Technical practice
Designing Scalable Microservices on AWS
What to coverExplain your approach to designing resilient microservices architectures on AWS. Focus on how you ensure high availability, handle service discovery, and manage inter-service communication while maintaining performance.
AI-Driven Knowledge Management Architectures
What to coverDescribe how you would architect a knowledge management system using AI to improve user experience. Discuss the trade-offs between different retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns and how you ensure data security and accuracy in a banking context.
Optimizing Chatbot Performance and Scalability
What to coverHow do you approach the end-to-end lifecycle of a conversational AI chatbot? Address strategies for latency reduction, handling high concurrent traffic, and integrating with backend legacy systems.
Java Performance Tuning in Distributed Systems
What to coverWhat techniques do you use to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks in high-throughput Java applications? Discuss memory management, garbage collection tuning, and thread management within a microservices environment.
Implementing End-to-End DevOps Automation
What to coverDescribe your strategy for implementing CI/CD pipelines that enforce security and quality governance. Explain how you balance rapid delivery with the rigorous compliance requirements typical of the financial services industry.
Database Design for High-Performance Applications
What to coverHow do you decide between relational and NoSQL databases when designing for scalability and availability? Provide examples of how you have optimized database schemas or query performance for large-scale applications.
Governance and Architecture Roadmapping
What to coverAs a Principal Engineer, how do you define and communicate long-term architecture roadmaps? Explain your process for ensuring that individual feature teams align with broader organizational standards and technical debt reduction goals.
Security and Resilience in Cloud Infrastructure
What to coverWhat are the key considerations for securing cloud-native applications on AWS? Discuss your approach to implementing zero-trust principles, encryption at rest/transit, and automated disaster recovery testing.
Behavioural practice
Leading Through Technical Influence
What to coverDescribe a situation where you had to influence a team or stakeholders to adopt a new architectural direction or technology. How did you build consensus and address concerns while maintaining project momentum?
Managing Complex Stakeholder Relationships
What to coverProvide an example of how you have managed expectations with non-technical stakeholders regarding complex technical trade-offs. How did you ensure they understood the business impact of your engineering decisions?
Mentoring and Developing Engineering Talent
What to coverShare an experience where you mentored senior engineers or led a team through a significant technical transformation. What actions did you take to improve the team's overall engineering capability and delivery quality?
Navigating Ambiguity in Solution Design
What to coverDescribe a time when you were tasked with solving a high-level, ambiguous problem. How did you break down the requirements, define the scope, and lead the team to a successful, scalable solution?