A Software Engineer at Royal Cyber plays a pivotal role in driving enterprise digital transformation, cloud modernization, and custom platform development for global client organizations. As a key IT consulting and digital solutions provider, Royal Cyber relies on its software engineering team to architect, build, and deploy robust, high-performance systems. Whether building cloud-native backend services, customizing enterprise platforms like ServiceNow, BigCommerce, STIBO PIM, or Infor M3, or delivering full-stack solutions using Java and.NET Core, engineers at Royal Cyber directly impact client technology ecosystems across multiple industries. The role demands a balance of deep technical execution, domain expertise, and effective client collaboration. You will build resilient RESTful APIs, modern microservices, complex integration flows, and automated deployment pipelines, working closely with enterprise architects, product owners, and client stakeholders. Because operates across varied technical stacks, engineers are expected to demonstrate high technical adaptability—mastering core engineering principles while tailoring solutions to specialized platform ecosystems and enterprise client requirements. Royal Cyber Joining Royal Cyber as a Software Engineer offers an environment characterized by diverse project portfolios, fast-paced technical delivery, and direct exposure to modern enterprise stacks.
HR Screening Call
reportedInitial call focused on background verification, technical alignment, compensation expectations, and role details.
What to demonstrate
- Initial call focused on background verification, technical alignment, compensation expectations, and role details
- Depth in ServiceNow development
How to prepare
- Be able to walk your CV end to end in two minutes, and say why this company specifically.
- Have your salary expectations, notice period and location constraints ready, and ask for the rest of the loop in writing.
L1 Technical Round
reportedFocus on core programming concepts, theoretical knowledge, language internals, and live coding or script analysis.
What to demonstrate
- Focus on core programming concepts, theoretical knowledge, language internals, and live coding or script analysis
- Depth in ServiceNow development
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: How do Java 8 features such as Streams, Lambda expressions, and
Optionalimprove code quality and concurrency management? - Answer aloud and timed: Explain the key annotations and architecture of a Spring Boot application, including dependency injection and data access patterns.
L2 Technical Round
reportedInvolves real-time scenario-based questions, architecture discussions, domain-specific platform knowledge, and project deep-dives.
What to demonstrate
- Involves real-time scenario-based questions, architecture discussions, domain-specific platform knowledge, and project deep-dives
- Depth in ServiceNow development
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: How do you implement global exception handling and secure REST APIs within a Spring Boot service?
- Answer aloud and timed: How does ASP.NET Core handle request processing, middleware execution, and dependency injection lifetime scopes (Transient, Scoped, Singleton)?
Client Technical Interview
reportedMay be integrated into the technical evaluation phase for specific client-facing engagements.
What to demonstrate
- May be integrated into the technical evaluation phase for specific client-facing engagements
- Depth in ServiceNow development
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: What strategies do you use for performance optimization when querying complex datasets using Entity Framework Core and SQL Server?
- Answer aloud and timed: Explain how you design and expose secure, versioned Web APIs using C# and modern authorization standards.
Managerial & HR Discussion
reportedDiscussion about workplace culture, team collaboration, client interaction experiences, and contract or compensation details.
What to demonstrate
- Discussion about workplace culture, team collaboration, client interaction experiences, and contract or compensation details
- Depth in ServiceNow development
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: Describe how you integrate Azure DevOps for CI/CD pipeline automation, automated testing, and release management.
- Answer aloud and timed: How do you manage asynchronous programming in C# using
asyncandawaitto prevent thread blocking?
PracHub editorial advice for the preparation topics above.
Structure your technical answers clearly
When explaining theoretical concepts (such as OOP design patterns, Java Collections, or ASP.NET Core middleware), start with a clear summary definition, explain the internal mechanism, and follow up immediately with a practical project example where you applied it.
Highlight real-world scripting and hands-on experience
Be prepared to write or explain real code during the interview. Whether writing SQL queries, Java/C# methods, or JavaScript logic, focus on readability, input validation, and clear logic flow.
Demonstrate familiarity with integration scenarios
Since much of Royal Cyber's enterprise work involves connecting systems, emphasize your experience with web service integrations (REST/SOAP), payload handling, error handling policies, and API security protocols.
Choose a category, try a prompt, then open its approach, worked solution or follow-up when you need it.
How do Java 8 features such as Streams, Lambda expressions, and `Optional` improve code quality and concurrenc
How do Java 8 features such as Streams, Lambda expressions, and Optional improve code quality and concurrency management?
