Category: interview Author: Prepto AI

Preparing for Senior PHP Symfony Developer role at Clubee

Job Summary

Clubee is a B2B SaaS platform for sports organizations, focusing on automation of various business processes including communication, marketing, finance, and CRM. The role requires a Senior PHP Symfony Developer to work on backend infrastructure, with emphasis on scalability, security, and best practices. The tech stack includes Symfony, PostgreSQL/MySQL, AWS, and GitHub Actions. The position demands both technical excellence and leadership capabilities.

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How to Succeed

  1. Research Clubee's business model and existing solutions in sports management software
  2. Prepare concrete examples of scaling similar B2B SaaS applications
  3. Be ready to discuss technical decisions and trade-offs in your previous projects
  4. Prepare questions about their current architecture and technical challenges
  5. Review your Symfony projects and be ready to discuss architectural decisions
  6. Practice coding exercises focusing on SOLID principles and clean code
  7. Prepare examples of leading technical initiatives or mentoring other developers

Table of Contents

Symfony Core and Advanced Concepts 7 Questions

Essential for building and maintaining the core application infrastructure at Clubee, focusing on Symfony's service container, event system, and performance optimization.

1. Explain how Symfony's Service Container works and what are its main benefits?

The Service Container is a central feature of Symfony that manages service instantiation and dependency injection. It works by:

  1. Reading service definitions from configuration (YAML/XML/PHP)
  2. Managing service lifecycle (singleton/transient)
  3. Automatically injecting dependencies
  4. Lazy-loading services when needed

Key benefits:

  • Reduces coupling between components
  • Improves testability through dependency injection
  • Optimizes performance via service compilation
  • Enables automatic service registration and autowiring

For Clubee's B2B SaaS platform, this is crucial as it allows for:

  • Easy service management across multiple modules (CRM, marketing, finance)
  • Efficient dependency management in a large codebase
  • Better testing isolation for critical business services
2. What is the purpose of tagged services in Symfony and provide an example of their usage?

Tagged services allow you to group related services for collective processing. They're especially useful for plugin-like architectures.

Example relevant to Clubee's needs:

// services.yaml
services:
    App\Notification\EmailNotifier:
        tags: ['app.notifier']
    App\Notification\SmsNotifier:
        tags: ['app.notifier']

// NotificationManager.php
class NotificationManager
{
    private array $notifiers;
    
    public function __construct(
        #[TaggedIterator('app.notifier')] iterable $notifiers
    ) {
        $this->notifiers = iterator_to_array($notifiers);
    }
}

This pattern would be valuable for Clubee's communication automation system, allowing easy extension of notification channels.

3. How would you implement custom event listeners and subscribers in Symfony? What's the difference between them?

Event Listeners and Subscribers are key to Symfony's event-driven architecture.

Listener Example:

class UserActivityListener
{
    #[AsEventListener(event: UserRegisteredEvent::class)]
    public function onUserRegistered(UserRegisteredEvent $event): void
    {
        // Handle event
    }
}

Subscriber Example:

class UserActivitySubscriber implements EventSubscriberInterface
{
    public static function getSubscribedEvents(): array
    {
        return [
            UserRegisteredEvent::class => ['onUserRegistered', 10],
            UserLoginEvent::class => ['onUserLogin', 20]
        ];
    }
}

Key differences:

  • Listeners handle single events
  • Subscribers can handle multiple events
  • Subscribers define their events statically
  • Listeners are more flexible for dependency injection

For Clubee's sports organization automation, this would be crucial for handling various club events and automated responses.

4. Explain the Symfony cache component and how would you implement caching in a high-load application?

For a B2B SaaS platform like Clubee, efficient caching is crucial. Here's a comprehensive approach:

  1. Multi-layer caching strategy:
class SportClubRepository
{
    public function getClubData(int $clubId): array
    {
        return $this->cache->get("club.$clubId", function(ItemInterface $item) use ($clubId) {
            $item->expiresAfter(3600);
            return $this->fetchClubData($clubId);
        });
    }
}
  1. Implementation levels:
  • HTTP caching (Varnish/CDN)
  • Application caching (Redis/Memcached)
  • Database query caching
  • API response caching
  1. Cache invalidation strategy:
  • Tags for related content
  • Versioned cache keys
  • Event-based cache clearing

This approach would be particularly effective for Clubee's high-traffic sports organization data.

