As a Software Engineer at Telus Digital AI Data Solutions, you will play a critical role in building, optimizing, and scaling the technology platforms that power the next generation of artificial intelligence. Telus Digital AI Data Solutions is a global leader in providing high-quality training data, machine learning pipelines, and digital customer experience solutions to some of the world’s most influential technology companies. In this position, your work directly impacts how AI models learn, process, and interact with human inputs across multiple languages, modalities, and industries. The scale and complexity of the systems you will design require robust, high-throughput APIs, distributed data processing pipelines, and responsive, intuitive user interfaces. Whether you are engineering backend microservices in Java or Node.js, building dynamic frontend applications in React or Vue.js, or provisioning secure cloud infrastructure on or, your engineering decisions will directly influence the speed and reliability of global AI training workflows. You will be tasked with solving complex problems involving high-volume data ingestion, real-time collaboration tools, and hybrid cloud networking. AWS GCP This role offers an inspiring environment where software engineering intersects with cutting-edge artificial intelligence. You will collaborate with cross-functional, globally distributed teams spanning North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.
HR Screening Call
reportedInitial call to align on your background, salary expectations, and role fit.
What to demonstrate
- Initial call to align on your background, salary expectations, and role fit
- Depth in Java
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.
Technical Evaluation
reportedBegins with an online coding assessment or a technical phone interview focusing on data structures and algorithms.
What to demonstrate
- Begins with an online coding assessment or a technical phone interview focusing on data structures and algorithms
- Depth in Java
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: What are the differences between relational and non-relational databases, and how would you optimize a complex SQL query involving multiple joins and indexes?
- Answer aloud and timed: Describe the architectural differences between monolithic and microservices-based systems. How do you handle service-to-service communication?
Live Coding and Design
reportedSubsequent rounds involve live coding, system design, and architectural discussions with senior engineers.
What to demonstrate
- Subsequent rounds involve live coding, system design, and architectural discussions with senior engineers
- Depth in Java
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: Can you explain the history of APIs, specifically comparing traditional SOAP protocols to modern REST and GraphQL implementations?
- Answer aloud and timed: How does the virtual DOM work in React, and how do you optimize component rendering to prevent unnecessary re-renders?
Client Round/Managerial Discussion
reportedPotential final round assessing professional communication, adaptability, and client-facing readiness.
What to demonstrate
- Potential final round assessing professional communication, adaptability, and client-facing readiness
- Depth in Java
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: Explain how you would implement a responsive card layout displaying fetched API data (including heading, summary, and images) using CSS Flexbox or Grid.
- Answer aloud and timed: What is the difference between server-side rendering (SSR) in Next.js and client-side rendering (CSR) in standard React?
PracHub editorial advice for the preparation topics above.
Going into the loop without having done this.
Clarify the Tech Stack Early: Ensure you confirm the primary technologies you will be evaluated on with your recruiter. Some teams focus heavily on Java and AWS, while others are centered on JavaScript, Node.js, and React.
Going into the loop without having done this.
Prepare for Stack Ambiguity: Be aware that some interview rounds might evaluate broad engineering principles rather than your specific framework of choice. If you are asked about a technology you haven't used extensively, focus on explaining your core software engineering concepts and how they translate to that platform.
Going into the loop without having done this.
If you encounter an unexpected technology question during your interview, do not panic. Explain your understanding of the underlying concept (e.g., MVC patterns, state management) and how you would approach learning the new tool.
Going into the loop without having done this.
Focus on API and System Design: Be ready to discuss how you design, document, and scale APIs. Pay close attention to REST standards, error handling, and performance considerations.
Choose a category, try a prompt, then open its approach, worked solution or follow-up when you need it.
Explain how array manipulation works in modern JavaScript, and write a function to filter, map, and reduce a n
Explain how array manipulation works in modern JavaScript, and write a function to filter, map, and reduce a nested dataset.
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?
Write a program to simulate the core logic of a classic Snake Game, focusing on collision detection and grid s
Write a program to simulate the core logic of a classic Snake Game, focusing on collision detection and grid state management.
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?
Given an unsorted array of integers, write an efficient algorithm to find the longest consecutive sequence.
Given an unsorted array of integers, write an efficient algorithm to find the longest consecutive sequence.
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?
How do you analyze the time and space complexity of an algorithm using Big O notation?
How do you analyze the time and space complexity of an algorithm using Big O notation?
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?
Implement a function to detect cycles in a directed graph, and discuss its real-world applications in dependen
Implement a function to detect cycles in a directed graph, and discuss its real-world applications in dependency resolution.
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?
Live-code a solution to fix a broken utility function that processes hierarchical JSON data structures.
Live-code a solution to fix a broken utility function that processes hierarchical JSON data structures.
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 are the differences between relational and non-relational databases, and how would you optimize a complex
What are the differences between relational and non-relational databases, and how would you optimize a complex SQL query involving multiple joins and indexes?
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?
