Core Technical Skills
Evaluate the candidate's depth in:
- Core Java (Java 8/11/17+ features)
- Spring Boot and Spring ecosystem
- Microservices architecture
- REST APIs, messaging (Kafka/RabbitMQ), and event-driven architecture
- SQL/NoSQL databases and data modelling
- Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP) and containerization (Docker/Kubernetes)
Deep Java Assessment
Validate strong understanding of:
- Concurrency & Multithreading
- Thread lifecycle, synchronization, locks, Executors, Completable Future
- Concurrent Collections and thread-safe programming
- Race conditions, deadlocks, and their mitigation
- Performance & Optimization
- JVM memory model, heap/non-heap memory
- Garbage Collection concepts and tuning basics
- Profiling, memory leaks, CPU optimization
- Performance bottleneck identification and resolution
- Time & Space Complexity
- Analyse algorithm complexity (Big O notation)
- Selection of appropriate data structures
- Optimizing code for scalability and efficiency
- Collections & Java Internals
- Internal working of HashMap, Concurrent HashMap, HashSet
- equals() vs hash Code()
- String, StringBuilder, String Buffer
- Serialization and Java memory management
- Design Principles
- SOLID principles
- Design patterns (Factory, Strategy, Singleton, Observer, etc.)
- Clean Code and best practices
Architecture & System Design Understanding
Assess the candidate's ability to understand:
- Design scalable, resilient, and secure enterprise applications
- Define microservice boundaries and communication patterns
- Handle scalability, high availability, and fault tolerance
- Apply caching, messaging, asynchronous processing, and resiliency patterns
- Make architecture and technology decisions with clear trade-offs
Technical Leadership
Evaluate whether the candidate can:
- Lead technical discussions and design reviews
- Mentor and guide development teams
- Review code and enforce engineering best practices
- Drive technical decision-making and resolve complex production issues
- Collaborate effectively with architects, product owners, and business stakeholders
Interview Focus
- Prioritize architecture, deep Java expertise, system design, performance optimization, and technical leadership over coding alone.
- Look for candidates who can own end-to-end solution design, troubleshoot complex issues, and lead technical initiatives.
