Here’s a round-by-round breakdown of necessary interview questions (theory

+ coding) for IT & MNC companies.

Round 1: Online Assessment (Coding Test)

This is the first filtering round, mostly conducted on platforms like HackerRank, LeetCode, or
CodeSignal.

Theory-Based Questions:

1. Explain OOPs principles with real-life examples.

2. What are abstract classes and interfaces? How are they different?
3. Explain method overloading vs method overriding with examples.
4. What is JVM, JRE, JDK? How do they work?
5. Explain Garbage Collection in Java.
6. What is the difference between ArrayList and LinkedList?
7. What is a HashMap? How does it work internally?
8. What are checked and unchecked exceptions?
9. Explain multithreading in Java. How is it different from multiprocessing?
10. What is synchronization? When do we use it?

Coding-Based Questions:

1. Reverse a String without using inbuilt functions.

2. Find the first non-repeating character in a string.
3. Check if a string is a palindrome.
4. Find the second largest number in an array.
5. Find duplicates in an array.
6. Check if two strings are anagrams.
7. Merge two sorted arrays without using extra space.
8. Find the missing number in an array of 1 to N.
9. Implement a Stack using an Array.
10. Find the longest common prefix among an array of strings.

Round 2: Technical Interview (1-2 Rounds)

This is a face-to-face or virtual round where in-depth technical knowledge is tested.

Theory-Based Questions:

1. Explain SOLID principles with examples.

 2. What is the difference between HashMap and HashSet?
3. What is ConcurrentHashMap, and how is it different from HashMap?
4. How does JVM manage memory? Explain Heap and Stack memory.
5. What is Spring Boot, and why is it used?
6. Explain Dependency Injection in Spring.
7. What is lazy loading and eager loading in Hibernate?
8. Explain different types of joins in SQL.
9. What is indexing in databases, and why is it important?
10. What is the difference between DELETE, TRUNCATE, and DROP in SQL?

Coding-Based Questions:

1. Find the middle element of a linked list in one pass.

2. Detect a cycle in a linked list using Floyd’s Cycle Detection Algorithm.
3. Reverse a linked list.
4. Implement LRU Cache using Java.
5. Find the intersection of two linked lists.
6. Find the kth largest element in an array.
7. Check if a binary tree is balanced.
8. Print the left view of a binary tree.
9. Find the shortest path in a graph using Dijkstra’s Algorithm.
10. Implement a Producer-Consumer problem using multithreading.

Round 3: System Design (For Product-Based &

Experienced Roles)
This round tests your ability to design scalable applications.

Theory-Based Questions:

1. How would you design a URL Shortener like Bit.ly?

2. How would you scale an e-commerce website?
3. Explain Microservices Architecture and its advantages.
4. What is Load Balancing, and how does it work?
5. What is Caching, and why is it used?
6. Explain Database Sharding and Replication.
7. What are CAP Theorem and ACID properties?
8. How would you design a payment gateway?
9. What is the difference between Monolithic and Microservices architecture?
10. Explain event-driven architecture.

Coding-Based Questions:
 1. Design a rate limiter for API requests.
2. Implement an in-memory key-value store like Redis.
3. Build a thread-safe Singleton class.
4. Design a multi-threaded web crawler.
5. Implement a search autocomplete feature.
6. Design an elevator system.
7. Implement a job scheduler.
8. Design a ride-sharing service like Uber.
9. Implement a social media news feed algorithm.
10. Create a file storage service like Google Drive.

Round 4: HR & Managerial Interview

This round tests your communication skills, problem-solving ability, and cultural fit.

Common HR Questions:

1. Tell me about yourself.

2. Why do you want to work at this company?
3. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
4. Describe a situation where you faced a challenge and how you handled it.
5. Where do you see yourself in five years?
6. Why should we hire you?
7. Tell me about a time you worked in a team.
8. How do you handle pressure and deadlines?
9. Have you ever disagreed with your manager? How did you handle it?
10. What are your salary expectations?

Collections – Question
Here are some Java Collection Framework questions to test your knowledge and prepare for
interviews:

Basic Level:

1. What is the Java Collection Framework?

2. What is the difference between Collection and Collections in Java?
3. What are the main interfaces in the Java Collection Framework?
4. What is the difference between List, Set, and Queue?
5. How does an ArrayList differ from a LinkedList?
6. What is the difference between HashSet and TreeSet?
 7. How does a HashMap work internally?
8. What is the difference between HashMap and Hashtable?
9. What are the different ways to iterate over a Collection in Java?
10. What is the difference between fail-fast and fail-safe iterators?

Intermediate Level:

11. Why is the initial capacity of a HashMap set to 16 by default?

12. What is the difference between Comparable and Comparator?
13. What is the difference between HashSet, LinkedHashSet, and TreeSet?
14. How does the ConcurrentHashMap work?
15. Why is the LinkedHashMap used over HashMap?
16. What is the difference between ConcurrentHashMap and synchronized HashMap?
17. Explain the internal working of ArrayList and LinkedList.
18. How does a PriorityQueue work internally?
19. What is the difference between Stack and Queue in Java?
20. What is CopyOnWriteArrayList, and where is it used?

Advanced Level:

21. How does the Java HashMap handle collisions?

22. How does the TreeMap maintain order?
23. What is WeakHashMap, and how is it different from HashMap?
24. What is the difference between IdentityHashMap and HashMap?
25. How do you implement a custom HashMap?
26. Why should we override hashCode() and equals() methods?
27. How does Java ensure thread safety in collections?
28. What is BlockingQueue, and how is it different from a normal Queue?
29. What is NavigableSet and NavigableMap in Java?
30. How does the LinkedHashMap maintain insertion order?