GEICO Senior Software Engineer Interview Questions and Answers

Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round focused more on the Operating Systems part followed by some questions from Microservices Architecture.

Q1. What is a bootstrap program in an operating system?
Ans. 
Bootstrap program is the initial code that runs when a computer is powered on, loading the operating system into memory.
• Bootstrap program is stored in ROM or firmware.

• It initializes the system hardware and loads the operating system kernel into memory.

• Examples include BIOS in PCs and UEFI in modern systems.
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Q2. What is memory protection in operating systems?
Ans. 
Memory protection in operating systems is a feature that prevents a process from accessing memory that has not been allocated to it.
• Memory protection helps prevent one process from interfering with the memory of another process.

• It ensures that each process can only access memory that has been allocated to it.

• Examples of memory protection mechanisms include segmentation and paging.

• Segmentation divides memory into segmen...read more
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Q3. What are the four necessary and sufficient conditions that lead to a deadlock?
Ans. 
Four necessary and sufficient conditions for deadlock
• Mutual exclusion: Resources cannot be shared between processes. Example: Process A holding Resource 1 and waiting for Resource 2, while Process B holding Resource 2 and waiting for Resource 1.

• Hold and wait: Processes hold resources while waiting for others. Example: Process A holding Resource 1 and waiting for Resource 2, while Process B holding Resource 2 and waitin...read more
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Q4. What are the fundamental characteristics of a Microservices design?
Ans. 
Microservices design is characterized by modularity, independence, scalability, and resilience.
• Modularity: Microservices are designed as independent modules that can be developed, deployed, and scaled separately.

• Independence: Each microservice operates independently and communicates with other services through APIs.

• Scalability: Microservices allow for scaling specific components of an application based on demand.

• Resili...read more
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Q5. What are the different strategies for deploying microservices?
Ans. 
Different strategies for deploying microservices include blue-green deployment, canary deployment, rolling deployment, and feature flagging.
• Blue-green deployment involves running two identical production environments, with one serving as the active environment while the other is on standby. Traffic is switched from one environment to the other once the new version is deemed stable.

• Canary deployment gradually rolls out ...read more
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Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round was preety much mixed and contained questions from DBMS, Java and more importantly Spring Boot.

Q1. Why is normalization needed in a database?
Ans. 
Normalization is needed in a database to reduce data redundancy, improve data integrity, and optimize database performance.
• Eliminates data redundancy by breaking down data into smaller tables

• Reduces update anomalies and inconsistencies in data

• Improves data integrity by enforcing relationships between tables

• Optimizes database performance by reducing storage space and improving query efficiency
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Q2. What are views in SQL?
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Views in SQL are virtual tables that are generated based on the result set of a SELECT query.
• Views are not stored physically in the database, but are dynamically generated when queried.

• They can be used to simplify complex queries by encapsulating logic and joining multiple tables.

• Views can also be used to restrict access to certain columns or rows of a table.

• Example: CREATE VIEW vw_employee AS SELECT emp_id, emp_name F...read more
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Q3. What is dependency injection?
Ans. 
Dependency injection is a design pattern where components are given their dependencies rather than creating them internally.
• Allows for easier testing by providing mock dependencies

• Promotes loose coupling between components

• Improves code reusability and maintainability

• Examples: Constructor injection, Setter injection, Interface injection
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Q4. What is the use of profiles in Spring Boot?
Ans. 
Profiles in Spring Boot allow for different configurations to be applied based on the environment or specific needs.
• Profiles can be used to define different sets of configurations for different environments such as development, testing, and production.

• By using profiles, you can easily switch between configurations without changing the code.

• Profiles are typically defined in application.properties or application.yml file...read more
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Q5. What are the various access specifiers in Java?
Ans. 
Access specifiers in Java control the visibility of classes, methods, and variables.
• There are four access specifiers in Java: public, protected, default (no specifier), and private.

• Public: accessible from any other class.

• Protected: accessible within the same package or subclasses.

• Default: accessible only within the same package.

• Private: accessible only within the same class.
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Q6. What is a JIT compiler?
Ans. 
JIT compiler stands for Just-In-Time compiler, which compiles code during runtime instead of ahead of time.
• JIT compiler translates bytecode into machine code on the fly

• Improves performance by optimizing frequently executed code

• Examples include Java HotSpot, .NET CLR's JIT compiler
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Round duration - 30 Minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

This is a cultural fitment testing round .HR was very frank and asked standard questions. Then we discussed about my role.

Q1. Why should we hire you?
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Q2. Why are you looking for a job change?
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Q1. About core java basics, hibernate, spring etc
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Q1. Expected CTC, about previous company experience
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Q1. Jave oops concepts, overloading vs overriding, hash map internal implementation, java 8 features, stream api
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Q2. Java related questions, more on project related topics
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