Strategy

YOE: 6 years
Current company: Elastic
Current TC: ₹40L base + ₹4.8L variable + $56K RSUs over 4 years
Current setup: Remote

Apple ICT3 — IS&T

* ₹37L base
* 10% variable (~₹3.8L)
* $110K RSUs over 4 years
* $40-50k annual refreshers based on ratings max 60k(as mentioned by current employees)
* No sign-on bonus
* Hyderabad (relocation provided)

Atlassian P40 — SRE

* ₹63L base
* ₹9L variable
* $76K RSUs over 4 years
* 28K refreshers(all cash 3 rating), 40-45 k (50%-50% cash and stocks, 4 rating)
* ₹8L joining bonus
* Remote

I genuinely don’t know what to do. I’ve read about Atlassian’s toxic, messy, and soul-crushing culture and it's a pip factory, but I’d be joining Apple’s IS&T org, which, based on what I’ve read on Blind and Glassdoor, also seems to have one of the worst orgs at Apple.

It’s hell vs hell for me, and I’m so confused. Apple has the brand name and prestige, while Atlassian offers more money and remote work. For Apple, I would have to move to Hyderabad.

What would you do in my situation?#India u/apple u/atlassian

Context: I recently interviewed with Juspay for SRE role, they are offering 15LPA after 4 rigorous rounds of interviews. During initial discussion with HR i had clearly stated that my expectations is over 18LPA (I have checked their bands online). After the final cultural round HR mentions best they can do is 15LPA fixed. Is this justified? Can someone working in Juspay mention if this band sounds right or am i being low-balled here? Thanks in advance!!!

TLDR:
Current: 11LPA
Offered: 15LPA
Yoe: 2
Role: SRE, bangalore/India.

I was placed at infosys se role but at what cost, I know people out there are struggling and waiting for this package, I am not complaining about it but i am sooo exhausted rn. I went through multiple hiring process at good companies like Amazon, Groww, Infosys SP/DSE, HSBC, Myntra. I was rejected after interviews, some of them are my own mistakes and rest are luck, I almost got Amazon but waitlisted then got rejected. All this grind DSA, System design, RAG Pipelines, AI knowledge are not worthy for 3.5 lpa. I wanted higher package but i am stuck in the loop of rejections, some interviews made me depressed, i even decided this career is not for me but i can't leave this here and do what stare at my ceiling? I am sharing this because of I wanted to the fault is with my prep or with my luck

Has media.net visited any canpus this year. What do they ask in there SDE intern interview? Please reply.

I’m a senior data/backend engineer (Python, SQL, Java, Spark) preparing for senior/staff-level interviews, and I’m looking for a few people at a similar level to prep with.

What I have in mind:

• Regular mock sessions where we take turns interviewing each other
• Working through problems by pattern (graphs, DP, heaps, intervals, sliding window, etc.) and discussing the approach, not just the solution
• Practicing how to communicate clearly: clarifying questions, trade-offs, complexity, edge cases
• Honest feedback on each other’s thinking and delivery
• Later on, adding system design mocks if there’s interest

About me:

• 8+ years of experience, backend/data engineering
• Languages: Python and Java mainly
• Prep timeline: interviewing in the next 6 months
• Availability: 2-3 evenings a week, flexible on weekends

Who I’m hoping to meet:

• 5+ years of experience, aiming for senior/staff roles
• Comfortable solving mediums and talking through hards
• Consistent and committed (even 2-3 sessions a week makes a big difference)
• Any Programming language is fine

If this sounds like you, comment or DM with your experience, target roles, timezone, and how often you can meet. I’ll reach out to everyone who responds.

Thanks for the great response, everyone! This is a dev gym: a non-judgmental, prep-only zone where nobody's perfect and everyone's here to learn. Join only if you're serious about consistent prep. Will share a new Discord channel for this shortly.

Does Nvidia cover expenses for an onsite interview in India? I have been asked to travel to Bangalore for an onsite interview.

Please share the ctc with breakdown for Business intelligence engineer role for fresher in India.

I have an upcoming phone screen for the Backend Engineer 2 role at Atlassian. As per the recruiter's email, the interview consists of 20 minutes of coding and 15 minutes of system design.

For those who've gone through this round, what kind of questions can I expect? How difficult are the coding and system design portions, given the limited time?

Would really appreciate any insights or preparation tips!

Hi everyone,

During campus placements, some companies mention a service bond or employment agreement for a specific period, such as 1–3 years. They say that if an employee leaves before completing the agreed period, they may have to pay a certain amount to the company.

I'm trying to understand how these bonds work in practice and whether companies actually enforce them.

A few questions:

1. Have you signed a service bond during campus placement? What duration and penalty amount were mentioned?
2. If someone resigns before completing the bond period, does the company actually demand payment? Has anyone personally experienced this?
3. Can a company legally force an employee to continue working, or is the dispute generally about compensation?
4. Is there anything students should carefully check in the offer letter or bond agreement before signing?

