I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Rakuten (Tokyo) in Sept 2025
Interview
Horrible all around, in all honesty.
Had two interviewers (both non-HR representatives) present: one of which you could hold a conversation with, while the other one was having way too much difficulty speaking English and expressing himself to the point I was almost ready to offer to switch to Japanese (despite Rakuten supposedly using it as their official 'inside the company language'). He also did not understand some of my questions even after I repeated myself and gave examples of what kind of response I expect to those.
Both of them asked me mostly behavioural questions (that they both were reading from somewhere off camera, which I could clearly see) that felt very uninspired and somewhat disrespectful, in all honesty. "What inspires you in your work", "What makes you happy", "What are your ambitions", "What kind of technology do you want to master/learn" etc. There has been one question that felt like it was possibly tailored to my CV, but perhaps that was just a coincidence. Other than that there has been little to no talk about what their team does or what the product actually is. I honestly felt like I ended up asking them more questions than they were asking me and perhaps that's why they I did not go further in the process than that.
Ended up getting ghosted by them after that--in all honesty, it should be the other way around. The fact they never even bothered to send even a rejection letter (even after I reached out directly to inquire about the state of the selection process, no less) makes me wonder how they treat their own employees if that's how they treat their candidates
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
-Tell us about how you worked on performance optimization at your previous company
-What inspires you in your work
-How did you solve a particular issue at work (typical STAR stuff)
Applied online. Initial screening with the hiring manager. Questions from resume. Technologies used. Java basic questions. Salary expectations. About the role and team. Leetcode question - no coding - just mention the approach. System design question.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Leetcode question - no coding - just mention the approach. System design question.
Disorganized, no HR reached out to discuss about the administrative details and salary and benefits, the hiring manager reached out directly, scheduled a meeting and asked about HR questions(visa, RTO etc.)
The hiring manager was late for over 5 mins minutes, no apologies, no greetings. Negative experience
The interview covered Python libraries, networking, and my software engineering experience. While questions were basic, they can be tricky for seniors. Review your definitions alongside your past projects to succeed.