IntermediateLEADERSHIP
Tell me about a time you led a small backend team or mentored peers to deliver a complex feature. How did you set technical direction, resolve disagreements, and ensure timely execution?
Backend Developer
General

Sample Answer

At my last company, I led a team of four backend engineers to build a new subscription billing service that touched payments, entitlements, and reporting. Revenue was projected to go up 15%, so there was a lot of visibility. I started by writing a short RFC with the domain model, API contracts, and a migration plan from the legacy cron-based system. We did a design review, captured disagreements (Postgres vs Dynamo, synchronous vs async invoicing), and I pushed us to prototype both storage options with realistic data. The benchmark made the decision obvious: Postgres handled our queries 40% faster and simplified reporting. To keep execution on track, I broke work into thin vertical slices, set weekly milestones, and paired juniors with seniors on the riskiest parts. We shipped in 10 weeks instead of the planned 12, cut invoice failures from 2% to 0.2%, and I made sure to highlight everyone’s contributions in our launch postmortem.

Keywords

Lead with a clear technical vision via RFCs and design reviewsUse data and small prototypes to resolve technical disagreementsStructure work into vertical slices and set concrete milestonesMentor juniors through pairing while still hitting aggressive timelines