Zuora Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

So I had five rounds for this role. The first round was a data structures and algorithms round, and rounds two, four, and five were LLD and HLD rounds. The first to fourth rounds were each one hour long, but the fifth round, which was the techno-manager round, went on for two hours and 20 minutes. The manager said I could learn on the job and that this was an opportunity problem, not a capability problem. He said he'd be willing to teach me and that initially I'd have to be learning what I will learn in the next 2-3 years for my next 6-9 months in the job. He also asked me to decide on a number that would be helpful for HR discussion and said onboarding would be faster. He even gave his personal number and said we're family now and I could call him anytime, even outside working hours. After all that, I thought I'd get selected. But a month after the final interview, I was ghosted. They stopped returning my calls and emails. It's a horrible situation after 5 rounds and seven hours of my time to get no response.

I went through a few rounds of interviews with senior engineers, managers, and directors. It was mostly focused on my technical skills in coding and code design. They also asked about architectural design and probed into my past projects, specifically discussing issues I encountered and how I resolved them.

The interview process included a coding interview that ended up being a system design question, lasting over 2 hours. Interestingly, the interviewer seemed unaware of BFS, despite the task involving tree building and node searching. The System Design round featured two interviewers, an architect and a manager, conducting the interview simultaneously. I found it difficult that their understanding of system design wasn't aligned, and the manager joined 15 minutes late, challenging my design choices without full context, forcing me to make disruptive adjustments. I admit I got a bit upset and questioned them. Apparently, the manager was meant for a later behavioral interview. The subsequent behavioral interview with a director was okay, but he struggled to grasp the complexities of cross-organizational projects, focusing too much on 'teams' rather than broader organizational structures. A general impression was that interviewers were very knowledgeable about their products and company, favoring answers that fit their existing understanding.