Today I had my first technical interview after around 3.5 years, and honestly, it hit me harder than I expected.

I’ve been working mainly as a frontend engineer with React and also have experience working across backend/full-stack systems. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been revising React, JavaScript, frontend architecture, Node.js, databases, system design, etc.

I went into the interview feeling pretty confident.

The interview started with:

- What is REST?
- Design an API
- React reconciliation
- JSX
- Infinite scrolling / frontend design

The part that really got me was the React reconciliation question.

The interviewer gave me a Todo-list-like example using index as a key, with items being added at the beginning/end of the list.

I understood that something was wrong with using index as a key, but it took me a while to reason through exactly what React was doing during reconciliation.

He eventually gave me a hint about reconciliation, and then I was able to connect the dots.

Then I got another question:

"Why does JSX require a single parent/root element?"

I could identify the issue in the code, but I couldn't clearly explain why JSX requires a single root.

I also got an infinite-scroll design question, which I was relatively comfortable with.

The weird part is that after the interview, I realized:

I actually knew most of the concepts.

My problem was being able to retrieve and explain the fundamentals clearly under interview pressure.

For example, today I started revisiting basic JavaScript concepts like:

- Scope
- Hoisting
- TDZ
- Execution context
- Scope chain
- Shadowing
- Closures

And I realized I can understand these concepts when I reason through them, but explaining them cleanly in an interview is a completely different skill.

So I'm curious about other experienced engineers:

Have you ever had this experience where you knew the technology fairly well, but an interviewer exposed gaps in your fundamentals or your ability to explain them?

How did you fix it?

Did you:

1. Go back and systematically revise fundamentals?
2. Do mock interviews?
3. Practice explaining concepts out loud?
4. Focus more on problem-solving rather than memorizing interview questions?

I'm especially interested in hearing from 5–10+ YOE engineers who went through something similar.

Today definitely humbled me, but I'm trying to use it as a diagnostic rather than letting one interview define my confidence.

Would love to hear how you guys handled this.

Hi everyone!

I was curious about Apple's OA and interview process for the above role. If you have gone through the process recently or earlier, I'd really appreciate it if you could share your experience

1. How was the OA? What topics did they focus on (DSA)? Were there MCQs and which subject?
2. How was Coderpad as a platform?
3. How many interview rounds? What was the focus of these interviews?
4. How much emphasis was placed on CS fundamentals (OS, DBMS, CN, OOP)?
5. Do they ask SQL queries etc?
6. Was resume a key focus of the interviews?

Any tips you would love to share!

Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming SDET interview with EXL the day after tomorrow for a candidate with around 3 years of experience.

I was told there will be 3 rounds:

2 Technical rounds

1 Client round

I would really appreciate some insights from anyone who has recently interviewed for a similar SDET/QA Automation role at EXL.

What kind of questions should I expect in the two technical rounds?

How much focus is there on Java, API testing/automation, Rest Assured, Selenium, SQL, and coding/DSA?

What should I expect in the client round?

Are there any specific topics or questions that I should prioritize preparing for?

Most importantly, for someone with around 3 YOE, what salary/CTC range can I realistically expect at EXL for an SDET role?

If you've recently gone through the EXL SDET interview process, I'd really appreciate any advice or interview experiences. Thanks!

Hi, I am hardly earning decent amount as someone with 6 years experience.
I am preparing for job switch but things have changed so much.
I started as a frontend developer then changed into a full stack dev.
My tech stack has always been React\Next with NodeJS.
Im thinking to apply to jobs as a frontend developer.
I dont think I have enough knowledge as a backend dev specifically because Ive only ever worked with Node.
I work at a well known company so I only want to target known companies and MNCs. I cant do startups.
What would you suggest. Do companies like FAANG, adobe, salesforce, cred, Atlassian hire just UI devs. Ill be going in for a senior position.
Is frontend still relevant?
Is there anyone here who is in a UI role with good pay please please reach out. I need serious advice

I’m currently working as a Data Engineer at Lloyds Technology Centre, Hyderabad, with around 4.5 years of experience.

My current CTC is around ₹12 LPA, and I’ve received an offer from Mattel Hyderabad for around ₹18.5 LPA fixed for a Data Engineer role.

I’m confused about whether this is a good move because Lloyds has some really good employee benefits — free cab, food, good health benefits, decent WLB, etc. The overall facilities are quite good.

The Mattel role looks better from a compensation perspective and seems to offer good exposure to GCP/data engineering technologies, but I’ve heard mixed opinions about the work culture/structure and I’m not sure about the long-term growth.

For people who have worked at Mattel Hyderabad :

• How is Mattel's work culture and management?
• How is the Data Engineering team?
• Is there good technical exposure and career growth?
• How are hikes/promotions?
• Is the work structured or mostly support/maintenance?
• Would you consider ₹18.5 LPA at Mattel a good move from ₹12 LPA at Lloyds?

