Technical Pointers

Operational Excellence: 
Prime Day we have increased traffic. What do you do prepare for the event?

Sample Technical Questions:

Assessment is how you deal with ambiguity to really understand and get to the right answers. Understand the right tasks and ask the right questions.
Think about all the use cases and capabilities within the design- what is the output?
And work backward- break out into components and inputs and outputs of each components keeping it decoupled.
How do they talk to each other, synchronous calls an asynchronous call, what databases will be used?
What are the components that work and those that don’t work?


1). How would you design a system to tackle the problem of integrating with millions of small and large data sources to populate a central product repository which can be used to feed product search? - E.g. Amazon Kinesis (Firehose, Analytics, Streams), ELK, Kafka etc.

Firehose -
   - Easily load huge volumes of streaming data into AWS (S3, Redshift, ES)
   - Capture, transform, & load streaming data into Kinesis Analytics, S3,  RS, ES
   - Can also batch, compress, and encrypt the data before loading it into AWS
   - Automatically scales to match the throughput of your data
   -  Input - Any Datasource (website, clickstreams, media feeds, IT logs etc)
   - Output - Kinesis Analytics, S3,  RS, ES

Analytics -
   - Process streaming data in real time with standard SQL
   - Scales automatically to match volume and throughput rate of incoming data
   -  Output - Integrates out-of-box with Kinesis Streams and Kinesis Firehose -
   -  Thus easy to send processed results to S3, RS, ES, or custom destination
   -  Input - Kinessis Firehose, Kinessis Streams
   -  Output - S3,  RedShift, ElasticSearch or  custom destination
   
Streams -
    - Enable to build custom applications that process or analyze streaming data.
    - Can continuously capture and store terabytes of data per hour from hundreds of thousands of sources such as website, clickstreams, financial transactions, social media feeds, IT logs, and location-tracking events.
    -  Input - Any Datasource (website, clickstreams, media feeds, IT logs etc)
   -  Output - S3,  RedShift, EMR, Lambda etc


2). Design a system to generate pick lists for randomly stored items across 30 rows of inventory. Think Home Depot size.

[Q] Now assume multiple workers, and they can request work from any isle location
[Q] So I’m a picker at isle 10 asking for work. It is checked against the sorted list then what happens?
[Q] Now volume is rising, and our service is struggling to keep up and generate pick lists. What do you do?
[Q] You tell me. Would you design differently knowing 8-10x scaling?

3). Design service for Stations whisper sync? APIs? Storage?

4). Design a login page for the Amazon retail website.

5).  Design a warehouse management system that people use to do labor planning.

6). You are building a new streaming media service, you plan on making music and video available as a subscription service, and also for purchase and rent.
Q). How would you represent this system in Java (or C++)?
Q). Could you draw a diagram, say a UML diagram, of the classes in question?

7). Design a point-to-point local courier service with the web application, courier mobile app.

8). Design an online card game.

9). Design/Describe Uber Design/Architecture - 
      Refer - https://youtu.be/umWABit-wbk

10). Design/Describe Whatsapp Design/Architecture - 
        Refer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvhC64hQZMk


Hope this helps..

Arun Manglick

Behavioral Pointers

Few Behavioral Questions :

Good Ref: 

• https://www.callcentrehelper.com/the-top-50-interview-questions-and-how-to-handle-them-8000.htm

About 

• Age - 150 years
• Span - 150 countries and territories
• Headquarters: New York City, NY
• Revenue: 36.8 billion USD (2016)
• Number of employees: 244,400 (2016)
• CEO: Catherine Engelbert
• Deloitte is largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of professionals.
• Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, enterprise risk and financial advisory services

Why you need this job / Why you want to work here

• Company Global Presence
• Niche Product With Wide Scope
• Company positioning/revenue/span in market - 
• High Revenue - Enable Employee Growth
• Company growth/success - Largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of professionals.
• Organization's priorities for ethics, teamwork and effectiveness 
• Wellness Programs

Ending Questions:

• How do you see my role with help you to grow
• Which part of my role should I concentrate in beginning. 

Why you as a fit?