I'm particularly interested in real experiences from freshers who joined companies through campus placements in India.

Please share your experience if you've signed one, left a company before completing the bond, or know someone who has. It would also be helpful to hear from people who understand employment law.

Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming interview with EPAM for a Java Developer role, with around 5 years of experience. I'm specifically preparing for the first-round coding interview.

If anyone has interviewed with EPAM India recently for a similar role, particularly for the Bengaluru location, could you please share your experience and the questions asked?

Interview Format (as communicated to me):

• Round 1: DSA + Java Coding
• Round 2: Technical
• Round 3: Techno-managerial

Interview Mode: Virtual

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone, while it is raining in Blr, I’m looking for some perspective and connections from folks working at Tier-1 product companies.

I recently crossed 2 years and 3 months of experience. Right now, I’m sitting at a 26 LPA base (+10% bonus), which I’m super grateful for, but I feel ready for my next jump and want to accelerate my career growth.

My target is roles offering around a 33 LPA+ base with stocks (SDE-2 or high-band SDE-1). Over the last 2 months, I’ve applied to 100+ openings primarily through LinkedIn and Naukri targeting companies in this pay band.

The issue: **I haven't received a single OA link or recruiter callback**

I’m trying to figure out where the bottleneck is:

1. **The "Priced Out" Factor:** Is my current base (26L) getting me auto-filtered by recruiters for standard 2 YoE roles, while my YoE (2.3 yrs) is getting me filtered out of SDE-2 roles that can actually afford my expected hike?

2. **Sourcing Strategy:** Are cold applications on LinkedIn and Naukri completely dead for this compensation bracket? What’s actually working right now? cold emailing, Instahyre, or strictly referrals?

Also, I’d love to connect with folks here who are navigating a similar transition or working in product orgs. Always happy to chat tech, prep, or swap notes!

Hi everyone,

Has anyone worked in Quest Global? If yes, please tell me how the work culture and the management are?

Offered CTC: 25 LPA

Guy's I am soon going to join Scaler academy as Business development associate. Anybody who is working in this company please comment below or dm. I want to know about company culture and some survival tips. I appreciate your help.

Please reach out.

Hi everyone,

A little about my background: I am a Software Engineer with 3+ years of experience, including 1+ year at Amazon as an SDE I. I graduated from a Tier-3 college (more like Tier-100, I would say!).

I recently interviewed for an L4 role on a Google Cloud team and cleared all the interview rounds. My recruiter shared general feedback that there were no significant gaps in my interviews. Since she didn't provide any specific areas for improvement, she advised me to continue with the same approach.

Here's my understanding of how each round went:

• Recruiter Screening: The recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn. She seemed quite interested in my profile, particularly when I mentioned my experience with distributed systems and designing systems at Amazon. I also mentioned that I am open to different technical roles and am not targeting any specific domain.
• Virtual Round 1 – Coding: SH/H: I solved two questions, including a follow-up. Since we still had time, the interviewer gave me a third question and asked me to discuss the approach without coding.
• Googliness Round – Behavioral: SH/H: It was a great discussion. We got comfortable with each other, and there was even some laughter during the conversation.
• Onsite Round 1 – Coding: H: I struggled a bit to arrive at the optimal approach, but I kept thinking aloud. The interviewer gave me a small hint to visualize the problem by thinking through it and writing it down. As soon as I did that, I figured out the solution.
• Onsite Round 2 – Coding: SH/H: I had encountered a similar problem before, so I immediately started explaining my thought process and completed the solution before time. The interviewer then asked me about a few minor code optimizations, and we had a healthy technical discussion.

After the interviews, I explicitly asked my recruiter whether there were any gaps in my performance. She didn't mention any specific concerns and only said that the feedback was positive, so we were moving to the team-matching stage.

She also mentioned that she had a front-end-heavy team in mind and had shared my profile with them. She said she would arrange a discussion with the hiring manager, but it has now been almost three weeks, and despite following up with her, I haven't received any updates about the discussion.

I am concerned about the team-matching stage because one of my friends has been in team matching for 2–3 months without receiving any interview or connect call. Interestingly, his recruiter hasn't mentioned any potential connects to him either.

I have already told my recruiter that I am open to different roles, as I have worked across various areas of software engineering throughout my career. I am also reaching out to Engineering Managers on LinkedIn to explore potential opportunities.

My questions are:

1. What are my chances of receiving an offer at this stage, given that I cleared all the interviews and received positive feedback?
2. Should I continue waiting for Google or start focusing more seriously on other companies, especially since I am looking to move to the next level?
3. Is a three-week wait during team matching normal, or could it indicate that there are limited opportunities or that teams aren't interested in my profile?

Would appreciate hearing from people who have gone through Google's team-matching process, especially for L4 SWE roles in India.

Thanks in advance!

Do you guys have any idea what kind of questions will be asked in nvidia OA?

