I appeared for Big Data/ Spark developer interview at the Xebia Gurgaon Office. The very complex and marathon process of hiring at Xebia starts with a code writing and ends up with client interview( I guess they hire client specific : at least It was in my case :P)
R1- Code Writing: There was a scenario to create a framework with the help of Spark using any programming language(Java/Python/Scala) you are comfortable with. It included creating data frames/ Datasets, using mutable lists, handling and manipulating data, applying condition statements etc.
R2- Face to Face meet: Lots of questions about the framework you have created in round 1 and discussion around the code you have written, Your current project you are working on, Basic questions on Hadoop,Hive,sqoop(Partitioning, bucking, Block etc), Rest interview was more focused upon Spark( So be prepared with strong spark knowledge)
Note: They have provided the wifi, nice coffee and very taste meal at lunch. All the interview coordinators was very polite and helpful and the experience at Xebia was really great.
R3- Telephonic : It was the toughest round among the all, It was around 1 hour 15 minutes discussion, He asked lot of questions around Spark, Scala, Java, Hadoop, Hive and all the stuff that was mentioned in my CV. Almost all questions were based on real time scenario, So if one has actually worked upon that technology or tool can easily handle those questions else please remove the items from your CV if you have written and assuming they won’t notice ( He even asked me write a unit test case for spark code :D)
R4- Telephonic : It was more a discussion then a interview for 15 mins, asked simple questions on spark i.e why you preferred Scala over python, what is configuration you use in your spark job etc.
R5-Telephonic : It was a discussion with a global head of technology of Xebia, So all the questions were managerial kind i.e. your motivation, Why Xebia etc.
R6- Telephonic : It was a Client interview. Again the main focus of interview was Spark, he asked many real time scenario based questions on spark, streaming, Kafka etc. There was around 15 mins of discussion around my current project, Agile methodology as well then he asked me If I have any questions for him. It was around 45 mins of call.
Round 1 & 2 were at Xebia office gurgaon, rest was telephonic and it took around 2 weeks to complete the process.
The END :)