5. What are Symfony's Messenger Component main features and how would you use it for async processing?

Symfony Messenger is perfect for Clubee's automated communication and marketing needs:

#[AsMessageHandler]
class MarketingCampaignHandler
{
    public function __invoke(SendCampaignMessage $message)
    {
        // Process campaign asynchronously
    }
}

// Configure transport
// config/packages/messenger.yaml
framework:
    messenger:
        transports:
            async: '%env(MESSENGER_TRANSPORT_DSN)%'
        routing:
            'App\Message\SendCampaignMessage': async

Key features:

  1. Multiple transport support (AMQP, Redis, Doctrine)
  2. Message retry and error handling
  3. Message routing and middleware
  4. Async/Sync processing flexibility
  5. Scalable message handling

This would be essential for Clubee's automated marketing and communication features.

6. How do you handle database transactions in Symfony services? Explain transaction isolation levels.

For Clubee's financial and CRM operations, proper transaction handling is crucial:

class PaymentService
{
    public function processPayment(Payment $payment): void
    {
        $this->entityManager->beginTransaction();
        try {
            // Process payment
            // Update balance
            $this->entityManager->flush();
            $this->entityManager->commit();
        } catch (\Exception $e) {
            $this->entityManager->rollback();
            throw $e;
        }
    }
}

Transaction Isolation Levels:

  1. READ UNCOMMITTED - Lowest isolation
  2. READ COMMITTED - Prevents dirty reads
  3. REPEATABLE READ - Prevents non-repeatable reads
  4. SERIALIZABLE - Highest isolation, prevents phantom reads

For Clubee's financial operations, REPEATABLE READ would be recommended to ensure data consistency.

7. Describe Symfony's security component architecture and authentication process.

For Clubee's B2B platform, security is paramount. Here's the security architecture:

  1. Authentication Flow:
# config/packages/security.yaml
security:
    firewalls:
        main:
            lazy: true
            provider: app_user_provider
            custom_authenticator: App\Security\ApiKeyAuthenticator
            json_login:
                check_path: app_login
  1. Key Components:
  • User Providers (for club manager data)
  • Authenticators (API tokens, JWT)
  • Access Decision Manager
  • Voters for fine-grained permissions
  • Role Hierarchy for organization structure
  1. Custom Implementation for Clubee:
#[IsGranted('ROLE_CLUB_MANAGER')]
public function manageClub(Club $club): Response
{
    $this->denyAccessUnlessGranted('manage', $club);
    // Club management logic
}

This setup would secure Clubee's multi-tenant architecture while maintaining flexibility for different organization types.

Database Optimization and Scaling 6 Questions

Critical for maintaining performance in a growing B2B SaaS platform, focusing on PostgreSQL/MySQL optimization and scaling strategies.

1. How would you optimize complex SQL queries in a large dataset environment?

For a B2B SaaS platform like Clubee, I would implement the following optimization strategies:

  1. Use EXPLAIN ANALYZE to identify performance bottlenecks
  2. Optimize JOIN operations by ensuring proper indexing and join order
  3. Implement query caching using Redis for frequently accessed data
  4. Use materialized views for complex aggregations
  5. Implement database partitioning for large tables (especially useful for sports event data)
  6. Use LIMIT and OFFSET with keyset pagination for large result sets
  7. Optimize WHERE clauses to utilize indexes effectively
  8. Consider denormalization where appropriate for read-heavy operations
2. Explain database indexing strategies and when to use different types of indexes.

For PostgreSQL/MySQL (both mentioned in job requirements):

  1. B-Tree indexes (default):

    • Primary key columns
    • Foreign key relationships
    • Columns used in WHERE, ORDER BY, GROUP BY
  2. Partial indexes:

    • For filtered queries on specific conditions
    • Example: indexing only active club members
  3. Composite indexes:

    • For queries involving multiple columns
    • Order matters: most selective column first
  4. GiST indexes:

    • For geographical data (useful for sports club locations)
    • Full-text search implementations
  5. Hash indexes:

    • Equality operations
    • Membership checks
3. What approaches would you take to implement database sharding in a growing application?

