My Salesforce MTS Interview Experience | Bangalore | 2 YOE

Role: Member of Technical Staff (MTS)
Location: Bangalore
Experience: 2 years
Tech Stack: Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, PostgreSQL, React

My experience, primarily in backend development, so I was comfortable discussing Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, and databases.

I recently appeared for the Member of Technical Staff (MTS) interview process at Salesforce

Round 1: DSA (2 Coding Questions)

The first round focused entirely on DSA. Both questions were around medium-to-hard difficulty.

I don't remember the exact problem statements, but the patterns were:

• Sliding Window + Two Pointers: The problem involved finding the maximum number of requests within a given time window. It required using a variable-size sliding window, and it took me some time to identify the right approach.

• Sliding Window + HashMap: This problem was based on the Minimum Window Substring pattern, involving character frequency tracking and window adjustments.

I spent more time than expected on the first question, especially while handling edge cases and follow-up discussions. Unfortunately, I couldn't get enough time to code the second solution.

Instead of rushing through the implementation, I explained my approach to the interviewer, including the data structures I would use, how the window would move, and the expected time and space complexity.

Honestly, I logged off thinking I wouldn't make it to the next round because the process was eliminatory. However, around an hour later, the recruiter called and informed me that I had cleared the round.

Round 2: DSA + Low-Level Design (LLD)

This round covered both problem-solving and system design.

DSA Question

I was asked a medium-level interval-based problem involving merging overlapping time intervals and returning a consolidated list of non-overlapping intervals.

The main challenge was handling overlapping ranges correctly while maintaining the sorted order of intervals.

LLD: Movie Ticket Booking System

For the design part, I was asked to design a movie ticket booking platform similar to BookMyShow.

The expected functionality included allowing users to select a city, movie, showtime, and seats before completing the payment.

I covered the major entities, their relationships, and the overall booking flow. Some important aspects I discussed were:

• Designing classes for users, movies, theatres, shows, bookings, and seats.

• Managing seat availability during the booking process.

• Implementing seat locking to prevent two users from booking the same seat.

• Handling failed payments and expired seat reservations.

• Maintaining consistency throughout the booking workflow.

Overall, I felt the round went well, and I received positive feedback from both the first and second rounds.

One important piece of feedback I received was that I needed to write more of my explanations in the shared document. I was explaining concepts verbally, but the interviewer expected me to document more of the implementation details.

I realized that during an LLD interview, the shared document is essentially the final answer. Every class, attribute, method, and relationship discussed should also be represented in the design.

Don't prepare only DSA for MTS roles. LLD can be equally important, so make sure you practice translating your verbal explanations into an actual design.

Round 3: Hiring Manager (Director)

For this round, I had prepared High-Level Design. I had also revised my previous projects.

However, the discussion took a different direction.

The director opened my resume and went through it line by line. Most of the conversation revolved around my previous projects, the technical decisions I had made, and my understanding of the systems I had worked on.

Some of the questions included:

• How did I build this particular project?

• Why did I choose Kafka for this use case?

• Why did I select a particular database?

• What technical challenges did I face, and how did I resolve them?

• If I were rebuilding the same system today, what would I do differently?

I was also asked a couple of managerial and behavioral questions:

• How do I use AI in my day-to-day development work?

• Why do I want to join Salesforce?

The AI-related question was particularly interesting. I was expected to explain how I use AI to improve productivity, which tasks I trust it with, and where I prefer to validate everything manually.

My takeaway: Be thoroughly prepared to discuss everything mentioned in your resume. Understanding the reasoning behind your technical decisions is just as important as knowing how to implement them.

If you're preparing for a similar role, I would recommend focusing on:

• Practicing medium-to-hard DSA problems, especially sliding window, two pointers, hashing, and intervals.

• Preparing LLD problems such as movie booking systems.

• Revising your projects in depth and understanding every technology mentioned in your resume.

• Preparing for questions around AI tools and their practical use in software development.

One thing I learned is that your resume isn't just a summary of your experience; every technical decision mentioned in it can become an interview question.