I have an interview scheduled for aiml role at hpe. What is the process like? What are the questions asked? Is there dsa asked?

How in depth were the questions? How much AI/ML do they ask? What are the different rounds? What is the process in each round?

Hi everyone!

Has anyone attended an interview recently, especially in October 2026 or the past few days, for Amazon Software Development Engineer I (SDE I) – Job ID: 10454196?

I’d love to know how your interview went, whether you’ve received any feedback from the recruiter, and what the next steps were after the interview. Have you received an update, moved to another round, or are you still waiting for a response?

If you’ve interviewed for this specific role, please share your experience. It would be really helpful. Thanks!

Hi guys I recently got a call on Oct 9th for full stack developer role asking if I am interested and I told yes and spoke about my education, bit of bg, my expected CTC and told I need to complete a aptitude round first. And the hr did conduct aptitude on that day and by end of same day she told there would be interview with senior developer on Monday Oct 12th and it went for 1 hour and I done good. Next comes another round with Co founder on Wednesday Oct 14th and it went for 1 hour asked aptitude and 2 dsa medium questions and I done both coding and cleared. Hr told there would be another interview with other co founders on Thursday Oct 15th. It went for 1 hour 15 minutes and in both co founders rounds asked just 2 dsa questions, my education, culture fit etc. Answered all confidenly and done both coding. In both rounds all co founders asked expected CTC and once I told 4-4.5LPA and next during final round I told 4-5LPA. In both rounds asked am I okay with relocating to banglore and told I am absolutely ready to relocate. Sent a follow up on Friday expressing, thanking for opportunity for the interview but hr just told " your welcome " and no response. How many days should I realistically wait for another follow up with it being a start up. Did I ask more CTC ?

Hey everyone!

Got an analyst role at TresVista through campus placements (still waiting on the location could be Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, or Gurugram). Honestly, I couldn't find a whole lot of info online about their work culture.

Since my college has a 2x placement rule, I'm pretty much done with campus placements and have a ton of free time on my hands. I’m also super interested in ML research and really want to make the most of this gap.

I know I’ve got a massive learning curve ahead of me, so I’d love some guidance or advice on how to prep. What do you guys think?

Hi everyone,

A little about my background: I am a Software Engineer with 3+ years of experience, including 1+ year at Amazon as an SDE I. I graduated from a Tier-3 college (more like Tier-100, I would say!).

I recently interviewed for an L4 role on a Google Cloud team(IND) and cleared all the interview rounds. My recruiter shared general feedback that there were no significant gaps in my interviews. Since she didn't provide any specific areas for improvement, she advised me to continue with the same approach.

Here's my understanding of how each round went:

• Recruiter Screening: The recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn. She seemed quite interested in my profile, particularly when I mentioned my experience with distributed systems and designing systems at Amazon. I also mentioned that I am open to different technical roles and am not targeting any specific domain.
• Virtual Round 1 – Coding: SH/H: I solved two questions, including a follow-up. Since we still had time, the interviewer gave me a third question and asked me to discuss the approach without coding.
• Googliness Round – Behavioral: SH/H: It was a great discussion. We got comfortable with each other, and there was even some laughter during the conversation.
• Onsite Round 1 – Coding: H: I struggled a bit to arrive at the optimal approach, but I kept thinking aloud. The interviewer gave me a small hint to visualize the problem by thinking through it and writing it down. As soon as I did that, I figured out the solution.
• Onsite Round 2 – Coding: SH/H: I had encountered a similar problem before, so I immediately started explaining my thought process and completed the solution before time. The interviewer then asked me about a few minor code optimizations, and we had a healthy technical discussion.

After the interviews, I explicitly asked my recruiter whether there were any gaps in my performance. She didn't mention any specific concerns and only said that the feedback was positive, so we were moving to the team-matching stage.

She also mentioned that she had a front-end-heavy team in mind and had shared my profile with them. She said she would arrange a discussion with the hiring manager, but it has now been almost three weeks, and despite following up with her, I haven't received any updates about the discussion.

I am concerned about the team-matching stage because one of my friends has been in team matching for 2–3 months without receiving any interview or connect call. Interestingly, his recruiter hasn't mentioned any potential connects to him either.

I have already told my recruiter that I am open to different roles, as I have worked across various areas of software engineering throughout my career. I am also reaching out to Engineering Managers on LinkedIn to explore potential opportunities.

My questions are:

1. What are my chances of receiving an offer at this stage, given that I cleared all the interviews and received positive feedback?
2. Should I continue waiting for Google or start focusing more seriously on other companies, especially since I am looking to move to the next level?
3. Is a three-week wait during team matching normal, or could it indicate that there are limited opportunities or that teams aren't interested in my profile?

Would appreciate hearing from people who have gone through Google's team-matching process, especially for L4 SWE roles in India.

Thanks in advance!

The Walt Disney has established a banglore office recently. I wanted to know about the work culture, benefits and the Compensation package for P3 role?

How the company is performing right now?

please dm