For a sports organization management system like Clubee:

  1. Horizontal Sharding Strategies:

    • By geographic region (EU focus mentioned in description)
    • By organization/club ID
    • By time period (season-based)
  2. Implementation Approach:

    • Use PostgreSQL native partitioning
    • Implement consistent hashing for shard selection
    • Maintain central metadata database
    • Use database proxy (ProxySQL/PgPool) for routing
  3. Consider:

    • Cross-shard queries handling
    • Data consistency across shards
    • Backup and recovery procedures
4. How do you handle database migrations in a zero-downtime deployment scenario?

Given the project uses GitHub Actions for deployment:

  1. Multi-step Migration Process:

    • Ensure backward compatibility
    • Use temporary duplicate columns when restructuring
    • Implement rolling updates
  2. Migration Sequence:

    • Deploy new code that works with both old/new schema
    • Run additive migrations (new tables/columns)
    • Gradually migrate data
    • Remove deprecated schema elements
  3. Safety Measures:

    • Transaction wrapping
    • Timeouts for long-running migrations
    • Rollback plans
    • Database replication lag monitoring
5. Describe strategies for implementing efficient full-text search in PostgreSQL.

For Clubee's sports organization management:

  1. PostgreSQL Full-Text Solutions:

    • Use tsvector and tsquery data types
    • Implement GiST/GIN indexes for search columns
    • Configure proper text search configuration
  2. Optimization Strategies:

    • Create search vectors at write time
    • Use materialized views for complex search patterns
    • Implement trigram similarity for fuzzy matching
  3. Implementation Example:

CREATE INDEX idx_fts_club_search ON clubs USING GIN (
    to_tsvector('english', 
        coalesce(name,'') || ' ' || 
        coalesce(description,'') || ' ' || 
        coalesce(location,'')
    )
);
6. How would you implement database replication for read/write splitting?

For a scalable B2B SaaS platform:

  1. AWS RDS Configuration:

    • Set up Primary-Replica architecture
    • Configure read replicas across availability zones
    • Monitor replication lag
  2. Symfony Implementation:

doctrine:
    dbal:
        connections:
            default:
                url: '%env(DATABASE_URL)%'
            replica:
                url: '%env(DATABASE_REPLICA_URL)%'
  1. Load Balancing:
    • Write operations to primary
    • Read operations to replicas
    • Use ProxySQL for intelligent routing
    • Implement connection pooling

SOLID and Clean Code Practices 6 Questions

Fundamental for maintaining high code quality and scalability in a growing codebase, ensuring maintainability and extensibility.

1. Provide an example of the Single Responsibility Principle in a Symfony service context.

Here's an example of SRP in the context of Clubee's sports organization automation:

// Bad example - multiple responsibilities
class TeamManager
{
    public function createTeam(array $data): Team
    {
        // Team creation logic
    }
    
    public function sendWelcomeEmail(Team $team): void
    {
        // Email sending logic
    }
    
    public function generateTeamStats(Team $team): array
    {
        // Statistics calculation
    }
}

// Good example - separated responsibilities
class TeamCreationService
{
    public function __construct(
        private readonly EmailService $emailService,
        private readonly TeamStatsCalculator $statsCalculator
    ) {}

    public function createTeam(array $data): Team
    {
        $team = new Team($data);
        $this->emailService->sendWelcomeEmail($team);
        return $team;
    }
}

class TeamStatsCalculator
{
    public function generateStats(Team $team): array
    {
        // Statistics calculation logic
    }
}

This separation allows for better testing and maintenance, especially important in a B2B SaaS platform where features might need to scale independently.

2. How would you implement the Interface Segregation Principle in a repository pattern?

For Clubee's sports organization system, here's an implementation of ISP:

// Instead of one large interface
interface TeamRepositoryInterface
{
    public function findById(int $id): ?Team;
    public function save(Team $team): void;
    public function delete(Team $team): void;
    public function findByLeague(int $leagueId): array;
    public function generateStatistics(Team $team): array;
    public function exportTeamData(Team $team): string;
}

// Better approach with segregated interfaces
interface TeamReaderInterface
{
    public function findById(int $id): ?Team;
    public function findByLeague(int $leagueId): array;
}

interface TeamWriterInterface
{
    public function save(Team $team): void;
    public function delete(Team $team): void;
}

interface TeamStatsInterface
{
    public function generateStatistics(Team $team): array;
}

class TeamRepository implements TeamReaderInterface, TeamWriterInterface
{
    // Implementation
}

class TeamStatisticsService implements TeamStatsInterface
{
    // Implementation
}

This approach allows clients to depend only on the interfaces they actually need, making the system more flexible and maintainable.