• You’re looking for someone who can manage low-medium software projects from across functions, and that’s exactly what I was doing for last many years. 
• I managed a budget of 200 -600k, and a cross-department teams of 30-40 people (onsite/offshore) that included developers, engineers, and creatives to bring 15 software products to market
• I feel that my proven track record leading multi-functional teams across different geographical regions, makes me an excellent match for job requirements. 
• Combination of Technical + Manager capabilities and Learning Attitude, makes me a best fit for your company working on cutting-edge technologies.
• At the same time, I have friends in Deloitte who told about your company’s respect for employees and how you create a great environment for rewarding innovation. 
• I think my proactive style would fit in really well here — especially in this particular role.
• This organization's priorities for ethics, teamwork and effectiveness match my own. What's most important to me is finding a place where individuals want to work together, as a true team. I see that reflected here. 

Project Budget - 300-500k
Project B/w 3000 - 6000 Man Hours
Duties/Responsibilities - Project Charter, Kick-Off (Start Right), Jargons

Practical - How did you handle Tough Client (e.g. Japan Asurion)

1. Clearly Define Priorities, Timelines, Milestones & Deliverables
2. Create Strong Stakeholders Management Plan 
3. Note-down Stakeholders Expectations and Keep Sending Reports to meet their expectations
4. Keep more focus on highlighting Risk/Issues/Assumptions
5. Keep Single POC to communicate with customer
6. Listen carefully and Document everything (Send Meeting Minutes)
7. Work Hard In Initial Stages - Exceed Client Satisfaction
8. Be patient - Be patient with your customers and don’t interrupt them

Unable to Deliver on Time - How you handle/Communicate it

• Preventive -
• Catch Delays Early & Track Vigilantly
• Define Multiple Milestones & Deliverables
• Keep Stakeholders Informed about Project Status & Milestones Achieved
• Corrective
• Inform Stakeholders Milestones Met and Pending (and What has caused the delay)
• Be Honest and Ask For More Time - ETC
• Check - Can it be covered thru Reserves
• Document Lessons Learnt
• Complete Project Repository

Conflict Resolution - Situation and how to handle

• Conflict isn’t always a bad thing - Can lead to healthy competition, process improvements, innovation or creativity
• Preventive Measures
• Play Appreciation Games
• Equally Involve and Respect All
• Do not favour one person in front of all (Take it separately)
• Create some ground rules - How to Talk/Report/Leave rules/Responsibilities

• Corrective
• Encourage employees to work it out first - Say Three Good Things First followed by Issues
• Focus on issues, not personalities, and
• Focus on the present, not the past. 
• Listen to both sides - Meet Individually first and Then Together - Share your views and also ask each of them to offer ideas on how the situation could be resolved and how all parties could move forward.
• Sometimes can include third party mediator

• Examples
• Lead & Developer Issue - Not Reporting Status
• SME Issues - Who'll take ownership
• BA Issue collecting Estimates in addition to US writing
• Shared QA Team not able to focus on.

• Four top sources of conflicts are: 
• Schedule
• Project Priorities
• Resources
• Technical Opinions
• Personal Style

• Six general techniques for resolving conflict. 
• Win-Loose
• Forcing - Pushing one’s viewpoint at the expense of others
• Loose-Loose
• Compromising - Give & Take - Solutions that bring some degree of satisfaction to all parties
• Accommodating - Emphasizing areas of agreement rather than areas of difference
• Avoiding - Withdrawal or avoidance never results in resolution
• Win-Win
• Collaborating - 
• Problem Solving - Leads to consensus and commitment

Conflict Priorities

• External
• Work with Business for external priorities

• Internal
• Priorities work by Feature(MMF) and not just task
• Identify Important vs Value Addition - 
• Change in Priorities can be handled in Kanban way
• Keep To-Do List
• Remove/Lower Less Priorities Task

Work Life Balance - Personal

• Priorities your time
• Plot some personal time
• Have set work hours – and finish things within time (Parkinson Law - work expands to fill the space allotted)
• Step out 
• Cross Down Task List
• Cut Any Fat (Lean Thinking)

Strength / Weakness

• Strength
• Technical & Management Combination
• Result Oriented
• Leadership By Examples
• Multi-Tasking - End-to-End Delivery Ownership
• Customer Obsession
• Planning Skills
• Detailed & Structured
• Good Analysis Skills
• Exposure to various Agile Methodologies
• Tools & Technologies
• Learning Attitude

• Weakness
• Sometimes prefer Doing than Delegation - Trying when to move on to the next task, and to be confident when assigning others work.
• Timid to provided constructive feedback to coworkers or managers, out of fear of hurting someone's feelings.
• Visual Person - Implemented White Boarding, Quick Snapshots
• Accept Meeting Overlaps - Defined Training Calendar
• Insist on High Standards & Structured which at times not like by team
• Sometimes prefer to complete the project well ahead of schedule and keep contingency planned.

