Synthesized from 16 candidate submissions for ALL.
Rakuten’s hiring process exhibits a structured yet role-dependent approach, with a strong emphasis on technical proficiency, problem-solving, and alignment with company culture. For entry-level roles like SDE-1 and Interns, the process often includes an online assessment (OA) followed by multiple technical rounds, including problem-solving, system design, and behavioral discussions. Mid-level roles like SDE-2 demand deeper expertise in Java ecosystems, Spring Boot, and system design, reflecting Rakuten’s focus on scalable and resilient architectures.
The candidate successfully cleared all rounds (OA, Technical, and HR) and received an offer for the SDE-1 role at Rakuten in Tokyo, Japan.
OA (1 hour): 2 Questions (No focus on the TC/SC) - Arthmetic slices - Ugly Numbers
An online assessment consisting of 2 coding questions. The focus was not on time/space complexity.
Arithmetic slices
Ugly Numbers
A 30-minute technical round where the candidate discussed their internship project, answered questions on CS fundamentals, and discussed cloud computing (aligned with their field of interest). Behavioral questions were also asked.
A 15-minute HR round focusing on behavioral questions, company culture, relocation willingness, and an explanation of the offer letter and compensation.
The interview was a single 1-hour technical session focusing heavily on Java ecosystem knowledge, Spring Boot, and architectural concepts, followed by a coding problem and a brief system design discussion.
A comprehensive technical interview covering Java core concepts, Spring Boot, microservices architecture, a coding problem, and a high-level system design task.
Java 11 features and usage
Advanced OOPs concepts
Exception handling and custom exception implementation
Java 8 features including Lambda expressions and Streams
Frequency count of elements using Java Streams
Find unique elements in an array using Java Streams
Spring Boot AOP
Spring Security including BasicAuth, JWT, and OpenAPI
Microservices architecture
Longest Palindromic Substring (DP approach)
System design of Zerodha
InterviewDigest