Hold a per-tenant active cap against concurrent creates
A tenant on the standard plan may hold at most 50 resources with status='active'. The create handler runs SELECT count(*) FROM resource WHERE tenant_id = $1 AND status = 'active', compares to 50, then inserts. Two creates arrive 3 ms apart on different instances and the tenant lands at 51. Name the anomaly, say whether PostgreSQL 16 READ COMMITTED or REPEATABLE READ prevents it and why, then give an implementation that holds the cap at READ COMMITTED with the exact statements. Finally, say what changes when the cap is 'at most one running export per tenant' on job_run.
Approach
- Name it: write skew. The two transactions read an overlapping set and write disjoint rows, so there is no row-level conflict for the engine to detect and each commit is individually legal.
- Rule out the levels precisely. READ COMMITTED takes a fresh snapshot per statement and takes no lock on the counted rows, so both see 49. PostgreSQL's REPEATABLE READ is snapshot isolation: it removes non-repeatable reads and phantoms within the snapshot but still admits write skew, because the anomaly is not a re-read of a changed row, it is a read of a set that a concurrent transaction invalidates. Only SERIALIZABLE closes it, by tracking the read dependency and aborting one transaction with SQLSTATE 40001 — a guarantee that exists only if the application re-runs the whole transaction from the read.
- Convert the set predicate into a single-row conflict: keep tenant.active_resource_count and run UPDATE tenant SET active_resource_count = active_resource_count + 1 WHERE tenant_id = $1 AND active_resource_count < 50 in the same transaction as the INSERT. Zero affected rows is the cap, returned as 409. The row lock serialises the decision at any isolation level, and contention is bounded to one tenant's row — which is also the fair-scheduling unit, unlike a global counter that would convoy every tenant behind one row.
- State the cost you just took on: a counter is a second source of truth that can drift, so every path that changes status must adjust it inside the same transaction, and a periodic reconciliation has to exist, with resource_revision as the authority for what the count should have been.
Follow-up
- A resource moves from archived back to active. Which statements change, and what breaks if the counter update and the status change land in different transactions?
- The cap becomes plan-dependent and a plan can change mid-month. Where does the number 50 live, and who reads it?
Explain the lifecycle of a request in a Spring Boot application and how you manage database transactions.
Explain the lifecycle of a request in a Spring Boot application and how you manage database transactions.
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 design a secure, versioned RESTful API that can handle high-throughput read and write operations?
How do you design a secure, versioned RESTful API that can handle high-throughput read and write operations?
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 the architectural differences between monolithic and microservices-based systems. How do you handle s
Describe the architectural differences between monolithic and microservices-based systems. How do you handle service-to-service communication?
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?
Can you explain the history of APIs, specifically comparing traditional SOAP protocols to modern REST and Grap
Can you explain the history of APIs, specifically comparing traditional SOAP protocols to modern REST and GraphQL implementations?
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 the virtual DOM work in React, and how do you optimize component rendering to prevent unnecessary re-
How does the virtual DOM work in React, and how do you optimize component rendering to prevent unnecessary re-renders?
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 would implement a responsive card layout displaying fetched API data (including heading, summa
Explain how you would implement a responsive card layout displaying fetched API data (including heading, summary, and images) using CSS Flexbox or Grid.
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?
What is the difference between server-side rendering (SSR) in Next.js and client-side rendering (CSR) in stand
What is the difference between server-side rendering (SSR) in Next.js and client-side rendering (CSR) in standard React?
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?
How do you design and configure a virtual private cloud (VPC) with public and private subnets on AWS or GCP?
How do you design and configure a virtual private cloud (VPC) with public and private subnets on AWS or GCP?
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 is hybrid networking, and how do you establish a secure connection between on-premise infrastructure and
What is hybrid networking, and how do you establish a secure connection between on-premise infrastructure and cloud environments?
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 role of Docker in a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline.
Explain the role of Docker in a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline.
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?
p99 jumped on one listing filter while p50 stayed flat
After a release that added an owner_user_id filter to the resource listing, p99 rose from 90 ms to 1.9 s while p50 stayed at 40 ms. Traffic and row counts are unchanged. resource carries the index (tenant_id, status, updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC). The new query filters tenant_id and owner_user_id, orders by updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC, and takes 20 rows. On PostgreSQL, explain the shape of the regression, prove it from a query plan, and give the index you would add.
Approach
- Start from the shape. A flat p50 with a moved p99 means a subset of requests changed cost, not all of them, so the first job is naming the subset. Bucket the endpoint's latency by the tenant's row count; the natural hypothesis is that large tenants are a small share of requests and all of the tail.
- Get the plan for the new query on a large tenant with EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS). Expect an index scan over the tenant's range, a filter discarding most of it, then a Sort feeding the Limit, possibly reporting Sort Method: external merge Disk. Read actual rows on the scan node, not estimated.
- Explain why the existing index cannot serve it. A composite B-tree is seekable only as a left prefix, and with no equality predicate on status the scan cannot treat updated_at as an ordering, because rows in the tenant's range are ordered by status first. Everything matching must be read and sorted before LIMIT 20 can apply, so a tenant with 400,000 rows pays 400,000 rows to return 20.