How do you ensure continuous process improvements in your team/project

• Engage Team for Internal Retrospection
• Highlight Improvement areas 
• Define Action Plan and Assign Action Owner(s)
• Review Progress and Status

Share challenging situations you faced on a project, explain the conditions, and the outcome?

• Discuss Project Delay Situation when last PM resigned and did not taken any proactive measures to avoid/report delays
• Retrospect with team for input and ideas on how to get back on schedule, and plan a course of action moving forward.
• Decided whether we need additional work from team members or supplementary resources are required.
• Also asking for volunteers who are willing to take on extra tasks as needed is advisable, as well.
• Discussed with SME/BSA - Are there any assignments that can be trimmed down or done away with completely.
• Got in touch with external teams - If they can have their part of the project completed even earlier.
• Created a plan and estimated time to complete the remaining & also considered to use reserves available 
• Informed stakeholders - Transparency re-assured them that we are well aware of the causes of delays and we have everything under control now.

• Removed Blame Game - Estimates were individual estimates and not team Estimates
• A.   Introduced Cross team & Cross-functional behaviour in estimation to come-up with one estimates as team estimate rather individual.
• B.   Point Based Estimation (Planning Poker/Delphi) and it’s consistency across teams introduced Velocity improvements across team.

• Velocity Improvements
• Introduced Feature based development, 
• Introduced Interim demos to business & 
• Introduced Definition of Done, resulted in less review comments and increased deliveries acceptability’s.

• Release Readiness Process - Avoid Rollbacks & thus SLA hits
• First Day - Define Master/Child RFC
• Days (1-5) - Define Release Scope, Identify Impacted Components, Identify Risk/Mitigation, Business/IT Validation Plan
• Days (6-8) - Review Deployment Plan with Business, IT Teams, Release Team for their consensus
• Days (7-9) - Create, Review and Upload Release Artifacts & Submit RFCs
• Day (10) - Gain SQA Sign-Off and Lead Deployment

Provide a specific situation from your work history when you failed as a Project Manager and what did you do about it?

• Describe situation with Tyrelink, early in my career as a Project Manger where mistakes are expected.
• I detailed how I learned from the experience and what I do now to mitigate that from happening again.
• Estimates were not ideal
• Relatively New Team with freshers
• Waterfall Model
• Less Interim Demos

Important qualities of a project manager

• Be Approachable
• Leadership by Examples
• Negotiation Skills
• Delegation
• Adjust your Style
• Be Appreciative
• Be Humble
• Be Objective
• Be Receptive to Negative Feedback
• Risk Management, Issue Management, Conflict Management

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SDM Behavior Type Questions: 

