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Interview questions from top companies, mapped to the exact round they show up in. Prep for what you will actually face.

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Online AssessmentDSA / CodingMachine CodingLow-Level Design

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The Loop aggregates publicly shared interview experiences and curated commonly-asked questions, each labeled with its source. Not affiliated with any company listed.

CC BY-NC 4.0 · © 2026

← Rakuten

New Grad / Junior Backend at Rakuten

BackendNew Grad / JuniorRejected◆ Commonly asked· 2023

A junior backend loop. Coding-heavy early, design and behavioral later.

The loop · 5 rounds

01

Round 01 · 1 question

Online Assessment

Timed online coding / aptitude screen, usually the first filter.

  • Implement a rate-limited counter.
    New Grad / JuniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #simulation
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
02

Round 02 · 3 questions

DSA / Coding

Data structures & algorithms on a whiteboard or shared editor.

  • Longest increasing subsequence.
    New Grad / JuniorHard◆ Commonly asked
    #dp#binary-search
    PracticeLeetCode↗GeeksforGeeks↗
  • Word ladder — shortest transformation sequence.
    New Grad / JuniorHard◆ Commonly asked
    #bfs#graph
    PracticeLeetCode↗GeeksforGeeks↗
  • Rotate array.
    New Grad / JuniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #array
    PracticeLeetCode↗GeeksforGeeks↗
03

Round 03 · 2 questions

Machine Coding

Build a working component or service under time pressure.

  • Implement an LRU + TTL cache library.
    New Grad / JuniorHard◆ Commonly asked
    #cache#ttl
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
  • Build an in-memory pub/sub with topic subscriptions.
    New Grad / JuniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #pub-sub
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
04

Round 04 · 3 questions

Tech Deep-Dive

Deep questions on your core stack and fundamentals.

  • Idempotency in APIs — why and how.
    New Grad / JuniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #api-design#idempotency
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
  • What is backpressure and how do you handle it?
    New Grad / JuniorHard◆ Commonly asked
    #streaming#reliability
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
  • Caching strategies: cache-aside, write-through, TTLs.
    New Grad / JuniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #cache
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
05

Round 05 · 2 questions

Behavioral / HR

Values, collaboration, and past-experience (STAR) questions.

  • A time you influenced a decision without authority.
    New Grad / Junior◆ Commonly asked
    #influence#star
  • When did you have to make a decision with incomplete data?
    New Grad / Junior◆ Commonly asked
    #judgment#star

Practice each round across every company

  • Online Assessment
  • DSA / Coding
  • Machine Coding
  • Tech Deep-Dive
  • Behavioral / HR

◆ This experience is composed from commonly reported questions for this role and level. Real, individually-shared interviews will be layered in over time.