Reddit Experience · Mar 2026

For engineers with ~5–7 YOE: what did your recent Java backend interviews focus on?

Data Eng System Design
30 upvotes 17 replies

Interview Experience

I have around 6 YOE as a Java backend developer (Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices, SQL). I took a \~1 year break due to health issues and I’m starting interview prep again. Trying to unders

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I have around 6 YOE as a Java backend developer (Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices, SQL). I took a \~1 year break due to health issues and I’m starting interview prep again. Trying to understand what companies are actually expecting for 5–7 YOE backend roles now. If anyone interviewed for Java backend roles recently, what kind of questions did you actually get? I’m hearing mixed things — some people say system design dominates at this level, while others say companies still ask a lot of DSA/LeetCode-style problems. What has your experience been? Also curious how deep interviews go into core Java topics (collections, concurrency, JVM) and whether tools like Docker, Kafka, or cloud are now expected basics. Anything that surprised you in interviews recently that you didn’t expect?

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Sql System Design Os Networking