3. Explain Dependency Inversion Principle with a practical example from your experience.

Here's a practical example relevant to the sports organization automation system:

// Low-level module
class PostgreSQLNotificationStorage implements NotificationStorageInterface
{
    public function save(Notification $notification): void
    {
        // PostgreSQL-specific implementation
    }
}

// High-level module
class NotificationService
{
    public function __construct(
        private readonly NotificationStorageInterface $storage,
        private readonly NotificationSenderInterface $sender
    ) {}

    public function processTeamNotification(Team $team, string $message): void
    {
        $notification = new Notification($team, $message);
        $this->storage->save($notification);
        $this->sender->send($notification);
    }
}

// The interface that both depend on
interface NotificationStorageInterface
{
    public function save(Notification $notification): void;
}

This implementation allows for easy switching between different storage implementations (PostgreSQL/MySQL) as mentioned in the job requirements, while maintaining loose coupling.

4. How do you apply the Open/Closed Principle when designing service classes?

Here's an example tailored to Clubee's automation needs:

// Base class for team communication strategy
abstract class TeamCommunicationStrategy
{
    abstract public function send(Team $team, string $message): void;
}

// Different implementations
class EmailCommunication extends TeamCommunicationStrategy
{
    public function send(Team $team, string $message): void
    {
        // Email implementation
    }
}

class SMSCommunication extends TeamCommunicationStrategy
{
    public function send(Team $team, string $message): void
    {
        // SMS implementation
    }
}

// Service using the strategy
class TeamCommunicationService
{
    public function __construct(
        private readonly TeamCommunicationStrategy $strategy
    ) {}

    public function notifyTeam(Team $team, string $message): void
    {
        $this->strategy->send($team, $message);
    }
}

This design allows adding new communication methods without modifying existing code, essential for a growing B2B SaaS platform.

5. Demonstrate the Liskov Substitution Principle with a real-world example.

Here's an example in the context of sports organization management:

abstract class Member
{
    abstract public function calculateFees(): float;
    abstract public function getAccessRights(): array;
}

class RegularMember extends Member
{
    public function calculateFees(): float
    {
        return 100.0; // Base fee
    }

    public function getAccessRights(): array
    {
        return ['view_schedule', 'book_training'];
    }
}

class PremiumMember extends Member
{
    public function calculateFees(): float
    {
        return 200.0; // Premium fee
    }

    public function getAccessRights(): array
    {
        return ['view_schedule', 'book_training', 'access_premium_content'];
    }
}

// Service that works with any Member type
class MembershipService
{
    public function processMembership(Member $member): void
    {
        $fees = $member->calculateFees();
        $rights = $member->getAccessRights();
        // Process membership logic
    }
}

This example shows how different member types can be used interchangeably while maintaining expected behavior.

6. How do you ensure your code follows SOLID principles during code review?

For Clubee's codebase, I would implement the following code review checklist:

  1. Single Responsibility Check:
  • Verify each class has one reason to change
  • Look for methods that could be extracted into separate services
  • Ensure services align with specific business capabilities
  1. Open/Closed Assessment:
  • Check for strategy patterns where behavior varies
  • Ensure extension points exist for likely future changes
  • Look for abstract classes and interfaces where appropriate
  1. Liskov Substitution Verification:
  • Verify that child classes don't violate parent contracts
  • Check that overridden methods maintain expected behavior
  • Ensure type hints are properly used
  1. Interface Segregation Review:
  • Look for large interfaces that could be split
  • Verify client code only depends on methods it uses
  • Check for interface cohesion
  1. Dependency Inversion Validation:
  • Ensure high-level modules don't depend on implementation details
  • Verify proper use of Symfony's service container
  • Check for constructor injection of dependencies

Additional points specific to the role:

  • Verify AWS service integrations are properly abstracted
  • Check that database operations are encapsulated in repositories
  • Ensure security best practices are followed

I would use automated tools like PHP Insights and PHPStan to assist in this process.

AWS and Infrastructure Management 6 Questions

Essential for understanding and managing cloud infrastructure, deployment processes, and scaling strategies.

