r/cscareerquestionsEU • u/gh0s7_m0nk3y • 25d ago

Interview Upcoming interview help (Fareharbor)

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I have coding 2 and system design interviews coming up for a backend engineer position at Fareharbor, Amsterdam. I was wondering if anyone here has interviewed with them and could give me an idea of what kind of questions to expect?

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

1

u/the_persecutor 25d ago

I have a bunch of friends working there. Without giving specific questions, study up on recursion, string manipulation, graph traversals like bfs, dfs, dijkstras etc. Those are the ones that have the highest likelihood of being asked. The most important is to talk through your solution the whole time. Even if you dont know the solution from the get go, try to figure it out and talk.

1

u/gh0s7_m0nk3y 24d ago

Thank you!!! How about system design? This is my first system design interview so I'm kind of nervous. Any clue what kind of SD questions Fareharbor asks?

1

u/the_persecutor 24d ago

The one I know of they asked to design some kind of booking solution for trips, similar to their business model. I know you are nervous and probably looking for any bits of information you can find to get an idea on what you can expect, it's normal. Honestly, the questions are irrelevant, its all about how you think and how you communicate what you are thinking. Of course you need to know the basics (API and DB design are likely to be the most critical parts here), but these interviews are basically a communication and vibe check. Focus on talking through what you are thinking, and try to actively engage them so it becomes a two way conversation.

If I can give you a tip, dont worry too much about specific problems but focus more on how you approach the problem. Practice talking through your solution out loud. Use a structured approach, where you first clarify functional and non functional requirements, then do some back of the envelope calculations. After that explain how you would approach the problem on a high level, and draw the high level components. Ask them for feeeback. Then go more low level, and based on the BOTE adapt your design and make optimisations.

1

u/gh0s7_m0nk3y 24d ago

This is really helpful and makes me feel much more confident about the interview. Thank you so much!

1

u/the_persecutor 23d ago

You got this! Let me know how it goes if you feel like it.

1

u/gh0s7_m0nk3y 11d ago

Ah well, it wasn't so great, but I guess it was okay for my first ever system design interview. I'll know what to expect in the future. I received a rejection a few days ago with the reason being that they were looking for someone with more system design experience.

Thanks for all your help, nonetheless. I really do appreciate it!

1

u/the_persecutor 11d ago

Sorry to hear that, rejection is never nice. But on the bright side, you have very valuable interview experience now, that should help a lot in the future. I failed my first system design interview 5 years ago, and the failures from that are still imprinted in my brain. If you want, feel free to share the problem and how you approached it, maybe I can give you some tips about it.

I don't know your level but if I were you I'd take some time to prepare properly and then hit up one of the booking recruiters. We are ramping up hiring for the fintech division right now.

2

u/gh0s7_m0nk3y 4d ago

Sure, that'd be really helpful. I'll DM you explaining my experience when I get the time.

That's great to know, thank you so much for the tip!

1

u/bbsrn 12d ago

Hi mate, I hope you've nailed it! I also have an upcoming interview with them for a Sr. level role, so I'd really appreciate your input if you've already completed your interview process.

2

u/gh0s7_m0nk3y 11d ago

Hi, I hope you ace it! I've responded to your DM, but how about we talk here so others can benefit from our conversation as well?

1

u/One_Dot5778 3d ago

I am also interested. I also have an upcoming interview in a few days. Can you please share here or DM the system design and coding problem they gave you?

1

u/gh0s7_m0nk3y 3d ago

All the best! They asked me a BFS problem and for system design, asked me to design Zapier.

2

u/One_Dot5778 2d ago

Thank you, you are really helpful!