backend Interview Questions
16 interview questions in our bank cover backend, most of them System Design for ML. They average 3.1/5 difficulty — medium — and each one was reported by a candidate after a real interview. Companies known to ask about backend: Walmart Labs, Apple, Atlassian, xAI, Microsoft, and 5 more.
Practice these on the problems board →Companies that ask about backend
Question mix
- System Design for ML7
- Coding & Leetcode-style Questions6
- MLOps & Deployment1
- Behavioral1
- Forward Deployment Engineering1
Difficulty
- 3/5 — medium14
- 4/5 — hard2
Questions tagged backend
Twitter Insight Platform (CodeSignal Take-Home)
3/5Prepare for a rigorous take-home assignment featured in xAI evaluation rounds by building a complete data processing pipeline. This challenge requires fetching records from a public repository, enforcing strict schema validation, persisting the information locally, and integrating an external language model interface to evaluate and categorize text items. Candidates must also implement robust traffic management mechanisms and package the entire application inside a container. Access to the comprehensive guide, architectural walkthrough, and complete reference implementation requires a paid subscription.
MLOps & DeploymentxAIDesign a Todo-List Full-Stack Service
3/5As part of a Microsoft system architecture interview, this exercise challenges you to design a robust task management service capable of handling heavy traffic spikes, stable list ordering, and concurrent user modifications. It assesses your architectural decisions regarding caching, API versioning, and security boundaries. The full problem description and model solution require a subscription.
System Design for MLMicrosoftSpring Boot Verbal Quiz
3/5Reported from technical loops at Walmart Labs, this conceptual discussion evaluates your theoretical knowledge of Spring Boot framework internals, application architecture, and backend design principles. It tests your capability to articulate trade-offs regarding dependency management, resource scopes, and request lifecycle handling in enterprise web applications. Discover the complete set of discussion questions and expert architectural answers with a subscription.
Coding & Leetcode-style QuestionsWalmart LabsHotel Booking System OOD with Concurrency
3/5In this Apple interview question, you are tasked with designing and implementing an object-oriented hotel booking system. The problem evaluates your capacity to manage room availability checks, reservation creation, and conflict prevention when handling overlapping date ranges. A key focus area involves addressing concurrency challenges to ensure data consistency during simultaneous reservation attempts. Unlock the full system design specifications and reference implementation with a subscription.
Coding & Leetcode-style QuestionsAppleMiddleware Router Wildcards and Path Params
3/5This Atlassian coding interview task requires developers to build a custom URL routing mechanism that maps endpoint paths to specific string results. The evaluation starts with exact-string matching before expanding to support dynamic parameters and wildcard segments with deterministic precedence rules. Candidates are tested on string parsing, tree or Trie data structures, and algorithmic rule resolution. The full problem breakdown and optimal reference code are available exclusively with a paid subscription.
Coding & Leetcode-style QuestionsAtlassianDesign Multi-Carrier Package Delivery Routing System
4/5Designing modern logistics software involves balancing dynamic pricing, carrier capacity constraints, and strict service level agreements across multiple external vendor APIs. This Walmart Labs system design exercise explores how to orchestrate package fulfillment by intelligently selecting optimal delivery partners and handling asynchronous tracking updates and exceptions. It tests your ability to build fault-tolerant workflows for complex third-party integrations. Gaining access to the full problem requirements and expert solution requires a subscription.
System Design for MLWalmart LabsApple Full-Stack Software Engineer Interview Loop
3/5Prepare for the multi-stage evaluation process for full-stack software engineering candidates at Apple with this comprehensive overview. This guide breaks down what to expect across your hiring manager conversation, backend engineering assessment, and frontend evaluation. You will discover key insights into React component design principles, state management strategies, and common behavioral inquiries tailored to this prestigious tech giant. Learn how to structure your study plan effectively to impress your interviewers. The full problem and model solution require a subscription.
BehavioralAppleEvent Filter & Queue Routing Service
3/5This reported Amazon interview question challenges you to build an event routing and filtering service that evaluates incoming structured records against a collection of primitive and composite boolean criteria. You will need to design an efficient evaluation engine capable of routing matching items to multiple destinations while handling unmatched records through a fallback queue. This problem tests your object-oriented design skills, rule evaluation logic, and ability to structure clean, extensible code for streaming pipelines. Access to the complete problem breakdown and optimal model solution requires a subscription.