1. How would you design a high-availability architecture on AWS for a Symfony application?

For a B2B SaaS platform like Clubee, I would implement:

  • Multi-AZ deployment with AWS ECS/EKS for container orchestration
  • Application Load Balancer for traffic distribution
  • Auto-scaling groups across multiple availability zones
  • RDS in Multi-AZ configuration for database redundancy
  • ElastiCache for session management and caching
  • S3 for static assets with CloudFront distribution
  • Route53 for DNS management with health checks
  • Separate environments for staging and production This ensures 99.99% uptime and seamless failover capabilities.
2. Explain your strategy for implementing auto-scaling in AWS for variable workloads.

For a sports organization platform that might experience peak loads during events:

  1. Use AWS Target Tracking Scaling policies based on:
    • CPU utilization (target 70%)
    • Memory utilization
    • Request count per target
  2. Implement predictive scaling for known high-traffic periods
  3. Set up scaling cool-down periods to prevent thrashing
  4. Use Application Auto Scaling for RDS and ElastiCache
  5. Implement proper monitoring with CloudWatch metrics
  6. Configure scaling boundaries (min/max instances) based on business requirements
3. How do you handle secrets management in AWS for a Symfony application?

For secure secrets management in a Symfony application:

  1. Use AWS Secrets Manager for storing sensitive credentials
  2. Implement AWS Parameter Store for configuration values
  3. Use IAM roles and policies for access control
  4. In Symfony:
    • Use environment variables in .env files
    • Implement AWS SDK for secrets retrieval
    • Use Symfony's secrets management system
  5. For CI/CD (mentioned Github Actions):
    • Store deployment credentials in Github Secrets
    • Use AWS AssumeRole for secure deployments
  6. Rotate secrets automatically using AWS Secrets Manager
4. Describe your experience with AWS RDS and database backup strategies.

For a B2B SaaS platform using PostgreSQL/MySQL:

  1. Automated backups:
    • Daily automated snapshots with 30-day retention
    • Transaction logs for point-in-time recovery
  2. Multi-AZ deployment for high availability
  3. Read replicas for scaling read operations
  4. Backup strategies:
    • Automated: Using RDS automated backups
    • Manual: Pre-deployment snapshots
    • Cross-region: For disaster recovery
  5. Monitoring:
    • CloudWatch metrics for backup success/failure
    • SNS notifications for backup events
  6. Regular backup restoration testing
5. How would you implement a CDN solution using AWS CloudFront?

For Clubee's sports platform:

  1. CloudFront distribution setup:
    • S3 origin for static assets
    • Custom origin for dynamic content
  2. Configure:
    • Cache behaviors based on content type
    • TTL settings for different resources
    • HTTPS enforcement
  3. Implement:
    • Cache invalidation through Github Actions
    • Custom error pages
    • Geographic restrictions if needed
  4. Optimize:
    • Enable compression
    • Configure origin shield
    • Use edge locations closest to user base
6. Explain your approach to monitoring and logging in AWS environment.

Comprehensive monitoring strategy:

  1. CloudWatch:
    • Custom metrics for business KPIs
    • Alarms for critical thresholds
    • Dashboard for key metrics
  2. AWS X-Ray:
    • Trace requests across services
    • Performance bottleneck identification
  3. Logging:
    • Centralized logging with CloudWatch Logs
    • Log retention policies
    • Log insights for analysis
  4. Monitoring specific to sports platform:
    • User activity peaks during events
    • Database performance metrics
    • API endpoint response times
  5. Integration with Symfony's Monolog

Testing and Quality Assurance 6 Questions

Critical for maintaining code quality and preventing regressions in a fast-paced development environment.

1. How do you approach testing pyramid implementation in a Symfony project?

In a Symfony project, I implement the testing pyramid following a bottom-up approach:

  1. Unit Tests (Base - 70%):
  • Testing individual services, particularly those handling business logic
  • Using PHPUnit for testing isolated components
  • Focus on SOLID principles compliance validation
  1. Integration Tests (Middle - 20%):
  • Testing service interactions
  • Database operations testing using actual PostgreSQL/MySQL
  • Testing Symfony's service container and dependency injection
  1. End-to-End Tests (Top - 10%):
  • API endpoint testing using PHPUnit's WebTestCase
  • Full feature testing including AWS service integrations
  • User flow testing

For Clubee's B2B SaaS platform, I would particularly focus on testing the automated communication and marketing features, ensuring they scale properly.