Approach
- Say what the runtime actually does before reasoning about the code.
- Name what is shared across threads and what owns each piece of state.
- Identify the window where an invariant is briefly untrue.
- Distinguish a value from a reference to it, and say which one you handed out.
Follow-up
- What happens if two callers reach this at the same time?
- Where could this allocate more than you expect?
How do you manage asynchronous programming in C# using `async` and `await` to prevent thread blocking?
How do you manage asynchronous programming in C# using async and await to prevent thread blocking?
Approach
- Say what the runtime actually does before reasoning about the code.
- Name what is shared across threads and what owns each piece of state.
- Identify the window where an invariant is briefly untrue.
- Distinguish a value from a reference to it, and say which one you handed out.
Follow-up
- What happens if two callers reach this at the same time?
- Where could this allocate more than you expect?
Explain how you customize e-commerce platform capabilities (e.g., BigCommerce, custom JavaScript storefronts)
Explain how you customize e-commerce platform capabilities (e.g., BigCommerce, custom JavaScript storefronts) to interface with backend systems.
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
What strategies do you use for performance optimization when querying complex datasets using Entity Framework
What strategies do you use for performance optimization when querying complex datasets using Entity Framework Core and SQL Server?
Approach
- Name the grain you start from and join outward from it.
- Check whether any join is one-to-many before aggregating, or the sums inflate.
- Say which index the query would use, and what makes it unusable.
- Handle the rows that do not match: that is usually the actual question.
Follow-up
- How does the query change if that join becomes one-to-many?
- What happens to this when the table is ten times larger?
Replace offset paging on the resource feed with keyset
resource holds resource_id, tenant_id, owner_user_id, title, body_ref, version, status ('draft','active','archived','deleted'), created_at, updated_at, deleted_at, with an index on (tenant_id, status, updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC). The listing endpoint returns active resources for one tenant, newest update first, 50 per page, today with LIMIT 50 OFFSET n. Tenants reach page 400 and rows are created while they read. Write the keyset query, define what the cursor carries and how it is encoded, and say which part of the index each predicate uses. Assume PostgreSQL 16.
Approach
- Name the two failures separately. OFFSET 20000 makes the server produce and discard 20,000 rows, so page cost grows with depth rather than with page size. Independently, any write that changes how many rows sort above the offset moves the window between two fetches, and the direction decides which anomaly you get: an insert lands at the head of updated_at DESC and pushes already-returned rows down past the boundary, so they are returned a second time; a delete above the offset, or a row whose updated_at is bumped above the cursor, pulls rows up and one is never returned at all. Nothing in the response reveals either.
- Write the seek: WHERE tenant_id = $1 AND status = 'active' AND (updated_at, resource_id) < ($2, $3) ORDER BY updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC LIMIT 50. The row-value comparison is one index range rather than a disjunction, and both columns are NOT NULL, which is what makes that comparison well defined.
- Map each predicate onto the index: tenant_id and status are equality on the leading columns, (updated_at, resource_id) is the range, and the ORDER BY matches the index order so no Sort node appears and the scan stops after 50 rows. The DESC in the definition only matters for mixed directions — a plain ascending btree on the same columns is read backwards for this query.
- Put both sort columns in the cursor and nothing the client can tamper with into another tenant: base64 of (updated_at, resource_id), validated server-side, with tenant_id taken from the principal.
Follow-up
- The client asks for 'jump to page 400'. What do you offer instead, and what does the honest version cost?
- Sort order becomes user-selectable across four columns. How many indexes is that, and which would you refuse to add?
What is the difference between an interface and an abstract class, and when would you use each?
What is the difference between an interface and an abstract class, and when would you use each?
Approach
- Clarify what is being asked and what a complete answer contains.
- State your assumptions explicitly before working the problem.
- Say what you would check first and why it is the highest-information step.
- Work from the requirement backwards to the design.
Follow-up
- What assumption would you test first?
- How would you know your answer was wrong?
Explain the Java Collections framework, specifically detailing the architectural differences and performance t
Explain the Java Collections framework, specifically detailing the architectural differences and performance trade-offs between a Set, List, and Map.
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
Explain the key annotations and architecture of a Spring Boot application, including dependency injection and
Explain the key annotations and architecture of a Spring Boot application, including dependency injection and data access patterns.
