## Round 1 - Coding ## Problem You are given a take-home backend assignment. Implement a REST API for a task management service with the following requirements: - `POST /tasks` — create a task with `title`, `description`, `status` (todo/in_progress/done), `due_date` - `GET /tasks` — list all tasks; support filtering by `status` and sorting by `due_date` - `GET /tasks/{id}` — retrieve a single task - `PATCH /tasks/{id}` — update task fields - `DELETE /tasks/{id}` — delete a task ```python # Expected request body for POST /tasks { "title": "Write tests", "description": "Cover all edge cases", "status": "todo", "due_date": "2025-06-01" } ``` ## Example ``` POST /tasks -> 201 {"id": 1, "title": "Write tests", ...} GET /tasks?status=todo&sort=due_date -> [{...}, ...] PATCH /tasks/1 -> 200 {"id": 1, "status": "done", ...} DELETE /tasks/1 -> 204 ``` ## Follow-ups 1. How do you validate the `due_date` format and reject invalid status values? 2. What HTTP status codes do you return for a missing task or bad request body? 3. How would you add user authentication so each user only sees their own tasks? 4. Describe how you would write integration tests for the `PATCH` endpoint.

InterviewDB Experience

Backend Assignment Interview: Build a REST API for a Task Management Service

Backend Onsite

Interview Experience

Round 1 - Coding Problem You are given a take-home backend assignment. Implement a REST API for a task management service with the following requirements: POST /tasks — create a task with title, description, status (todo/in_progress/done), due_date GET /tasks — list all tasks; support filtering by status and sorting by due_date GET /tasks/{id} — retrieve a single task PATCH /tasks/{id} — update task fields DELETE /tasks/{id} — delete a task Example Follow-ups How do you validate the due_date for…

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About This Question

This is a candidate experience report from a glean interview for a backend role during the onsite round.

It covers the following topics: Coding, Onsite .

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Coding Onsite

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This question was reported by a candidate who interviewed at Glean. LeakCode aggregates interview reports from 10+ sources, including 1Point3Acres, Glassdoor, LeetCode Discuss, Blind, Reddit, Indeed, and Nowcoder. Each report is translated where necessary, deduplicated against existing entries, and tagged by company, role, round type, and reporting date.

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How To Practice This Type of Question

Solve similar problems on LeetCode under timed conditions (25-35 minutes per medium difficulty). The goal is pattern recognition: recognize the underlying technique (sliding window, two-pointer, BFS, memoized recursion, etc.) within 60-90 seconds of reading. Strong candidates verbalize their hypothesis out loud before coding, then iterate based on feedback. Weak candidates dive into implementation immediately, lose time on the wrong approach, and run out of time for follow-ups.

Companies update their question pools every 2-4 months. The exact wording of any given question may have been retired by the time you interview. Focus your prep on the pattern, not the specific problem. The patterns that appear in Glean reports consistently are the ones worth investing in; one-off niche problems are not.

During Your Glean Round

Apply the standard interview round template: clarify requirements (2-3 minutes), state your approach out loud and confirm direction with the interviewer (3-5 minutes), code with narration (15-25 minutes), test with concrete examples including edge cases (5 minutes), discuss optimization or trade-offs if time permits (5 minutes). This template is universally accepted across FAANG and adjacent companies; deviating from it produces weaker interviewer feedback signal.

The single most predictive failure mode in Glean reports tagged "no hire": not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers are explicitly trained to weight this. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's written notes.