← Interview experiences
Rejected

Software Development Engineer at Postman

Difficulty
Process took
2-3 Weeks
Rounds
4
Format
Remote
Applied via
Job Portal

How it went

  • If applying to fullstack roles, prepare to be evaluated on both ends of the stack. Highlight your frontend skills clearly if they exist.
  • Interviewers value openness and coachability when stuck, ask for hints, show your thought process, and iterate quickly.

What they would tell you

  • If applying to fullstack roles, prepare to be evaluated on both ends of the stack. Highlight your frontend skills clearly if they exist.
  • Interviewers value openness and coachability when stuck, ask for hints, show your thought process, and iterate quickly.

How to prepare

  • For fullstack roles, ensure you have balanced expertise in frontend (CSS, browser internals) and backend (APIs, system design).

Round by round

  1. 1

    Recruiter Screening Call30 min

    This round was more of an introductory call with the recruiter. They asked about my overall experience and my expertise in different technologies. The goal was to see if I was a good fit for the full-stack role and to understand my technical background. The recruiter also explained the interview process and mentioned that those who pass this stage would move on to the Hiring Manager round.

  2. 2

    Hiring Manager45 min

    This round was focused on fundamentals across both frontend and backend. The interviewer asked me to explain how browsers work, including the basics of rendering and networking. I also answered questions on CSS things like selectors, specificity, and layout. We then shifted to backend system design and discussed concepts like scalability. The goal was to test my understanding of full-stack fundamentals, ensuring I had a broad knowledge of both frontend and backend technologies. The Hiring Manager was friendly and seemed genuinely interested in my understanding of core concepts, since this role required a solid balance of both frontend and backend skills.

  3. 3

    Technical Interview60 min

    Spoke in detail about my projects, focusing on my work with event-driven architecture. Questions explored:

    • Architecture and components of event-driven systems
    • Design and scaling of REST APIs
    • Designing a scheduling service API endpoints, fault tolerance, retry mechanisms This round was collaborative and felt like a two-way discussion rather than rapid-fire questioning.
  4. 4

    Machine Coding60 min

    This interview was taken by an SDE-2, and I was asked to build a URL shortener. Key Points:

    • We began by discussing the problem statement and I presented my approach.
    • I started coding in Node.js, but faced a challenge during the implementation.
    • With a hint from the interviewer, I was able to resolve the issue and complete the solution successfully.
    • We tested the API in Postman and then discussed potential improvements and scalability.

What came up

HardRemote1 2 years

A candidate-reported account, lightly edited. Interview processes change by team and date.

Sources