1. Describe Time when you faced stressful situation and you demonstrated coping skills
1. ESP- Create Receipt - All Clients Blocked - Applied Tactical Fix in Mean Time while permanent solution is framed
2. ESP- Static Http - Highly Stressful Situation for a weeks time - Data Security in Question - Issue Fix Identification Took 3 Days, Followed by 4 Days of Data Correction
3. ESP- Micro-FrontEnd - All Clients stopped working due APIM blocking
2. Describe Specific Time When you used Judgement and Logic in Solving a Problem
1. ESP- Kellogg/Mylan - Email Content & Attachment Mismatched - Due Task.Factory.New - Applied Task Parallel Library Concept to overcome this multi-threaded problem.
2. ESP- Static Http - Highly Stressful Situation for a weeks time - Data Security in Question - Issue Fix Identification Took 3 Days, Followed by 4 Days of Data Correction
3. Describe a time when you set a goal and were able to meet/achieve it
1. ESP- Single Digit Defect - Journey of 6 months (Goal Set after joining) 
2. ESP- Meet SLA - Journey of 1+ Year
4. Describe a time when had to use your Presentation Skills to influence someone opinion
1. Asurion - Lost & Found Application - First Cloud Based - Everyone is of on-prem opinion advocating security aspects - Used my technical and presentation skills to change their opinion giving them larger view behind going Cloud.
2. Asurion - Importance of Tracking Risk on Daily/Weekly Basis - Maintained Risk Register
3. Asurion - Importance of Architecture Review Board 
5. Describe time when you had to conform to a policy with which you did not agree
1. Pers - Customer Pain Point ask is routed thru Change Request path, which made client unhappy as it was a pressing need. 
2. ESP -  Appraisal Policy with 360 Feedback from Non-Relevant Stake-Holders
6. Describe an important written document you were required to complelte
1. ESP- Presenting Two Quarters Plan of document, detailing Features Required, Their Importance to Business, Capacity Required, Risk and Contingency Plan
2. ESP- Document Rewrite -  What “unique” custom logic stored procedure contains, What microservices would you propose if all SPs are moved to MS & and what functionality would they capture, What should we be aware of to ensure the data migration into a like replica system goes smoothly.
7. Describe a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done.
1. ESP- Static Http - Highly Stressful Situation for a weeks time - Data Security in Question - Issue Fix Identification Took 3 Days, Followed by 4 Days of Data Correction.
2. ESP- Aspose PDF Solution Broke Due Incorrect DLL Updates - All Clients Impacted and Documents Affected - I been made in charge to get this corrected. Connected in full length/breadth to make this happen from all stakeholders sides.
8. Describe a time when you had too many things in plate and you were required to prioritize your task.
1. ESP- Multiple Projects Alignment - Leading to multiple Scrum Meetings, Client Meetings - Took Timezone based approach and re-aligned timings and stretched myself to handle all priorities. 
9. Describe how do you deal with conflicts
1. Six general techniques for resolving conflict. 
1. Win-Loose - 
1. Forcing - Pushing one’s viewpoint at the expense of others
2. Loose-Loose
1. Compromising - Give & Take - Solutions that bring some degree of satisfaction to all parties
2. Accommodating - Emphasizing areas of agreement rather than areas of difference
3. Avoiding - Withdrawal or avoidance never results in resolution
3. Win-Win
1. Collaborating - 
2. Problem Solving - Leads to consensus and commitment
10. Describe Time when you were able to successfully deal with an individual, even he/she did not like you personally
1. TDG - Individual felt that it's micro management, intervention and challenging their decision. Took few meetings with him to understand his concerns/retro. He is been explained that it's not something particular to individual and this is required to meet quality and timelines.  
11. Describe a difficult decision you made this year
1. ESP- Angular Re-write, Micro-Services Rewrite - Still Committed to Deliver Inflight, Filling up Delta in Real Time (Open Heart Surgery)
2. TBD - One of nice colleague is asked to leave.
12. Describe a time when you tried to accomplish something but failed
1. Pers - Fixed Cost Project, with 80% of Fresh Joiners, Estimates were not ideal, Waterfall Model, Less Interim Demos
13. Describe a time when you took initiative and took the lead
1. ESP- Dev Engg to self-automate test cases - Took Lead, Planned Trainings SpecFlow (Given-When-Then), Executed Initiative from Front, Mentored Other Teams too
2. ESP- Angular Re-write
14. Describe a time when had to deal with a very upset customer or co-worker
1. ESP- Customer CSAT was not up-to mark. Pro-Actively Compiled Problem Statements and Solutions. Connected with Customer, Re-Heard Concern Areas (SLAs, Stability, Key Features, Performance) - Proposes Solution within expected definitive timelines, evaluating all risk and constraints. This made customer confidence back on us and we gained few additional customer references.
15. Describe a time when you delegated a project effectively
1. Syne - While Moving to US, Delegated Running Project With required Knowledge transfer, artifacts, project plan, required metrics, learnings.
16. Describe a time when you used your fact-findings skills to solve a problem
1. ESP- Two unique problems - 
1. Problem 1 - Static HTTP, Created Big Security Hole - Finding out problem area was not so easy, and later fixing the damage. 
2. Problem 2 - Task Parallel Library - Where Notification Email Content and Attachment mis-matched between two clients
17. Describe a time when you missed an obvious solution to a problem
1. Can't recall
18. Describe a time when you anticipated potential problems and developed preventive measures
1. Handled Tough Client
1. Clearly Define Priorities, Timelines, Milestones & Deliverables
2. Create Strong Stakeholders Management Plan 
3. Note-down Stakeholders Expectations and Keep Sending Reports to meet their expectations
4. Keep more focus on highlighting Risk/Issues/Assumptions
5. Keep Single POC to communicate with customer
6. Listen carefully and Document everything (Send Meeting Minutes)
7. Work Hard In Initial Stages - Exceed Client Satisfaction
2. ESP- .Net Resiliency Polly Framework  Implementation -  This is used to avoid multiple use cases - Retry failed requests,  Circuit Breaker - Stop after a defined number of consecutive faults occur, Fallbacks - Address times when request is going to fail no matter how many times you retry (Fallback policy lets you return some default or perform an action like paging an admin, scaling a system or restarting a service),  Cache previous responses, Terminate requests that are taking too long and return a default value when all else fails. 
19. Describe a time when you had to fire a friend
1. Did not fire, well moved to COE due performance concerns.
20. Tell me about a time when you have worked against tight deadlines and didn't have the time to consider all options before making a decision. How much time did you have? What approach did you take? - 
1. ESPSupplier Based Date/Currency Format - 
1. Aspiration - Send OrderID in Queue, Put Listener to Queue, Listener Function will generate PDF Attachment and push to Azure Blob Storage against OrderID. Send Email with Attachment Link to blob which will have OrderID as query String. This solution will resolve multi-fold problems - Parent Order & Change Order DAC Rule Constraint, Loose Coupled, Scalable.
2. Time Constraint Solution - Email sent with link having OrderId. User click on link further calls an API and generate PDF at runtime. De-Merit - Once Change Order is created and user tries to open link from email sent for parent order, PDF does not download due DAC check, Also performance hit as everytime click will require PDF generation at runtime.
21. Describe a time when you had to transition a project you owned to a new owner. What steps did you take to make sure the transition went smoothly? E.g. Create List, Gradual Transition, Parallel Support, Reverse KT, Contingency Availability
1. Prepare List to Knowledge Transfer Content
2. Added Timeline to each content
3. Conducted Transitions Sessions 
4. Planned Interim Reverser KT
5. Contingent Parallel Support Planned for 2 Additional Weeks 
22. Tell me about a time that you chose to get involved in a project that you had already transitioned to somebody else. What was the situation? Why was it important to get involved?
1. Maintain Prior Client/Stakeholder Relations - Due long term client relationship, in one of senior client meeting, my involvement required to keep trust of client
2. Automate Capacity Planning
23. Describe a situation where you made an important business decision without consulting your manager - 
1. ESP- Feature Release in Production during weekdays due critical feature update and exceed client satisfaction. 

