Principal Financial Group Java Developer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process started with a Java technical test that had easy but tricky questions. After waiting for about 5 hours, I had a technical interview that lasted for an hour and the interviewers were supportive. I was told I cleared it and the next step was an HR round. The managerial round was scheduled for the following week. I was running 20 minutes late for the managerial interview. The HR person called me and suggested I go home and come back the next day, due to my lateness. She had a very laid-back attitude and spoke unpleasantly. I was very frustrated by the time I got there for the interview. She arranged for someone else to conduct my managerial interview. I didn't enjoy the conversation with him at all. It made me wonder if they are looking for technically good candidates or people who can just fake their way through 15 minutes of personal questions. I have a lot of interview experience, but this was the worst. Please pay attention to who you hire as HR, as they represent the company. My experience with HR was terrible.

The interview process started with a technical test that had some good multiple-choice questions. It wasn't too difficult. For the test, just clearing concepts from GeeksforGeeks is enough. There was a bit about Hibernate, specifically second-level cache, and Design Patterns from Tutorialspoint. That was sufficient for the test. Now, about the interview itself. They asked about my current project structure and requested an architecture/flow diagram. Then came questions on Core Java, Servlets, and Collections. I was asked to write two Core Java programs. They also inquired about asymptotic time complexity and how to prove code efficiency in terms of time and space. Spring Core and Spring MVC were also covered. I was asked to implement basic data structures like stacks and queues using arrays and linked lists, and write a recursion code. There were also basic questions from my CV. I answered everything, but I'm unsure about what they were looking for or if the vacancy was already filled. Additionally, to the principal management or interview committee: please maintain some interview etiquette. When a candidate is answering, one panel member was receiving phone calls and leaving the room in between.

We started with an online test that lasted for about an hour. It covered Java, Git, Database, Junit, and some programming challenges. There were multiple-choice questions on Java, around 19 of them, and then 2 to 5 questions for the other sections.