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
How do you implement global exception handling and secure REST APIs within a Spring Boot service?
How do you implement global exception handling and secure REST APIs within a Spring Boot service?
Approach
- Say who the caller is and what they do when the call fails halfway.
- Define the identity of a request so a retry cannot double-apply it.
- Separate accepted, pending, failed and confirmed; they are different facts.
- Design the error taxonomy before the success shape; callers branch on it.
Follow-up
- What happens if the caller retries after a timeout?
- How does a client discover it is on an old version of this contract?
How does ASP.NET Core handle request processing, middleware execution, and dependency injection lifetime scope
How does ASP.NET Core handle request processing, middleware execution, and dependency injection lifetime scopes (Transient, Scoped, Singleton)?
Approach
- Clarify what is being asked and what a complete answer contains.
- State your assumptions explicitly before working the problem.
- Say what you would check first and why it is the highest-information step.
- Work from the requirement backwards to the design.
Follow-up
- What assumption would you test first?
- How would you know your answer was wrong?
Explain how you design and expose secure, versioned Web APIs using C# and modern authorization standards.
Explain how you design and expose secure, versioned Web APIs using C# and modern authorization standards.
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
Describe how you integrate Azure DevOps for CI/CD pipeline automation, automated testing, and release manageme
Describe how you integrate Azure DevOps for CI/CD pipeline automation, automated testing, and release management.
Approach
- Say who the caller is and what they do when the call fails halfway.
- Define the identity of a request so a retry cannot double-apply it.
- Separate accepted, pending, failed and confirmed; they are different facts.
- Design the error taxonomy before the success shape; callers branch on it.
Follow-up
- What happens if the caller retries after a timeout?
- How does a client discover it is on an old version of this contract?
How do you write optimized client-side and server-side scripts in ServiceNow to automate business workflows an
How do you write optimized client-side and server-side scripts in ServiceNow to automate business workflows and platform notifications?
Approach
- Say who the caller is and what they do when the call fails halfway.
- Define the identity of a request so a retry cannot double-apply it.
- Separate accepted, pending, failed and confirmed; they are different facts.
- Design the error taxonomy before the success shape; callers branch on it.
Follow-up
- What happens if the caller retries after a timeout?
- How does a client discover it is on an old version of this contract?
Describe your experience integrating third-party systems via REST and SOAP web services within an enterprise i
Describe your experience integrating third-party systems via REST and SOAP web services within an enterprise integration engine.
Approach
- Say who the caller is and what they do when the call fails halfway.
- Define the identity of a request so a retry cannot double-apply it.
- Separate accepted, pending, failed and confirmed; they are different facts.
- Design the error taxonomy before the success shape; callers branch on it.
Follow-up
- What happens if the caller retries after a timeout?
- How does a client discover it is on an old version of this contract?
How do you manage asynchronous processing, shared flows, and mediation policies in an API gateway or integrati
How do you manage asynchronous processing, shared flows, and mediation policies in an API gateway or integration middleware setup?
Approach
- Say who the caller is and what they do when the call fails halfway.
- Define the identity of a request so a retry cannot double-apply it.
- Separate accepted, pending, failed and confirmed; they are different facts.
- Design the error taxonomy before the success shape; callers branch on it.
Follow-up
- What happens if the caller retries after a timeout?
- How does a client discover it is on an old version of this contract?
Explain the difference between the Facade structural pattern and the Flyweight design pattern, including pract
Explain the difference between the Facade structural pattern and the Flyweight design pattern, including practical use cases for both.
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
How do you apply SOLID principles (such as the Open/Closed Principle) to ensure maintainable, extensible enter
How do you apply SOLID principles (such as the Open/Closed Principle) to ensure maintainable, extensible enterprise codebases?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
How do you transition a monolithic application into a decoupled microservices architecture, and what trade-off
How do you transition a monolithic application into a decoupled microservices architecture, and what trade-offs must be managed?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
What mechanisms do you implement to ensure platform security, data encryption, and access control across distr
What mechanisms do you implement to ensure platform security, data encryption, and access control across distributed web services?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
What approach do you take when troubleshooting data transformation and schema mapping issues in enterprise int
What approach do you take when troubleshooting data transformation and schema mapping issues in enterprise integration workflows?
Approach
- Establish what changed and when, before forming any theory.
- Pick a bisection that eliminates candidates whichever way it turns out.
