The round was meant to evaluate LLD and machine coding skills. However, a significant portion (30–40 mins) was spent on High-Level Design, where the interviewer seemed focused on a specific predefined solution and was not very open to alternative approaches. I implemented a complete working code in ~20 minutes using proper design patterns and clean structure. During follow-up questions on handling heavy traffic (millions of hits), I shared scalable approaches, but the discussion again appeared to expect a specific answer. The rejection feedback stated that “basics were not clear”, which did not align with the discussion. Given the round was primarily LLD-focused, the feedback felt inconsistent.

Interview process was good, had a great DSA round. For the next round I was told to prepare a basic nodejs server with express for LLD round. Then I was told during the interview that I would need a database of choice for the problem, mongoose on top of it. So I spent more time on integration rather than actual problem. I understand that it might be a miscommunication, so I would rate the process on first round only.