Mastering the Senior Java/Spring Boot Engineer Interview

I've been on both sides of the interview table for over a decade. I've bombed interviews at companies I really wanted to join. I've also hired engineers who looked mediocre on paper but turned out to be the best technical decisions I ever made. Here's what I've learned: Senior interviews aren't knowledge tests. They're thinking tests. Anyone can memorize that HashMap has O(1) lookup. What interviewers actually want to know is whether you'll make good decisions when the documentation runs out and Stack Overflow doesn't have your exact problem. This guide is different. I'm not going to list 50 questions with textbook answers. Instead, I'll show you how senior engineers think through problems, because that's what actually gets you hired. The Uncomfortable Truth About Senior Interviews Let me be blunt: if you have 10+ years of experience and you're still getting rejected, it's probably not your technical knowledge. It's one of these: You're answering questions like a junior - giving defini