- Add (tenant_id, owner_user_id, updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC). Equality on the first two columns leaves the index ordered by updated_at within that pair, so the plan becomes an index scan that stops after 20 rows with no Sort node. PostgreSQL can scan a B-tree backwards, so the DESC markers matter only if the two sort columns ever disagree in direction; keeping them explicit documents the order the keyset cursor depends on.
Follow-up
- The endpoint paginates with OFFSET. What does page 500 cost with your index, and what does the keyset version cost?
- How would you have caught this before release, given that a 10,000-row seed database produces the same plan shape at an unnoticeable cost?
Built from the rounds and topics Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions candidates report.
Prepare, practise & reflect
One practical outcome each day. Spend longer where you need it.
0 / 7 done01Map the Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions loop
- Write out the reported sequence: HR Screening Call, Technical Evaluation, Live Coding and Design, Client Round/Managerial 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 4 reported rounds, with the weakest marked.
02Work Java
- Spend the session on Java, which Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Java and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Java.
03Work Spring Boot
- Spend the session on Spring Boot, which Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Spring Boot and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Spring Boot.
04Work AWS
- Spend the session on AWS, which Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in AWS and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in AWS.
05Answer out loud: Backend & System Design
- Answer aloud, timed: Explain the lifecycle of a request in a Spring Boot application and how you manage database transactions.
- Answer aloud, timed: How do you design a secure, versioned RESTful API that can handle high-throughput read and write operations?
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Backend & System Design question(s), under time.
06Answer out loud: Frontend & UI Engineering
- Answer aloud, timed: How does the virtual DOM work in React, and how do you optimize component rendering to prevent unnecessary re-renders?
- Answer aloud, timed: Explain how you would implement a responsive card layout displaying fetched API data (including heading, summary, and images) using CSS Flexbox or Grid.
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Frontend & UI Engineering question(s), under time.
07Answer out loud: Data Structures, Algorithms & Logic
- Answer aloud, timed: Write a program to simulate the core logic of a classic Snake Game, focusing on collision detection and grid state management.
- Answer aloud, timed: Given an unsorted array of integers, write an efficient algorithm to find the longest consecutive sequence.
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Data Structures, Algorithms & Logic 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 state management across deeply nested components in a large-scale Vue.js or React applicatio
How do you handle state management across deeply nested components in a large-scale Vue.js or React application?
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?
How do you handle configuration management and secret rotation in a multi-environment cloud deployment?
How do you handle configuration management and secret rotation in a multi-environment cloud deployment?
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?
Describe a time when you had to resolve a complex technical disagreement within your team. What was your appro
Describe a time when you had to resolve a complex technical disagreement within your team. What was your approach?
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?
Where do you see your career going in the next 5 years, and how does this role align with those aspirations?
Where do you see your career going in the next 5 years, and how does this role align with those aspirations?
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?
Do you have experience mentoring junior developers or leading technical initiatives? How do you measure the su
Do you have experience mentoring junior developers or leading technical initiatives? How do you measure the success of your mentorship?
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?
How do you handle situations where a client's requirements are ambiguous or change mid-project?
How do you handle situations where a client's requirements are ambiguous or change mid-project?
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?
- 01
How do you handle state management across deeply nested components in a large-scale Vue.js or React application?
- 02
How do you handle configuration management and secret rotation in a multi-environment cloud deployment?
- 03
Describe a time when you had to resolve a complex technical disagreement within your team. What was your approach?
- 04
Where do you see your career going in the next 5 years, and how does this role align with those aspirations?
How technical are the interviews, and what is the difficulty level?
The technical interviews are of average to high difficulty. They focus heavily on practical engineering skills, including coding logic, framework fundamentals, and system design. You will be expected to write clean, working code and explain your architectural choices clearly.
Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What is the typical timeline for the hiring process?
The entire process, from the initial recruiter screen to the final offer, typically takes between 3 to 6 weeks. This timeline can vary depending on the specific team, geographic location, and the availability of interviewers.
Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Are there coding challenges or take-home assignments?
Yes, depending on the role and location, you may be asked to complete an online coding challenge on platforms like HackerRank or CodinGame, or a take-home programming assignment designed to test your full-stack development skills.
Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions Software Engineer candidate reports ↗How does the company handle remote or hybrid work?
Telus Digital AI Data Solutions offers flexible working arrangements, including hybrid and fully remote options, depending on the role, team requirements, and regional office policies.
Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions Software Engineer candidate reports ↗How hard is the Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions interview?
Candidates most commonly rate Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions interviews as medium, based on 507 reported interviews. About 63% of candidates who interview go on to receive an offer.
Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What topics does Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions test in interviews?
Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions interviews most often cover Problem Solving, SQL, Communication Skills, Stakeholder Management, and Java. The exact emphasis depends on the specific role you apply for.
Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Where is Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions headquartered?
Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Sources & methodology 3 sources ↗
Official role evidence, timestamped platform data and clearly labeled preparation advice.
- 01Telus Digital Ai Data Solutions Software Engineer candidate reports ↗
Company-reported rounds, questions and FAQ.
candidate · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 02PracHub Software Engineer practice ↗
PracHub practice material, not company-reported.
platform · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 03PracHub preparation framework ↗
PracHub preparation guidance.
platform · Accessed 2026-09-22
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