Petco Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I applied through LinkedIn in mid-September. The first interview was a phone screen with the recruiter in early October. It seemed to go well, and they gave good feedback on my resume and experience. The recruiter wanted to move me to the hiring manager but couldn't access their calendar and said they'd follow up. I sent a thank-you email right after, showing my appreciation and interest in the next steps. After five days with no reply, I sent a casual follow-up. A week later, still nothing, I checked in again about scheduling the next interview. Unfortunately, I haven't heard back at all. It's disappointing to have this silence after being professional. Candidates deserve respect and transparency. Even a simple update matters for mutual respect. There's always room for improvement.

It was a two-round interview process. The first round was a coding round focusing on Data Structures & Algorithms and lasted 45 minutes. I had to solve an easy coding problem using array manipulation and hash maps. We also talked about time and space complexity using Big O notation. I had to show my thought process and explain my logic, using Java for the implementation with an emphasis on writing clean code. The second round was a Java & Spring Boot deep dive, lasting 60 minutes. This round covered core Spring Boot annotations like @RestController, @Service, @Autowired, @RequestMapping, @PostMapping, and @GetMapping. We also went over Dependency Injection and the Bean lifecycle. Exception handling with @ControllerAdvice and @ExceptionHandler was discussed, along with Spring Data JPA annotations such as @Entity, @Repository, and @Transactional. I was asked about the differences between @Component, @Service, and @Repository. There were also architecture questions about how microservices communicate and REST API design. Finally, I was asked about handling concurrent requests and database connection pooling.

It was a straightforward 4-round interview process. The first round was a phone call with HR where I discussed my past experiences, and the HR representative provided details about the position. The second round focused on Python expertise, expecting a deep understanding of Python-related topics. The third round was dedicated to Angular knowledge, requiring in-depth understanding of Angular and TypeScript. The final round was a managerial interview, which was primarily behavioral. Following this, I had a discussion with HR regarding the salary breakdown and benefits.