Would really appreciate honest opinions, especially from people currently working there or who have worked there recently.

Got an offer from the above companies. I have overall 10YoE with Post Graduation

Heineken - 52LPA

Salesforce - 60LPA (including stocks)

Coupang - 65LPA (including stocks)

Can anyone help ?

Hi everyone,

I cleared the Amazon SDE I Online Assessment on 3rd August and received my interview invite on 13th August. My interview is scheduled for 18th August (around 1 hour).

The email mentions:

Up to 2 interview rounds

1 Technical Interview

1 Hiring Manager Round

The focus areas are:

Data Structures & Algorithms

Problem Solving

GenAI Fluency

Amazon Leadership Principles

If anyone has recently completed the Amazon SDE I interview, could you please share your experience? I'd really appreciate knowing:

What kind of DSA questions were asked?

Was there any LLD/OOP or CS fundamentals?

What GenAI-related questions were asked?

Which Leadership Principles were emphasized?

Any tips to prepare in the last few days?

Any insights would be really helpful. Thanks in advance!

Hi guys i recently got the hiring interest form after clearing OA (job id 10402813), have filled it but haven’t gotten any revert, quite curious to know what happens next. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Cheers

Does any one got amazon invite for interview and given it already through Hackon Hiring interest application job id : 10490515 ..if yes please share ur experience

How many rounds were there ?

What type of questions in each round or what was the format ?

Any specific thing ..have to consider for interview..any topics

Or dsa + cs core only

so i am a 4th year btech student, been grinding my ass off since 1st year to get a good job with good package. won 15 hackathons, done 2 internships, got 2 grants for my projects and solved 600+ dsa problems. not flexing just giving context for why this whole thing is bugging me so much

so recently i sat for a placement drive at a good company for software testing role, not a dev role but i thought its still good as a fresher. there were 3 rounds

first was OA round, happened in college and obviously everyone was copying, i had the bad luck of sitting in first row so couldnt even if i wanted to. but questions were easy anyway so i solved all except one sql question. still got into next round tho

next was in person technical round, 6 of us got selected. out of the 6 i knew one other guy who was actually good at dsa and coding, lets call him Y, rest were my college mates from my club who were never really into tech or serious coding ever. technical round was 2hrs for the boys but for girls it was only like 45min-1hr, dont even wanna comment on that

so theres this one guy, call him X, his interviewer was literally watching reels on his phone while X was writing test cases for the website. and when he got asked dsa questions he just straight up told the interviewer he doesnt know dsa. his last round was apparently just basic prompting

but for me and other 2 guys the interviewer was a senior engineer. mine was proper continuous discussion, for every test case i wrote we were talking it through and it went pretty good. then dsa, he gave me 2 questions both moderate, gave me custom test cases to solve infront of him which i did, except 2 test cases failed on the second one. i even explained him 2 different approaches including the optimal one

so me, Y, X and one girl all got selected for hr round. hr round went pretty good for me too, for boys they asked testing questions again, i answered all except one where i tried explaining all possible failure scenarios but he wasnt fully convinced. everything else went really well tho. my hr interviewer was a senior manager

for the others hr round was taken by a fresher. for the girl they didnt ask any technical questions at all. for Y and the other guy they just asked the same questions from technical round again and they gave same answers, no follow up or anything

company said theyll tell results same day but took them a week instead, with constant back and forth between my college and them the whole time. and in the end they selected X and the girl, even though mine and Y's interview went the best out of everyone honestly

i genuinely dont get what i did wrong or what else i shouldve done

one more thing, X and the girl were both cse main branch, me and Y were from sub branches. been overthinking this a lot lately and my college people arent even giving me the hr's email so i can atleast ask for feedback

Hi everyone,

I have 11 years of experience and am currently working at Ford in Chennai with a 60 LPA package (inclusive of annual bonus). My target is to break into the 1 Cr+ CTC tier.

Companies in Chennai don't seem ready to meet this threshold for my profile, so I am actively exploring opportunities in Bangalore. I recognize there might be skill or positioning gaps I need to address to command this compensation.

For those in senior/staff-level roles in Bangalore:

What specific technical, system design, or leadership skills are required at the 10+ YOE level for this pay band?

Which companies or tech stacks should I focus on?

Looking for realistic insights and feedback

Hi Everyone,

I am currently working at Amex Bangalore as SDE3.

It’s been 5 years with Amex, overall I have 10+ years of Experience.
I was looking for jobs in market finally got an offer from Mastercard Pune.

Now I am wondering whether should I leave Amex and join Mastercard or not? Considering Layoffs due to AI.
In my current team at Amex WLB is smooth but I feel too much complacent that is not healthy too.
plus I am getting Lead role in mastercard.

Please help me decide based on your experience.

