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ORACLE · SDE 2

Oracle SDE 2 interview

The SDE 2 (mid-level software engineer) level at Oracle is IC2–IC3 MTS / Senior MTS, for engineers with about 2 to 5 years of experience. The rounds at this level, how each one is scored, and the questions to practise first.

From public candidate reports and Oracle's careers pages, checked November 2026. Processes vary by team. AlgoRung is not affiliated with Oracle.

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Oracle titleIC2–IC3 MTS / Senior MTS
ExperienceEngineers with about 2 to 5 years of experience
Interviews after screeningAbout 6
System design roundYes

The SDE 2 rounds, in order

  1. Phone / recruiter screen · 45 min

    A recruiter call on your work history and why Oracle, sometimes with light technical questions.

    At SDE 2: One or two problems, a little faster. Some companies mix in a design question.

  2. Online assessment · 90 min

    An online or live screen with one or two DSA problems that must pass every test; sometimes a design-pattern task.

    At SDE 2: Used by some companies for experienced hires (Amazon, Uber, Salesforce, Oracle). The bar is the same as for SDE 1 but the time is often shorter.

  3. Coding (DSA) × 2 · 60 min

    Rounds that mix DSA with grilling on past projects and Java or REST deep dives.

    At SDE 2: Two or three rounds at medium to hard level. You are expected to reach the optimal approach with fewer hints and to test without being asked.

  4. Low-level design / machine coding · 30 min

    Usually half a round: schema or class design.

    At SDE 2: The core round at many product companies: working, modular, extensible code with validation, error handling and tests, finished on time.

  5. System design (HLD) · 60 min

    From IC3 up, an architecture round on your current system plus a standard design prompt.

    At SDE 2: Present at most companies. A sound end-to-end design with sensible components and basic scaling is enough.

  6. Hiring manager · 60 min

    Project architecture, behavioral questions and sometimes a design prompt.

    At SDE 2: Ownership of features, handling production issues, working with product and other teams.

  7. Bar raiser · 60 min

    Cloud infrastructure (OCI) loops often include a bar-raiser round by a senior engineer from another team.

    At SDE 2: Behavioral depth with probing follow-ups; sometimes design.

What Oracle interviewers look for

Coding questions to practise for Oracle SDE 2

Two or three rounds at medium to hard level. You are expected to reach the optimal approach with fewer hints and to test without being asked.

Difficulty
Topic
14 questions
  1. Group Anagrams Medium Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Meta
  2. Next Greater Element I Easy Monotonic Stack also Adobe, Walmart Global Tech
  3. Search a 2D Matrix II (Young Tableau) Medium Binary Search
  4. Shortest Path in Binary Matrix Medium Graphs
  5. Merge Intervals Medium Intervals also Netflix, LinkedIn, Atlassian
  6. Missing Number Easy Bit Manipulation
  7. LRU Cache Medium Design Data Structures also Amazon, Microsoft, Apple +4
  8. Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree Hard Trees & BST also Amazon, Meta, LinkedIn
  9. Minimum Window Substring Hard Arrays & Hashing also Google, Meta, LinkedIn
  10. Course Schedule Medium Graphs also Google, Amazon, Netflix +1
  11. 01 Matrix Medium Graphs
  12. Linked List Cycle Easy Linked List
  13. Product of Array Except Self Medium Arrays & Hashing also Meta
  14. Continuous Subarray Sum Medium Arrays & Hashing also Adobe

How the coding round is scored · The online assessment

System design at SDE 2

IC2 loops usually stop at LLD or schema design. From IC3 up, expect at least one HLD round plus an architecture walkthrough of your current project; at IC4, architecture matters more than puzzles.

All Oracle system design questions

Questions people ask

How many rounds are in the Oracle SDE 2 interview?

About 6 interviews after the screening: phone / recruiter screen, online assessment, coding (dsa), low-level design / machine coding, system design (hld), hiring manager, bar raiser.

Is there a system design round for Oracle SDE 2?

Yes. IC2 loops usually stop at LLD or schema design. From IC3 up, expect at least one HLD round plus an architecture walkthrough of your current project; at IC4, architecture matters more than puzzles.

What coding questions does Oracle ask at SDE 2?

The same question pool is used across levels; the bar rises with level. Most reported: Group Anagrams, Next Greater Element I, Search a 2D Matrix II (Young Tableau), Shortest Path in Binary Matrix, Merge Intervals.

What does Oracle expect in coding rounds at SDE 2?

Two or three rounds at medium to hard level. You are expected to reach the optimal approach with fewer hints and to test without being asked.

SDE 2 interviews at other companies

SDE 2 interview questions across all companies · Behavioral questions