Recently, I had the opportunity to interview face-to-face at Oracle Pune for a role at Oracle Application Labs. As a fresher with around 1 year of experience, I was eager to showcase my skills and enthusiasm for the position. Despite not clearing this round, I believe my experience could be helpful to others, hence, I decided to share it.
Introduction and Panel:
The interview was conducted by a panel of two members. Initially, they provided an overview of Oracle and Oracle Application Labs (OAL), setting the stage for the discussion. I was then asked to introduce myself, laying out my background and experience.
Question Sequence:
The interview proceeded with questions spanning various areas, including my resume, data structures and algorithms (DSA), aptitude, and SQL. Here’s a breakdown of the questions I faced:
- Authentication Methods: Explaining various types of authentication methods.
- JWT: Defining JWT (JSON Web Token) and its components.
- Microservices: Discussing microservices architecture and my experience with its implementation.
- API Architecture: Detailing the components involved in the path from client to server in an API.
- Rate Limiting: Explaining the implementation of rate limiting in my server.
- Kubernetes: Basic understanding of Kubernetes, auto-scaling, YAML, etc.
- Database Selection: How I decide between NoSQL and SQL databases for a project.
- Previous Database Experience: Listing the databases I’ve worked with in my previous organization.
- DSA Question: Write a program to find the column title in Excel given the column number as an integer.
- Aptitude Question: Calculating the angle between the minute and hour hands at 02:20.
- SQL Question: Querying a SQL table for students absent for more than 5 days in a month, followed by aggregating the results by month.
Tech Stack Discussion:
Towards the end of the interview, I had the opportunity to discuss the tech stack I’ve previously worked with, particularly focusing on my experience with Node.js despite being interviewed for a Java developer role.
And the interview ended with, the classic “Do you have any questions for us?” moment!
Although I wasn’t successful in securing the position, the interview was a valuable learning experience. It highlighted areas where I need to further develop my skills and provided insights into the expectations of leading tech companies like Oracle. I look forward to applying these learnings in my future endeavours.