General Staff Interview Guide
Published July 22, 2026 · Updated July 22, 2026
Evidence-backed preparation playbook for General Staff interviews. 9 reported questions, top topics, difficulty breakdown, and a free assessment.
5-9 years
Most reported exp
Rounds reported
System Design 8qHR 1q
Topics most frequently reported
✓SQL / Multi-tenancy
1 question · 11%
✓AWS / Architecture
1 question · 11%
✓Behavioral / Ethics
1 question · 11%
·React / Micro Frontend
1 question · 11%
·React / SSR
1 question · 11%
·System Design / Real-time ML
1 question · 11%
Free · 10 minutes
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Top Questions — Ranked by Community Votes
These 6 questions appeared most in General Staff reports. Master these first.
General
Hard
System Design round
6-10 years
Design a system that detects fraudulent credit card transactions in real-time (decision in under 50ms). The system processes 10,000 transactions per second.
↑ 81 upvotes · 9 engineers asked this · Staff
General
Hard
HR round
3-10 years
Your team is two days before launch. A junior developer finds a critical security vulnerability in the payment flow. Fixing it will delay launch by a week. Your manager says 'we'll fix it after launch.' What do you do?
↑ 71 upvotes · 19 engineers asked this · Staff
General
Hard
System Design round
5-9 years
Design a pipeline to detect fraudulent transactions in near-real-time. Transactions arrive at 10,000/second. Your ML model takes 5ms to evaluate one transaction.
↑ 71 upvotes · 9 engineers asked this · Staff
General
Hard
System Design round
5-9 years
Design a data architecture on AWS for a startup that needs to: store raw events, run real-time analytics, run daily batch reports, and serve an API with sub-10ms response time.
↑ 46 upvotes · 44 engineers asked this · Staff
General
Hard
System Design round
5-9 years
Your team wants to add server-side rendering to an existing client-side React app. What are the actual technical challenges beyond 'just use Next.js'?
↑ 15 upvotes · 43 engineers asked this · Staff
General
Hard
System Design round
6-10 years
Explain Module Federation in React micro-frontends. What are the main production challenges?
↑ 12 upvotes · 30 engineers asked this · Staff
See all 9 questions →
Same role at other companies
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Frequently asked questions
How hard is the General Staff interview?
Mostly Hard difficulty based on 9 reported questions. Most questions cover SQL / Multi-tenancy, AWS / Architecture, Behavioral / Ethics.
What topics does General ask Staffs?
Top reported topics: SQL / Multi-tenancy (1 questions), AWS / Architecture (1 questions), Behavioral / Ethics (1 questions), React / Micro Frontend (1 questions), React / SSR (1 questions).
How many rounds does General have for Staff?
Reported rounds: System Design, HR.
What experience level does General hire Staffs at?
Most reported: 5-9 years and 6-10 years.