I Made Mistakes in My React Interview, But Still Got Selected at EPAM

• Company: EPAM Systems

• Role: Junior Software Engineer

• Monthly In-Hand: Approximately ₹60,000

• Result: Selected

Online Assessment

It included aptitude questions and two coding problems. I managed to solve one coding question and was shortlisted for the next stage.

Round 1: Written Coding Test

I had to solve programming questions on paper without using an IDE.

One problem involved combining values belonging to the same name and calculating their final totals.

For example:

Input:
Aman 12
Neha 35
Aman 28
Ravi -15
Neha -35
Ravi 25

Output:
Aman 40
Ravi 10

I used a HashMap in Java to maintain the total for each name. After the evaluation, I was shortlisted.

Round 2: Group Discussion

The topic was "How Has UPI Changed Financial Transactions in Rural India?"

I discussed how UPI helps rural shopkeepers accept digital payments, maintain transaction records, track sales, and manage their businesses more efficiently.

There were around ten participants, and five were selected. I was among them.

Round 3: Technical Interview

The interviewer began with my introduction and asked about my coding practice. He appreciated that I had solved more than 400 programming problems.

The discussion covered:

• Valid Parentheses

• Recursive Binary Search

• Abstract class vs. interface in Java

• Storing images in SQL and alternative approaches

• REST APIs

• MongoDB vs. SQL databases

• My projects and their architecture

I struggled with the image-storage question, and the interviewer explained the concept. We also discussed my projects in detail.

Round 4: Technical Interview

I was informed that another technical evaluation was required. This round mainly focused on React and frontend development.

Some questions were:

• How do you structure a React project?

• How do you fetch and display backend data?

• What is useEffect, and how does its dependency array work?

• What happens when the dependency array is omitted?

• How can an infinite rendering loop occur?

• How do you pass data between parent and child components?

• What are different approaches to state management?

I missed a few details while explaining useEffect. The interviewer clarified that without a dependency array, the effect runs after every render. If it continuously updates state, it can cause repeated renders.

We also discussed Context API and Recoil, followed by behavioural questions about teamwork, disagreements, code quality, and learning new technologies.

Round 5: HR Interview

The HR discussion covered my background, projects, achievements, other offers, and reasons for joining EPAM.

I was also asked why I was looking for another opportunity after recently joining Cognizant. I explained that I had joined around ten days earlier in a testing-related role but wanted to pursue software development.

I clarified my joining availability and answered the remaining questions.

After a short wait of around ten minutes, HR informed me that I had been selected.

Result

I received an offer for the Junior Software Engineer role with a fixed package of ₹8 LPA, approximately ₹60,000 per month in hand.

• Practise DSA and learn to explain your approach clearly.

• Be thorough with everything mentioned in your resume.

• Revise Java, OOP, databases, and REST APIs.

• If you have React projects, prepare hooks and state management properly.

• Don't ignore communication and behavioural questions.

• Be honest about your current employment situation during HR discussions.