Cognizant
American multinational information technology services and consulting company.
4 Rounds
~21 Days
Medium
The Interview Loop
Recruiter Screen (30 min)
Standard fit check, behavioral questions, and resume overview.
Technical Loop (3-4 Rounds)
Deep dive into domain knowledge, coding, and system design.
Interview Question Bank
Backend Engineer
•
Technical
•
easy
What is the difference between `@Component`, `@Service`, and `@Repository` in Spring?
#Annotations
#Architecture
Backend Engineer
•
Technical
•
hard
What is the difference between `@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRED)` and `REQUIRES_NEW`?
#Transactions
#Database
Backend Engineer
•
Technical
•
medium
How do you resolve Circular Dependencies in a Spring Boot application?
#Dependency Injection
#Architecture
Backend Engineer
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Technical
•
medium
Explain the Bean lifecycle in the Spring framework.
#Framework
#IoC
Backend Engineer
•
Technical
•
medium
How does Spring Boot auto-configuration work under the hood?
#Framework Internals
#Annotations
Backend Engineer
•
Technical
•
medium
How do you handle exceptions globally in a Spring Boot REST API?
#REST
#Error Handling
Backend Engineer
•
Technical
•
easy
How do you implement pagination and sorting in Spring Data JPA?
#JPA
#API Design
Software Engineer
•
Technical
•
medium
How do you handle exceptions globally in a Spring Boot application?
#Exception Handling
#Spring AOP
#Annotations
Software Engineer
•
Technical
•
easy
What is the difference between @Component, @Service, and @Repository annotations in Spring?
#Spring Core
#Annotations
Software Engineer
•
Technical
•
easy
Explain the difference between @Controller and @RestController in Spring Boot.
#Spring MVC
#Annotations
#REST APIs
Difficulty Radar
Based on recent AI-sourced data.
Meet Your Interviewers
The "Standard" Interviewer
Senior EngineerFocuses on core competencies, system constraints, and clear communication.
SimulateUnwritten Rules
Think Out Loud
Always explain your thought process before writing code or drawing architecture.