I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Rakuten (Paris) in Apr 2022
Interview
Coding exercises (multiple rounds, language at choice, didn't compile the code), then system design, then chat with higher management (a mix of behavioral, motivation, background, etc.). Challenging a bit but not difficult, some team members are in different TZ so not always easy to find a good slot
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Hashcode and equals in Java, String interning and creation, flattening a list of lists, 2Sum
General coding questions and programming, culture fit and hiring manager
Usually there are 3 rounds of interviews starting with technical, culture fit and senior management and then HR round and discussion.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Rakuten
Interview
Don't go through 3rd party for interview in Rakuten . Rakuten conducts fake interviews. Inspite of doing well, they block your number after final round conducted. Such a waste of time.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Rakuten (Tokyo) in Aug 2025
Interview
The first interview will be with a recruiter. In this stage, you will introduce yourself and talk about your professional experience. It mainly focuses on evaluating your English communication skills, cultural fit, and overall background.
The second stage was with another interviewer, but the experience felt unclear. The questions were vague and very general, so I often felt like I was just talking to myself. The lack of engagement made the interview feel monotonous, and I found the interviewer yawning throughout entire session.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
In the second stage, the interviewer asked me questions related to Kafka, RabbitMQ, CQRS, Saga Orchestration, and microservices.
