I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Capital One in Dec 2021
Interview
Recruiter reached out to me. We had one intro interview in which I was given the actual application to fill out (Full-Stack Developer). After completing that, I received a take-home technical assessment (CodeSignal / 70min / 4Qs) to do within 2 weeks.
After passing, we scheduled our "Power Day" of interviews. Got a run-down with the recruiter which was nice, but would take it with a grain of salt because some of what was said misled me in my preparation.
Power Day consisted of 2 "Job Fit" Technical interviews, 1 Behavioral, 1 Case. There was a "calibrating interviewer" for the two technical interviews - one was screen-off with no participation, and the other was pretty engaged. The other two just had one interviewer.
1st Job Fit Technical: Systems design
2nd Job Fit Technical: 1 Easy/Med LeetCode problem
Behavioral: 3 Questions, pretty standard
Case: Surprisingly straight-forward, but also not what I expected.
Interviews were fair/easy with proper preparation, but had a negative experience with some of the interviewers who gave some sarcastic remarks.
Interview questions [4]
Question 1
Systems design for a smart electric meter system for an apartment building with one dashboard for tenants to show hourly/weekly/monthly/yearly readings to their specific units, and another dashboard for the owner with similar readings but only by floors or building electricity usage.
Started with big components, and was allowed to delve into specifics in any other area per interviewee comfort and expertise
What do you know about Cloud / why Cloud is beneficial / pros & cons of moving to Cloud.
Given table data, recommend specs for the user.
Interpret code (related to data previously given), then debug
Expecting a challenging experience, I found the interview at Capital One to be intense, particularly during the system design section. The question on designing a rate limiter with a token bucket algorithm took me by surprise; mid-way through the problem, I realized it was very similar to a drill I’d practiced on prachub.com just days earlier. The technical rounds included several DSA questions, and the interviewers were thorough but supportive. Ultimately, I received an offer and happily accepted, feeling well-prepared despite the pressure.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a rate limiter using a token bucket algorithm and discuss how it would handle bursty traffic and distributed deployments.
Recruiter screening to begin with. Then, technical discussion about java, spring boot, design pattern, small coding tasks and followed by design assessment for distributed systems. Finally, managerial round for the team fit
Scheduled a call with recruiter. Recruiter didnt show up for the screening call and cancelled it 5 mins after the scheduled time. Dropped a follow up email and got no response. After a week, I got an email from the recruiter stating I am selected for the next round i.e Assessment. Sent me an email with the assessment description but no link. When I sent a follow up email asking for the link, I got ghosted again. It was a bad experience. Felt like she is toying with me. Why ghost an applicant repetitively? Unprofessional recruiter who doesn't respect an applicant's time or efforts!