Lumber - Full Stack Developer
Interview Process
Online Assessment
September 2, 2025It was a 2-hour long Online Assessment consisting of 5 questions in total — 2 from SQL and 3 from Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA). The overall difficulty level of the questions was quite high. Despite this, I was able to solve all the problems in a single attempt within just 50 minutes, well ahead of the allotted time. As a result, I successfully qualified for the next round: the AI Interview.
Zeko AI Interview
September 8, 2025It was a 1-hour AI Interview conducted on the Zeko AI Platform, primarily designed to evaluate my technical expertise and communication skills. The assessment covered my tech stack knowledge with a focus on Software Architecture, Debugging, and Java Backend concepts. Throughout the interview, the ability to explain my thought process clearly and effectively played an important role.
Towards the end, I was given one DSA problem based on Strings, with a strict time limit of 15 minutes. I was able to solve it within the timeframe. Overall, the round went smoothly — I answered all the questions with confidence and successfully qualified for the next stage.
Personal Interview - Technical
September 12, 2025My interview was initially scheduled for 10th September and was supposed to be a 1-hour session. I waited in the meeting for nearly 20 minutes, but no one joined. After another 5 minutes, the HR informed me that the interview had been rescheduled to another day.
Finally, the interview took place on 12th September. However, the interviewer joined 25 minutes late. There was no formal introduction, and the interviewer seemed uninterested from the very beginning.
The session started with a few questions on JWT authentication, which I was able to answer easily. Then, the interviewer moved on to a DSA question, but instead of sharing it in text or images, he tried to explain it verbally. This made it quite difficult for me to clearly understand the problem statement. After reading the question, he left the meeting for about 10 minutes, and upon returning, simply remarked that I hadn’t solved the problem completely.
The interview ended abruptly within 25 minutes, leaving the overall experience extremely disappointing and unproductive.
Detailed Experience & Tips
My interview experience was quite mixed. I had prepared by revising core concepts of DSA, SQL, and system design, along with brushing up on JWT authentication, debugging, and backend fundamentals. The online assessment was tough but manageable with practice on platforms like LeetCode and SQL queries.
In the technical interview, I was asked about JWT authentication and then given a DSA question based on Strings, but the interviewer explained it only verbally, which made it difficult to follow. Time management was crucial as I had just 15 minutes for coding.
Tips for future candidates:
Revise DSA (especially Strings, Arrays, and Hashing) and SQL queries. Be confident while explaining your thought process. Practice system design basics and authentication methods like JWT. Stay calm even if the interviewer’s behavior or environment feels challenging.