- Check the instrumentation before believing the symptom.
- Separate the trigger from the cause; the deploy is rarely the bug.
Follow-up
- What would you look at first, and what would it rule out?
- How would you tell a cause from a coincidence here?
Built from the rounds and topics Royal Cyber candidates report.
Prepare, practise & reflect
One practical outcome each day. Spend longer where you need it.
0 / 7 done01Map the Royal Cyber loop
- Write out the reported sequence: HR Screening Call, L1 Technical Round, L2 Technical Round, Client Technical Interview, Managerial & HR Discussion.
- For each round, write one sentence on what it is judging, from the description above, and mark the one you are least ready for.
Deliverable: A one-page map of the 5 reported rounds, with the weakest marked.
02Work ServiceNow development
- Spend the session on ServiceNow development, which Royal Cyber candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in ServiceNow development and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in ServiceNow development.
03Work Scripting
- Spend the session on Scripting, which Royal Cyber candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Scripting and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Scripting.
04Work Scenario-based problem solving
- Spend the session on Scenario-based problem solving, which Royal Cyber candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Scenario-based problem solving and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Scenario-based problem solving.
05Answer out loud: Java & Full Stack Engineering
- Answer aloud, timed: What is the difference between an interface and an abstract class, and when would you use each?
- Answer aloud, timed: Explain the Java Collections framework, specifically detailing the architectural differences and performance trade-offs between a `Set`, `List`, and `Map`.
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Java & Full Stack Engineering question(s), under time.
06Answer out loud: .NET Core & Cloud Development
- Answer aloud, timed: How does ASP.NET Core handle request processing, middleware execution, and dependency injection lifetime scopes (Transient, Scoped, Singleton)?
- Answer aloud, timed: What strategies do you use for performance optimization when querying complex datasets using Entity Framework Core and SQL Server?
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported .NET Core & Cloud Development question(s), under time.
07Answer out loud: Platform-Specific & Integration Engineering
- Answer aloud, timed: How do you write optimized client-side and server-side scripts in ServiceNow to automate business workflows and platform notifications?
- Answer aloud, timed: Describe your experience integrating third-party systems via REST and SOAP web services within an enterprise integration engine.
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Platform-Specific & Integration Engineering question(s), under time.
Expand any day for tasks and deliverables. Your progress is saved on this device.
Behavioural rounds judge the decision you made and what it cost.
How do you handle database transaction management and data consistency across distributed enterprise services?
How do you handle database transaction management and data consistency across distributed enterprise services?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
Estimate work you have never done and defend the range
You are asked to estimate a change you have never attempted: add a column to a 100-million-row table, populate it, move reads across, and drop the old shape. Give a range with the assumptions that generate it, including batch size, the signal your backfill throttles on, and wall-clock hours, and name the three unknowns that would move the number most. Then describe a real estimate you gave under comparable ignorance: how you expressed its uncertainty, what you committed to, and how wrong you turned out to be.
Approach
- Decompose into independently deployable steps before estimating anything: add the column nullable, write both shapes, backfill in batches, verify, move reads, stop writing the old shape, drop it. That is four deploys spread over days, and the calendar estimate is dominated by them rather than by the loop's runtime.
- Do the arithmetic aloud for the part that has arithmetic in it: batch size times number of batches times per-batch duration, at a write rate the primary can absorb alongside roughly 1.2k writes per second of production traffic. The loop is throttled by replication lag and lock waits, not by how fast it can issue statements.
- Price the schema step by its lock rather than its statement duration. In PostgreSQL an ALTER TABLE taking ACCESS EXCLUSIVE waits for every open transaction on that table while later queries queue behind it, so a millisecond change issued during a thirty-second analytics query stalls that table for thirty seconds. Adding a nullable column with a non-volatile default avoids a rewrite from version 11; a new index wants CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY, which cannot run inside a transaction block and leaves an invalid index behind if it fails.
- Express the answer as a range whose endpoints each trace to a stated assumption, then name the cheapest experiment that collapses it, which is almost always running one real batch against the real table and multiplying.
Follow-up
- How do you verify the backfill genuinely finished, given rows written by production traffic while it ran?
- Where does the backfill resume from after a worker is killed mid-batch, and what makes that resume point trustworthy?