2. Explain your strategy for writing unit tests for complex service classes.

My strategy for complex service classes involves:

  1. Test Setup:
private SportManagerService $service;
private EntityManagerInterface $em;

protected function setUp(): void
{
    $this->em = $this->createMock(EntityManagerInterface::class);
    $this->service = new SportManagerService(
        $this->em,
        $this->createMock(LoggerInterface::class)
    );
}
  1. Test Organization:
  • Arrange: Set up test data and mocks
  • Act: Execute the method being tested
  • Assert: Verify the results
  1. Key Practices:
  • Testing each public method independently
  • Using data providers for multiple test cases
  • Mocking external dependencies (especially AWS services)
  • Testing edge cases and error conditions
  1. Focus on testing business logic that's critical for sports organization automation, as per Clubee's core business.
3. How do you implement integration tests for API endpoints?

For API endpoint testing in Symfony, I implement:

class ClubManagementControllerTest extends WebTestCase
{
    public function testCreateClub(): void
    {
        $client = static::createClient();
        
        $client->request('POST', '/api/clubs', [], [], 
            ['CONTENT_TYPE' => 'application/json'],
            json_encode(['name' => 'Test Club', 'type' => 'sports'])
        );
        
        $this->assertResponseIsSuccessful();
        $this->assertJsonContains(['status' => 'success']);
    }
}

Key aspects:

  1. Using WebTestCase for full stack testing
  2. Testing with real database (using test database)
  3. Testing authentication/authorization
  4. Verifying response formats and status codes
  5. Testing rate limiting and error handling
  6. Implementing data fixtures for consistent test data
4. What's your approach to mocking complex dependencies in unit tests?

For complex dependencies, especially in Clubee's context with AWS services:

  1. Using PHPUnit's MockBuilder for complex mocks:
$awsClient = $this->getMockBuilder(AwsClient::class)
    ->disableOriginalConstructor()
    ->addMethods(['sendNotification'])
    ->getMock();
  1. Implementing test doubles:
  • Stubs for predetermined responses
  • Mocks for behavior verification
  • Spies for analyzing interactions
  1. Creating custom mock traits:
trait AwsServiceMockTrait
{
    protected function mockAwsService(): void
    {
        $this->awsService = $this->createMock(AwsServiceInterface::class);
        $this->awsService->method('processRequest')
            ->willReturn(['status' => 'success']);
    }
}
  1. Using Prophecy when needed for more complex behavior scenarios
5. How do you ensure high test coverage while maintaining test quality?

To maintain both coverage and quality:

  1. Coverage Strategy:
  • Aim for 90%+ coverage of business logic
  • Use PHPUnit's coverage reports
  • Configure CI/CD (GitHub Actions) to fail if coverage drops
  1. Quality Measures:
  • Follow Arrange-Act-Assert pattern
  • Implement mutation testing using Infection
  • Regular test suite maintenance
  • Code review with focus on test quality
  1. Best Practices:
public function testClubRegistration()
{
    // Arrange
    $clubData = new ClubDTO(...);
    
    // Act
    $result = $this->service->registerClub($clubData);
    
    // Assert
    $this->assertInstanceOf(Club::class, $result);
    $this->assertTrue($result->isActive());
}
  1. Focus on critical paths in sports organization automation features
6. Describe your experience with behavior-driven development (BDD) in Symfony.

My BDD experience in Symfony includes:

  1. Tool Stack:
  • Behat for feature definitions
  • PHPSpec for specification testing
  • Symfony's WebTestCase for web scenarios
  1. Implementation Example:
Feature: Club Management
  Scenario: Creating a new sports club
    Given I am an authenticated administrator
    When I submit valid club details
    Then the club should be created
    And an welcome email should be sent
  1. Integration with Symfony:
  • Custom Context classes
  • Service container awareness
  • Database integration
  • AWS service mocking
  1. Benefits for Clubee:
  • Clear requirements documentation
  • Improved stakeholder communication
  • Better alignment with business goals
  • Facilitates automated testing of complex workflows

API Design and Integration 6 Questions

Crucial for building scalable and maintainable APIs that support the B2B SaaS platform's functionality.

