a Technical Screening Round (L1) with a senior dev or lead, covering core Java like OOP, Collections, exceptions, multithreading, Java 8+ stuff, and design patterns. Then, a Coding Round (L2) where you solve coding problems, maybe on a live platform or take-home, focusing on algorithms, clean code, and OOP design. For more experienced roles, you might build small apps. Next, for mid-to-senior folks, there's a System Design or Advanced Java Round (L3) about designing systems/APIs, talking about architecture choices like microservices, design patterns, and frameworks like Spring and Hibernate. Lastly, an HR & Behavioral Round (L4) to see if you fit the culture, talk about your experience, career goals, and practical stuff like salary and when you can start.

So after I submitted my application, they emailed me to do a take home assignment. It was basically to do a design audit of their current signing up experience for Metamatch, explore its current interface, and then identify 3-5 areas where I think they could improve. A big part of the evaluation was supposed to be the Audience table. The first round of the interview wouldn't even start until this was done. I feel like this is clearly free labour work and is really unprofessional in designers' job market. If they want to evaluate the design critique skill, a common practice in the industry is to critique a product that is not affiliated with the employer's company (e.g. Meta's app critique interview). we designers have a responsibility to push back on companies that feel they are entitled to free work.

The interview process started with a technical challenge: design and implement a simple school registration system with a REST API for managing students and courses using Java/Groovy, Spring Boot, Docker, JUnit, and MySQL. This was followed by an HR-style interview combined with live coding exercises, including simulating a linked list, calculating Big O notation, and performing a join-based query. A subsequent technical interview involved another live coding test, specifically creating a custom Set implementation without using Java's built-in Set. The final technical interview focused on database topics, covering normalization/denormalization, query optimization, and executing a query with joins and a group by clause on a provided data structure. After completing all stages, I was informed I didn't pass and received no feedback on my performance, which I found unprofessional given the time invested.

The interview process involved about 3 interviews. I had great interactions with several team members along the way. The final interview was a multi-presentation panel interview. This was my first time having to prepare and present for an interview, but I understand why it's part of the process, as a CSM's primary job is to present and speak with customers. This exercise gives the hiring team a firsthand look into your skill set. This is a highly coveted opportunity at an amazing and growing company, so there are definitely a few hoops to jump through. But as they say, nothing worth having comes easy.