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Few More

1. We all try to make sure our teams are doing their best. 
1.   How do you seek out feedback on your team’s performance? 
2.   How do you make sure your team is exceeding expectations? - Giving Them Challenging Ask
2. Let's talk about how the technology you are building is the best possible?
3. When we join a new org, we normally have opinions about how things are done. Can you think of an example, when you didn't like the existing system and changed it? - Agile Practices, ARB, Release Readiness, White-Boarding, Technical Evaluation etc.
4. Tell me about a time when you pushed back against a decision that negatively impacted your team. What was the issue and how did it turn out? - Chose to discard New Technology where it lead Team Dis-satisfaction.
5. How would you design and build a "Buy it Again" feature for Amazon's website where we show a customer up to 10 products that they have previously purchased from Amazon that they are most likely to buy again. For scale, Amazon has roughly 100m customers, 100m products and several billion purchases.
6. An example of a difficult project and how you drove the team through it? - E.g Fixed Cost Project With a Tough Client - Read From Above
7. An example of an employee you promoted - E.g. Current Company Employee
8. An example of a difficult employee situation - 
9. An example of a project where you went beyond the "expected" steps - E.g Fixed Cost Project
10. How do you stay up to speed with the latest trends in your industry?
11. An example of a difficult judgment call and how it turned out?
12. Did you ever have to overcome what could be called a "Corporate Culture direction" in order to do the right thing
13. Why amazon? - Read From Above
14. Give an example of when you saw a peer struggling and decided to step in and help.
15. How are you tracking your programs? What mechanisms do you have in place to track?

