Recently I interviewed for a Software Engineer position at Postman. For those who are not aware, Postman is an API platform. Everything and Anything that you think has something to do with an API, has something to do with Postman.
The interview had 5 rounds, 4 technical and 1 hiring manager round.
How I applied
So I actually did not apply myself for this role. The recruiter got my resume from Instahyre. I do not know how, but I was actively using Instahyre to apply to companies, and had updated my profile also with the latest details and resume.
1st Round: Discussion with Hiring Manager
General discussion on things related to my past work like challenges I faced, how I solved them, and other similar things. A normal discussion rather than a interview, I'd say.
2nd Round: (Skipped)
Was unable to give dates for this round in the same week, so HR moved me to next round directly, skipping this round.
3rd Round: Coding Round
Was given a question to create a Folder structure similar to VS Code's folder layout. Free to choose any framework/ Vanilla JS.
Functionalities required:
- Folder can have multiple files as well as folders
- Folder can be collapsed and expanded on click
- When folder is expanded, the items inside it should be nested inside it.
After this was done, a lot of follow up questions on the same were asked like:
- How to optimise the state of component
- Why functional components over class components (I had used functional components that's why)
- Event delegation
- Event Propagation
- How to optimise CSS animations
- How to optimise the API response returned from backend
4th Round: Technical Knowledge Round
This was again a discussion round, but a technical discussion.
Questions were on topics like Javascript, Typescript, CSS, React and stuff.
Some that I can recall are:
- Why is React better
- Why is Typescript better
- How state gets updated in React
- How objects work in JS
- How PureComponent works in React
5th Round: Problem Solving Round
Was given a question, which I can vaguely remember, and asked explain the logic, and write pseudocode for that.
There is a mall, which has n lifts. Each lift is connected to a black box sort of thing. This black box takes two inputs, the dest floor no where you want to go, and the current floor no that you're currently on. And it returns you the lift no which is optimal for you to go to your desired floor.
I felt that the interviewer was more interested in my approach, rather than the solution.
The Result
After 3 days, I got a call from HR that I am selected 🎉
Overall, it was a great interview experience. I learnt some new things also, during the process. Postman is a remote first company, so all the rounds were conducted over Zoom. The recruiter was also very supportive the entire process.
If you have any queries, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or Linkedin.
Thanks for reading, Cheers!