Hi everyone,
I began preparing in January 2026 while holding down a full-time backend job. I had big plans, but the start was rough. Amazon and Google both turned me down early in the process. It stung a lot, though looking back it showed me exactly where I was weak.
A JPMorgan Chase recruiter found me through my Naukri profile and contacted me about an Experienced Software Engineer opening. We first had a chat about my background and experience, and then I got an online assessment with two medium-level HackerRank problems.
I managed to solve both and walked away feeling good about it. Then nothing came back for roughly a month. Eventually a call arrived telling me I was shortlisted for the Superday, where all three interview rounds happen back to back on a single day.
Preparation
On LeetCode, my goal shifted from just grinding problems to spotting the patterns behind them. That change let me reason through questions in interviews rather than lean on solutions I had memorized.
For high-level and low-level design, I worked through an online system design course that gave me a clear method for tackling design problems and weighing trade-offs.
JPMC Interview Process
The Superday at JPMorgan Chase had three rounds, all on the same day.
- DSA Round: The question was a greedy problem built around a priority queue. I solved it, and the interviewer and I then went deep on its time and space complexity.
- HLD Round: This one was only high-level design, and I had to design a rate limiter. We talked through several rate limiting algorithms, plus scalability and availability. The interviewer cared more about how I thought and what trade-offs I made than about the final diagram.
- Behavioural Round: The questions were about real situations: how I handle requirements that are vague, how I deal with conflict, how I mentor people, and how I go the extra mile for teammates.
Key Learnings / Tips
- Learn the DSA patterns instead of only solving individual questions.
- State time and space complexity clearly.
- In design rounds, talk about trade-offs and pin down the requirements first.
- Say your thinking out loud.
- Be prepared to explain your actual work in depth.
Rejections & Reflection
My path was far from smooth. Amazon and Google said no early on, and a few other chances slipped away too.
Those setbacks were painful, but they exposed the holes in my preparation and pushed me to fix them. Over time I came to see that staying consistent and learning from your errors counts for more than any single result.
If you are partway through preparing and nothing seems to be working, please do not lose heart. Rejection is part of the process, and every one of them teaches something useful.
Keep at it, improve a little each day, and trust the process, because things do tend to fall into place. Your chance may be nearer than you think.
Discussion
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