I recently appeared for the Team Lead interview at Apna
and the process was quite extensive, testing both my low-level design (LLD), high-level design (HLD),
project knowledge and behavioral skills.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of my interview journey:
Round 1 – Low-Level Design (LLD)
Topic: BookMyShow System Design
The interviewer asked me to design the complete flow of BookMyShow. The discussion covered:
Database Schema – designing tables for users, movies, theaters, seats, bookings, etc.
API Blueprint – I had to list all possible APIs, including:
Recommendation API (GET) – called when a user first opens the app
Search API (GET) – when a user searches for a city or movie
Booking API (POST) – for selecting seats and booking tickets
Payment API (POST) – to handle payment confirmation
Booking Status API (GET) – to check ticket confirmation details
For each API, I was expected to write the HTTP method, request payload, and response payload.
Key Follow-Up Question:
How do you handle the scenario where multiple users try to book the same seat at the same time?
We discussed concurrency handling using:
Transactions
Database locks
Redis for distributed locking
The interviewer went deep into Redis usage.
Round 2 – High-Level Design (HLD)
Topic: Design a LeetCode-like Platform with Leaderboard
This round focused on scalability and system design concepts. The interviewer asked me to:
Design a coding practice platform similar to LeetCode.
Add leaderboard features to rank users.
Explain components like:
API Gateway
Database schema
Caching strategy
Load balancing
Ranking algorithm
Since I had already read similar design breakdowns from HelloInterview’s LeetCode system design article
and Alex Xu's System Design Interview Vol.2 (Leaderboard problem), many follow-up questions were familiar and manageable.
Round 3 – HLD + Project Discussion
Topics: Subscription-Based Service + Past Project Work
In this round, the interviewer wanted a deep dive into system design plus my previous work experience.
Subscription Service Design
The company offers three plans:
Weekly Plan: 60 minutes of content OR 1 week expiry (whichever comes first).
Monthly Plan: Unlimited content but max 10 interviews per day.
Quarterly Plan: Same as monthly, valid for 3 months.
I was asked to focus on:
Database schema – user plans, usage tracking, expiry logic.
Payment handling – integration with payment gateways, retries, transactions.
Plan expiration logic – based on time or usage limits.
Project Deep Dive
Questions on system design decisions I had taken in my previous organization.
Focus on challenges, trade-offs and scalability.
Round 4 – Behavioral Interview
The final round was a behavioral discussion. Some of the standard questions included:
Tell me about yourself and your journey so far.
Challenges faced in past projects and how I solved them.
How do you handle conflicts in a team?
Why Apna, and what motivates you to join?
Where do you see yourself in 3–5 years?
This round mainly tested communication skills, cultural fit and problem-solving mindset.
My Insights
Be thorough with LLD and HLD concepts – from designing schemas to explaining APIs.
Practice system design problems like BookMyShow, LeetCode platform and subscription services.
Be ready to discuss concurrency handling and tools like Redis.
I recently appeared for the Team Lead interview at Apna\nand the process was quite extensive, testing both my low-level design (LLD), high-level design (HLD),\nproject knowledge and behavioral skills. \nHere’s a detailed breakdown of my interview journey:
\n
Round 1 – Low-Level Design (LLD)
\n
Topic: BookMyShow System Design
\n
The interviewer asked me to design the complete flow of BookMyShow. The discussion covered:
\n
\n
Database Schema – designing tables for users, movies, theaters, seats, bookings, etc.
\n
API Blueprint – I had to list all possible APIs, including:\n
\n
Recommendation API (GET) – called when a user first opens the app
\n
Search API (GET) – when a user searches for a city or movie
\n
Booking API (POST) – for selecting seats and booking tickets
\n
Payment API (POST) – to handle payment confirmation
\n
Booking Status API (GET) – to check ticket confirmation details
\n
\n
\n
\n
For each API, I was expected to write the HTTP method, request payload, and response payload.
\n
Key Follow-Up Question: \nHow do you handle the scenario where multiple users try to book the same seat at the same time?
\n
\n
We discussed concurrency handling using:\n
\n
Transactions
\n
Database locks
\n
Redis for distributed locking
\n
\n
\n
The interviewer went deep into Redis usage.
\n
\n
Round 2 – High-Level Design (HLD)
\n
Topic: Design a LeetCode-like Platform with Leaderboard
\n
This round focused on scalability and system design concepts. The interviewer asked me to:
\n
\n
Design a coding practice platform similar to LeetCode.
\n
Add leaderboard features to rank users.
\n
Explain components like:\n
\n
API Gateway
\n
Database schema
\n
Caching strategy
\n
Load balancing
\n
Ranking algorithm
\n
\n
\n
\n
Since I had already read similar design breakdowns from HelloInterview’s LeetCode system design article\nand Alex Xu's System Design Interview Vol.2 (Leaderboard problem), many follow-up questions were familiar and manageable.
\n
Round 3 – HLD + Project Discussion
\n
Topics: Subscription-Based Service + Past Project Work
\n
In this round, the interviewer wanted a deep dive into system design plus my previous work experience.
\n
Subscription Service Design
\n
The company offers three plans:
\n
\n
Weekly Plan: 60 minutes of content OR 1 week expiry (whichever comes first).
\n
Monthly Plan: Unlimited content but max 10 interviews per day.
\n
Quarterly Plan: Same as monthly, valid for 3 months.
\n
\n
I was asked to focus on:
\n
\n
Database schema – user plans, usage tracking, expiry logic.
\n
Payment handling – integration with payment gateways, retries, transactions.
\n
Plan expiration logic – based on time or usage limits.
\n
\n
Project Deep Dive
\n
\n
Questions on system design decisions I had taken in my previous organization.
\n
Focus on challenges, trade-offs and scalability.
\n
\n
Round 4 – Behavioral Interview
\n
The final round was a behavioral discussion. Some of the standard questions included:
\n
\n
Tell me about yourself and your journey so far.
\n
Challenges faced in past projects and how I solved them.
\n
How do you handle conflicts in a team?
\n
Why Apna, and what motivates you to join?
\n
Where do you see yourself in 3–5 years?
\n
\n
This round mainly tested communication skills, cultural fit and problem-solving mindset.
\n
My Insights
\n
\n
Be thorough with LLD and HLD concepts – from designing schemas to explaining APIs.
\n
Practice system design problems like BookMyShow, LeetCode platform and subscription services.
\n
Be ready to discuss concurrency handling and tools like Redis.
Prepare for behavioral questions – they carry more weight than most candidates assume.
\n
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