BackEnd Engineer

As a BackEnd Engineer at Udacity, your main responsibilities will include designing, building, and maintaining new and existing microservices, participating in design and code reviews, responding to production incidents, and managing cloud vendor resources and services. Additionally, you will maintain core internal APIs to support various application services, ensuring our platform remains robust and efficient for our users.

To qualify for the BackEnd Engineer role at Udacity, candidates should have at least three years of professional software engineering experience in a product-oriented environment. A strong background in building scalable systems and expertise in technologies such as GoLang, Postgresql, Graphql, and AWS is essential. Familiarity with cloud services, CI/CD processes, and container orchestration tools like Kubernetes is also highly valued.

BackEnd Engineers at Udacity should have a solid understanding of programming languages relevant to our tech stack, particularly GoLang. Familiarity with SQL for database management and experience with frameworks related to web protocols and security are also important. Knowledge of languages such as Python, especially for integration with CI/CD tools, is considered a nice-to-have.

Udacity values a diverse and inclusive workplace and actively encourages applicants from all backgrounds to apply for the BackEnd Engineer position. We believe that diverse teams foster creativity and innovation, and we are committed to creating an environment where every voice is heard and respected. Applicants will also be provided with a voluntary self-identification survey to help us improve diversity in our hiring process.

BackEnd Engineers at Udacity enjoy a range of benefits including flexibility to work remotely, comprehensive medical coverage, paid time off, and wellness resources. Employees also have access to unlimited Udacity courses and Nanodegrees, personalized career development opportunities, and quarterly wellness days. Our commitment to creating a supportive work environment means that your growth is celebrated!

When answering this question, focus on your specific experiences in designing, building, and maintaining microservices. Discuss any projects where you've successfully implemented a microservices architecture, the challenges faced, and how you tackled issues related to scalability and latency.

In responding to this question, you should highlight your approach to API design, including thinking about rate limiting, caching strategies, and optimization techniques. Mention any tools or frameworks you've used to monitor and improve API performance over time.

Discuss your experience with on-call rotations and any incident management processes you've been a part of. Emphasize the importance of having playbooks, logging systems, and monitoring tools in place to quickly identify and resolve issues.

Provide a specific example of a tough engineering challenge related to back-end development. Explain the problem, your thought process, the steps you took to resolve it, and the final outcome. This shows your problem-solving skills and technical knowledge.

Talk about any automation you’ve implemented to streamline development or deployment processes. This could include CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, or infrastructure automation using tools like Terraform or Ansible.

Discuss your methodologies for SQL performance tuning, including indexing strategies, query optimization, and analysis of execution plans. Mention any tools you've used for monitoring and analyzing database performance.

Share your experience with cloud platforms such as AWS or Google Cloud, detailing specific services you've used for back-end development, deployment, or data storage. Highlight any projects where you optimized resource usage in the cloud.

Speak about your experience with tools like Docker and Kubernetes, detailing how you’ve used them in your projects for deployment and orchestration. Provide examples of how these technologies helped improve system reliability or scalability.

Reflect on the main characteristics of a solid back-end system, such as scalability, reliability, and maintainability. Discuss how you prioritize these aspects in your work and any specific techniques you use to achieve them.

Mention the resources you use to keep your skills current, such as online courses, technical blogs, developer conferences, or peer learning groups. Discuss how you apply new technologies and methodologies into your work at Udacity.