Real Backend Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

So I interviewed with Real, and honestly, based on Glassdoor reviews, I really didn't want to waste my time, but I tried anyway, and guess what? It was the same old story. They asked me to build a website like IMDb.com, which I finished in about 40 minutes. When I asked if there was anything else, the interviewer just sounded like a robot and said to send the zip file if I was done. For your info, I used SOLID principles, a few design patterns, and abstraction, and my code was top-notch. Their review process is awful; they never tell you why you're rejected, just some generic 'we appreciate your interest.' Seriously, don't bother applying here.

The first step is finishing a coding assignment. After submitting your work, it goes through what felt like a really strict review. I was surprised I didn't pass, especially with my background and certifications, because they said my code was 'hard to read'. I even added javadoc, used better names than the default 'Impl' suffix, followed good OO principles, commented where needed, and used design patterns for extensibility. I also included a file explaining my design choices. I know I couldn't spend unlimited time on it, but I thought it was good enough. They didn't give much specific feedback, just 'hard-codings' and readability issues. I guess they have a very specific idea of what they want, and maybe focus on minor details. They designed the assignment so the passing criteria weren't obvious, which is understandable, but it feels like they're really picky about things most people wouldn't stress over.

Received an initial recruiter call where they went over the job details and gave an overview of the company and culture. Then I got an email for a coding assessment due within a week, which I finished in a few hours. It was evaluated on things like readability, structure, extensibility, and accuracy. After passing that, I had a couple of technical interviews with senior engineers. One involved reviewing my coding assessment and asking technical questions about Java, concurrency, Spring, JPA, and Kafka. The next was a system design interview. Finally, the recruiter called about a manager interview with the CTO, which covered behavioral questions and a design problem. After that, the recruiter called with an offer. Overall, it was a great interview experience.