Tell me about yourself

The first question in almost every round. Structure: present → past → why this role. Keep it under 2 minutes; end on something they will want to ask about (Prayog).

30 seconds (phone screen, recruiter)

I'm a full-stack engineer with five years at J.P. Morgan in Mumbai, working in Java, Spring Boot and React. Right now I'm on the Model Portfolios platform in Asset and Wealth Management, where I own features end to end, from discovery with the product owner to production. Before that I spent four years in Index Research owning a client-reporting application. Outside work I built Prayog, a simulated stock exchange with a Java matching engine and a Kafka-fed ledger. I'm looking for a senior full-stack role where I can own bigger pieces of a product.

90 seconds (the main version)

I'm Raj, a full-stack engineer with five years at J.P. Morgan in Mumbai.

Now: I'm an Associate on Portfolio Insights in Asset and Wealth Management. I own full-stack features for the Model Portfolios platform that financial advisors use to choose and present portfolios to their clients. Recently I extended it to alternatives and separately managed accounts, which opens a new business line, built white-labeling so an advisor's firm brand appears on every generated PDF, and moved the platform to new EKS and EMR clusters with zero downtime using blue/green. The stack is Java, Spring Boot, React, Kafka, DynamoDB and Redis on AWS.

Before that: four years in Index Research, where I owned a client-reporting application with daily operations modules. My biggest piece there was redesigning a database schema that limited how many clients we could onboard, and I led the Java 8 to 17 upgrade and the iBatis to MyBatis migration.

Outside work: I build things to understand them. My main project is Prayog, a simulated stock exchange: a single-threaded matching engine on the LMAX Disruptor that matches an order in about 100 nanoseconds, with a journal, deterministic replay and a Kafka-fed post-trade ledger. I also built Galois, a web app that teaches group theory through a Rubik's cube, and I ran the AWS AI League for our Mumbai site.

Why this role: I want to own larger systems end to end, in a team that cares about design and measurement, and [Fill in: one specific thing about this company or team].

Delivery

Hit the three numbers: 5 years, zero-downtime migration, ~100 ns per order. Don't read it; know the four headings (now, before, outside, why) and talk.

Follow-ups to expect

Why are you looking to leave J.P. Morgan?

Keep it positive and about growth, never about complaints.

"I've learned a lot at J.P. Morgan: production ownership, working with operations and product, and the finance domain. I'm now looking for [larger scope / a product company / faster shipping / more system design ownership]. Building Prayog showed me how much I enjoy owning a whole system, and I want my day job to look more like that."

Fill in: the one honest reason that fits this company (scale, product, domain, pace).

Why this company?

Three parts: their product (something specific you saw), their engineering (blog, stack, scale), and your fit (finance + full-stack + measurement). Fill in before the call; read their careers page and one engineering blog post.

Where do you see yourself in 3–5 years?

"As a senior or staff engineer who owns a domain end to end: design, delivery and the people around it. I already mentor juniors and ran the AWS AI League site program, so growing toward technical leadership is natural. I want to stay hands-on."

What are your strengths?

1. I learn new domains fast: finance at work, exchange internals and group theory on my own.
2. I measure before I claim: every Prayog number has a benchmark with a date and a machine.
3. I own things end to end: discovery with the product owner through production support.

Back each with a 1-line example.

What is your weakness?

Pick a real one with a fix in progress. Example:

"I can go deep on a problem when a simpler answer would do: in Prayog I measured GC collectors for hours before accepting that the laptop's scheduling was the bigger noise source. I now time-box investigations and write down the decision and what would change it, which is why Prayog has 23 decision records."

Why should we hire you?

"I bring five years of production Java and React in finance, I've shipped features end to end with product owners, and I go deeper than most on systems: I built an exchange from scratch to understand one. You get someone who ships and someone who can explain why it works."

What is your notice period / expected salary?

Fill in your notice period exactly. For salary, give a researched range or defer: "I'd like to understand the role and level first; I'm sure we can find a number that works." Know your current CTC breakdown if asked.