Unblock an engineer without taking the keyboard
A teammate has spent two days on a job handler that occasionally writes duplicate rows. They are certain the queue is delivering twice by mistake. You suspect a lease expiring under a slow handler, so the job is running concurrently with itself. Describe how you have unblocked someone in this position: what you asked before offering a hypothesis, what you showed them rather than told them, and what you left them owning. Then say what you would do if their theory turned out to be the right one.
Approach
- Ask before diagnosing, and ask for things answerable from data they already have: the attempt count on the job rows that produced duplicates, the handler's observed duration against its lease expiry, and whether the duplicate rows share a natural key that a unique constraint could have caught.
- Teach the shape rather than the answer. A lease cannot distinguish a dead worker from a slow one, so a handler that outruns its lease is running twice by design, and deploys deliver the other half by killing handlers mid-run on every rollout. Both of their candidate theories produce identical duplicate rows, which is why the evidence has to come from timings rather than from argument.
- Hand over a checklist they execute: a natural key on every write the handler performs so the second copy collides rather than appends, the record of intent written before any external effect, a lease heartbeat while running, and the metric that shows it working.
- Keep ownership with them deliberately. Pair on the first write, then step back; if you finish it yourself you have closed one ticket and left the same person stuck on the next redelivery.
Follow-up
- How would you distinguish a genuine double-delivery from a lease expiry using only the data already stored?
- Their handler calls an external endpoint before recording that it did. What do you tell them to change first?
- 01
How do you handle database transaction management and data consistency across distributed enterprise services?
- 02
You are asked to estimate a change you have never attempted: add a column to a 100-million-row table, populate it, move reads across, and drop the old shape. Give a range with the assumptions that generate it, including batch size, the signal your backfill throttles on, and wall-clock hours, and name the three unknowns that would move the number most. Then describe a real estimate you gave under comparable ignorance: how you expressed its uncertainty, what you committed to, and how wrong you turned out to be.
- 03
A teammate has spent two days on a job handler that occasionally writes duplicate rows. They are certain the queue is delivering twice by mistake. You suspect a lease expiring under a slow handler, so the job is running concurrently with itself. Describe how you have unblocked someone in this position: what you asked before offering a hypothesis, what you showed them rather than told them, and what you left them owning. Then say what you would do if their theory turned out to be the right one.
What is the typical technical difficulty level of the interview process?
The technical difficulty is generally moderate to rigorous. First-round technical discussions focus heavily on language fundamentals, standard data structures, OOP principles, and framework concepts. Second-round discussions dive deeper into real-world scenario analysis, architecture, live scripting, and database optimization. Thorough preparation on core fundamentals will set you up for success.
Royal Cyber Software Engineer candidate reports ↗How fast does the Royal Cyber interview process typically move?
The evaluation process is known for being structured and fast. Many candidates complete their technical and HR rounds within 3 to 10 days. HR recruiters maintain consistent contact to provide updates after each round.
Royal Cyber Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Is there a client interview round included in the process?
Client involvement depends on the specific business unit and engagement model. While core internal technical rounds (L1 and L2) are standard for all roles, certain client-dedicated positions may include an additional client technical round prior to final selection.
Royal Cyber Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What differentiates candidates who perform best during the technical rounds?
Successful candidates demonstrate both fundamental depth and strong communication clarity. Rather than just providing high-level answers, strong candidates explain memory mechanics, framework lifecycle details, real-world project trade-offs, and practical troubleshooting steps clearly.
Royal Cyber Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What work environments and deployment models are typical for this role?
Royal Cyber supports remote, hybrid, and onsite client arrangements depending on project requirements and region (including technology hubs across North America, India, Pakistan, and global delivery centers). Role specifics and location expectations are confirmed during the initial HR screening call.
Royal Cyber Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What topics does Royal Cyber test in interviews?
Royal Cyber interviews most often cover Problem Solving, Communication Skills, Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), Spring Boot, and Java. The exact emphasis depends on the specific role you apply for.
Royal Cyber Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Sources & methodology 3 sources ↗
No official company page is cited. Rounds and questions come from candidate reports and PracHub editorial material; each source shows the date it was read.
- 01Royal Cyber Software Engineer candidate reports ↗
Company-reported rounds, questions and FAQ.
Candidate reports · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 02PracHub Software Engineer practice ↗
PracHub practice material, not company-reported.
PracHub page · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 03PracHub preparation framework ↗
PracHub preparation guidance.
PracHub page · Accessed 2026-09-22