------------------------------------------------------------

SDM Behavior Type Questions: 061/15/2019_

1. We all try to make sure our teams are doing their best. 
2.   How do you seek out feedback on your team’s performance? 
3.   How do you make sure your team is exceeding expectations? - Giving Them Challenging Ask
4. Let's talk about how the technology you are building is the best possible?
5. When we join a new org, we normally have opinions about how things are done. Can you think of an example, when you didn't like the existing system and changed it? - Agile Practices, ARB, Release Readiness, White-Boarding, Technical Evaluation etc.
6. Tell me about a time when you pushed back against a decision that negatively impacted your team. What was the issue and how did it turn out? - Chose to discard New Technology where it lead Team Dis-satisfaction.
7. How would you design and build a "Buy it Again" feature for Amazon's website where we show a customer up to 10 products that they have previously purchased from Amazon that they are most likely to buy again. For scale, Amazon has roughly 100m customers, 100m products and several billion purchases.
8. An example of a difficult project and how you drove the team through it? - E.g Fixed Cost Project With a Tough Client - Read From Above
9. An example of an employee you promoted - E.g. Current Company Employee
10. An example of a difficult employee situation - 
11. An example of a project where you went beyond the "expected" steps - E.g Fixed Cost Project
12. How do you stay up to speed with the latest trends in your industry?
13. An example of a difficult judgment call and how it turned out?
14. Did you ever have to overcome what could be called a "Corporate Culture direction" in order to do the right thing
15. Why amazon? - Read From Above
16. Give an example of when you saw a peer struggling and decided to step in and help.
17. Describe a situation where you made an important business decision without consulting your manager - Releasing A Feature Even With Globally Live (Chose a time when business has minimal impact)
18. Tell me about a time when you have worked against tight deadlines and didn't have the time to consider all options before making a decision. How much time did you have? What approach did you take? - E.g. Fixed Cost Project
19. How are you tracking your programs? What mechanisms do you have in place to track?
20. Describe a time when you had to transition a project you owned to a new owner. What steps did you take to make sure the transition went smoothly? E.g. Create List, Gradual Transition, Parallel Support, Reverse KT, Contingency Availability
21. Tell me about a time that you chose to get involved in a project that you had already transitioned to somebody else. What was the situation? Why was it important to get involved?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduce To Team:

• Tell them about yourself - 
• Your experience
• Your Technical Skills
• Your Management Experience & Certifications
• About Team
• Ask Team/Individual Skill Set
• Their Experience and Who Reports Whom
• Have Retro with Team for the current situation
• Play Appreciation Game
• Tell them about your style
• You're a Visual person & Do not like half run-down of 
• I may sound harsh but not my intentions
• I'm not free but always approachable
• Prefer Leadership by Examples
• Be Receptive to Negative Feedback
• Tell them about your Project Execution Style
• Involve in Requirement Understanding & Analysis 
• Involve in Designs (You guys are best, but I'll have suggestions)
• Asking Status is my role (Story of Pilot and Air-Controller)
• Take Leave Approval before applying for leave or manage yourself within team
• Carry some good stories
• Dog with Mirror
• Play Appreciation Game
• Your approach:
• Identify Key-Stakeholders **
• Understand Their Application 
• Keep Solid Command on Requirement & Designs
• Keep Solid Command on Release/Deliveries
• Keep Balance Between Too-Soft & Too-Harsh
• Ask Manager
• Consult Team Meeting & Pointers You'll be discussing before
• Key-Stakeholders
• Key Weekly/Daily Reports & Metrics
• Key Daily/Weekly Meetings
• Application Run-down
• Project Execution Approach 
• Delivery Schedule (Bi-weekly, Monthly etc)
• Methodoligy (Agile/Hybrid/Fixed-Cost)
• Design Review 
• Release Instructions Readiness
• CMMi Standards /Documentation
• Onshore/Offshore Model (Offshore DM)
• Carry With You
• Management - Estimation Templates (LIGO, Project Schedule etc)
• Technical - Node, Angular, AI/ML etc
• Key PPT

Hope this helps..

Arun Manglick