Coding & Leetcode-style QuestionsAmazonDesign a Multi-Resource Loader/Scheduler
4/5This advanced system design scenario, reported at Roblox, dives into the complexities of orchestrating computational workloads across limited hardware pools. You will explore architectural strategies for sequencing dependent tasks, guaranteeing fair allocation among competing requesters, and gracefully managing node failures or bottlenecks. It tests your ability to design scalable, resilient infrastructure for high-throughput environments. Read the comprehensive design breakdown and expert recommendations with a subscription.
System Design for MLRobloxLLM API Practical and Output Validation
3/5This practical coding evaluation, reported during a Scale AI interview, tests your capability to integrate external generative artificial intelligence services into a backend environment. You will design a programmatic routine to dispatch requests, format specialized instructions, and rigorously parse and validate model outputs against strict criteria. The task measures API handling, prompt engineering proficiency, and automated verification workflows. Unlock the complete scenario details and working reference solution with a subscription.
Forward Deployment EngineeringScale AILive Refactor - Function to Production Service
3/5This demanding Walmart Labs interview experience evaluates a candidate's ability to seamlessly transition a basic algorithmic script into a robust, production-ready RESTful web service while defending architectural choices against adversarial questioning. It tests both core coding proficiency and high-level system design communication under pressure. Unlock the complete walkthrough of requirements, refactoring strategies, and expert defense tips with a subscription.
System Design for MLWalmart LabsFull-Stack Craft: Login and Upload Flow
3/5This reported Atlassian interview question evaluates your end-to-end full-stack engineering expertise by having you walk through the complete lifecycle of common user actions, such as logging in or uploading media. You will need to explain how client-side interactions traverse network layers, server architectures, databases, and final rendering pipelines while touching on key infrastructure concepts like DNS, load balancing, and API design. Access to the comprehensive guide, system architecture breakdowns, and expert walkthroughs requires a paid subscription.
Coding & Leetcode-style QuestionsAtlassianShopping Cart Latency and Inventory
3/5Discussed in technical system design interviews at JPMorgan, this challenge centers on architecting a responsive e-commerce shopping cart and checkout pipeline. You must address high-throughput read and write operations, real-time inventory tracking to prevent overselling, and concurrency controls for scarce product drops. The discussion emphasizes balancing low-latency user experiences with strict transactional consistency under heavy load. Read the comprehensive architectural guide and expert recommendations by securing a subscription.
System Design for MLJPMorganDesign a Concurrent Image Upload System
3/5This Apple system design question focuses on building a resilient backend framework capable of handling parallel media uploads and instantaneous client feedback. It tests your capability to manage asynchronous task execution, partial errors, and status tracking loops effectively. Unlock the complete system walkthrough and architectural blueprints with a subscription.
System Design for MLAppleRunnable Stack Overflow / Quora REST Service
3/5In this Rippling system design challenge, you are asked to build a functional RESTful service mimicking a question-and-answer platform, complete with routing, persistence handling, and voting mechanisms. The exercise covers live coding followed by architectural discussions on database indexing, scaling, and rate limiting. Access to the comprehensive prompt, design criteria, and reference architecture requires a paid subscription.
System Design for MLRipplingAI-Assisted Full-Stack OA (Spring Boot and React)
3/5Encountered as a take-home assessment at Walmart Labs, this comprehensive evaluation measures your capability to debug and build full-stack applications under timed conditions. Candidates must navigate a packaged project featuring a backend framework and a frontend library, addressing specific defects while tackling an algorithmic challenge using an integrated assistant. It tests your pragmatic coding proficiency across the entire web development stack. To view the complete project overview and verified resolution guide, a subscription is required.
Coding & Leetcode-style QuestionsWalmart Labs
Studied alongside
backend interview FAQ
- How many backend interview questions are there?
- 16 reported questions, mostly System Design for ML.
- Which companies ask backend questions?
- Walmart Labs (4), Apple (3), Atlassian (2), xAI (1), Microsoft (1), Amazon (1), Roblox (1), Scale AI (1).
- How hard are backend questions?
- They average 3.1 out of 5: 14 at 3/5, 2 at 4/5.