As a final yr student I can confidently say I have good amount of knowledge in my domain Cloud & DevOps {AWS, Azure, Jenkins, Terraform, Linux, Kubernets} also have about 6 active industry certification on AWS, Azure, RedHat with a good amount of project combining all these skills I learnt. Still the interviewer need me to have knowledge in MLops, AIops and Agentic AI. What I am saying is either they reject because of No experience or they reject that we don't have some skills which we can learn in a week. In a rare case they also rejected me as over qualified for 4.5LPA package.

Ok then I tried OnCampus drives but they are actually bullshit some see my resume and reject me. when i asked why i am not short listed to my placement cell they are saying you are into a single domain so reject it guys I also did a infosys internship in fullstack. or else even if go into online assessment all questions answered correctly they will reject even we dont get the scores of the assessment we did. Because if they give the scores mean we will question them.

Atlast me who spent months preping for certs and doing projects etc. got no job others who just did DSA for a couple of month gets a job.

One of the funny experience with Hexaware interview I cleared Group discussion , aptitude, Coding, even technical interview where they asked two coding questions which also I did and then moved to HR round where I answered every general HR questions confidently at last they asked what domain you want to work obviously I learnt Cloud& DevOps I said that. That was the only reason they rejected me.

YOE: 4yrs
Stack: Python, React.js, Next.js, Java Spring Boot (here and there), AWS.

Offers to evaluate:

1. Publicis Groupe – 17 LPA - Backend Engineer (tech stack good) Stack: Java Spring Boot, GCP, NestJS
2. Wipro (Blackstone CoE) – 37 LPA - huge pay but tech stack may not be right for me Stack: C#, Python, Oracle Fusion etc.
3. Delloite Data Engineer: 21+2jb : i don't wanna be a DE at the moment.
4. IBM consulting: 23lpa: AWS cloud full stack: Not leaning towards this cuz may/may not get the project of my choice

Offers in pipeline / I haven't asked them to generate it cuz of comparative pay:

1. IQVIA (NP: 90 days, I would've gone for this but the team being put on isn't really nice): 28 LPA + 2 JB They are putting me in the integration team, validating devs' work, informing them to solve the issue etc.
2. Fractal - good company - python full stack role - 23 LPA
3. Epsilon (AI Engineer) - 23 LPA but work in a new AI product they're building. 2 months but applied AI engineer work (not interested to go into applied AI engineer atm)
4. Comviva - In consideration, NP: 90 days (23 LPA), tech stack: unsure (the only product based company I may get an offer from)

As you can see, the difference b/w Publicis (17) and Wipro Blackstone CoE (37) is huge.

I am leaning towards the offer from Publicis Groupe because of Java as the tech stack. I want to work on microservices/distributed systems and move to a product-based organization, which I am hoping to do in an year of time, if not today. I would be proficient in the Java Spring Boot tech stack, good enough to interview at least.

I am also a polyglot which basically means I don't know one thing really well/deep. So I am currently leaning towards making one stack and sticking to it. I also see a lot of Java/Spring Boot roles for Backend Engineers, so that's also a preference (not that any other stacks are any inferior, but most sophisticated enterprise stacks/distributed systems are built/ being built on Java).

Is my reasoning flawed?

Would anyone else have chosen the better-paying offer? Or should I stick with choosing the right role. And the notion that money will follow.
(used ai for formatting)

Seniors and experienced folks in the industry please help me in making this decision.

I have got offers from two places.

1. C++ Developer in a service based company for 5 LPA (3 months notice period, no bonds)

2. SDET 1 (Mostly manual + some Automation in Java) at a well known startup with 10-11 LPA offer.

Considering that if i choose SDET it would become hard to switch back to development and joining a service based company would mean less pay and also slow growth what would you recommend me to choose based on current market standards ??

i have my interview for amazon SDE1 intern in 6 days (off campus). please suggest what to prepare. important topics, difficulty level and so on🙏

Saw this Amazon SDE-1 comp post and thought it was worth sharing here.

Context: 2026 CSE batch, Tier-1 college, 6-month internship at Amazon, converted to PPO.

Offer details

Component	Amount
Company	Amazon
Role	SDE-1
Base pay	₹19.17L
Sign-on bonus — Year 1	₹6.47L
Sign-on bonus — Year 2	₹5.18L
RSUs	₹15.56L over 4 years
RSU vesting	5%, 15%, 45%, 35%
Relocation	₹1.5L one-time
Total CTC	~₹48L

Other perks mentioned

• Home internet reimbursement: ₹1,250/month
• Meal card: ₹1,100/month
• Free annual health check
• Transportation facility: ₹4,000/month, charged

Interesting to compare this with recent Amazon SDE-2 offers.

SDE-1 PPO:

• ₹19.17L base
• ~₹48L total CTC
• backloaded RSU vesting

Recent SDE-2 datapoints we’ve seen were more like:

• ₹42–45L base
• ~₹57–65L first-year CTC

I am 10+ yeras experience in Java backend working with Walmart India as SSE. I want to know what is the current interview process in MAANG+ right now for SSE or Staff Software Engineer?

Thanks for the help.