1. How do you design versioned REST APIs in Symfony?

For Clubee's B2B SaaS platform, I would implement API versioning using these approaches:

  1. URI Versioning:
#[Route('/api/v1/clubs', name: 'api_v1_clubs')]
#[Route('/api/v2/clubs', name: 'api_v2_clubs')]
  1. Custom Request Listener for header-based versioning:
class ApiVersionListener
{
    public function onKernelRequest(RequestEvent $event)
    {
        $request = $event->getRequest();
        $version = $request->headers->get('Accept-Version', '1.0');
        $request->attributes->set('version', $version);
    }
}
  1. Version-specific service classes using Symfony's service container:
services:
    app.api.v1.club_service:
        class: App\Service\V1\ClubService
    app.api.v2.club_service:
        class: App\Service\V2\ClubService

This ensures backward compatibility while allowing new feature development.

2. Explain your approach to API authentication and authorization.

For a sports organization management system like Clubee, I would implement:

  1. JWT-based authentication:
#[Route('/api/login', name: 'api_login')]
public function login(User $user): JsonResponse
{
    $token = $this->jwtManager->create($user);
    return new JsonResponse(['token' => $token]);
}
  1. Role-based authorization using Symfony Security:
#[Route('/api/clubs/{id}')]
#[IsGranted('ROLE_CLUB_MANAGER')]
public function getClubDetails(int $id): JsonResponse
{
    // Implementation
}
  1. OAuth2 for third-party integrations:
security:
    firewalls:
        api:
            pattern: ^/api
            oauth2: true
            stateless: true

This provides secure access while supporting different user roles (club managers, team members, etc.).

3. How would you handle rate limiting in a high-traffic API?

For Clubee's scalable platform, I would implement:

  1. Redis-based rate limiting using Symfony's Rate Limiter:
#[Route('/api/clubs')]
#[RateLimit(limit: 100, period: '15 minutes')]
public function listClubs(): JsonResponse
{
    // Implementation
}
  1. Custom rate limiter configuration:
framework:
    rate_limiter:
        api_limit:
            policy: 'sliding_window'
            limit: 100
            interval: '15 minutes'
  1. AWS CloudFront for additional layer of protection:
services:
    app.rate_limiter.storage:
        class: App\RateLimit\RedisStorage
        arguments: ['@redis.client']

This ensures fair API usage while maintaining performance for all clients.

4. Describe your strategy for API documentation and maintaining it.

For Clubee's B2B platform, I would implement:

  1. OpenAPI/Swagger documentation using NelmioApiDocBundle:
#[Route('/api/clubs', methods: ['POST'])]
#[OA\Response(response: 201, description: 'Club created successfully')]
#[OA\RequestBody(content: new Model(type: CreateClubRequest::class))]
public function createClub(Request $request): JsonResponse
{
    // Implementation
}
  1. Automated documentation generation in CI/CD pipeline:
# Github Actions
jobs:
  build:
    steps:
      - name: Generate API docs
        run: php bin/console api:doc:dump --format=json --output=public/api-docs.json
  1. API versioning reflection in documentation:
#[OA\Info(version: "1.0.0", title: "Clubee API Documentation")]
class ApiDocController

This ensures up-to-date documentation that evolves with the API.

5. How do you implement efficient batch operations in REST APIs?

For Clubee's sports organization management system:

  1. Implement bulk endpoints:
#[Route('/api/clubs/batch', methods: ['POST'])]
public function batchCreateClubs(Request $request): JsonResponse
{
    $clubs = $this->serializer->deserialize($request->getContent(), 'Club[]', 'json');
    $this->entityManager->transactional(function() use ($clubs) {
        foreach ($clubs as $club) {
            $this->entityManager->persist($club);
        }
    });
}
  1. Use Doctrine's batch processing:
public function batchUpdateMembers(array $members): void
{
    foreach ($members as $i => $member) {
        $this->entityManager->persist($member);
        if (($i % 100) === 0) {
            $this->entityManager->flush();
            $this->entityManager->clear();
        }
    }
}
  1. Implement async processing for large batches using Symfony Messenger:
#[AsMessageHandler]
class BatchProcessingHandler
{
    public function __invoke(BatchOperation $message)
    {
        // Process batch asynchronously
    }
}
6. Explain your approach to handling API errors and exceptions.

For Clubee's robust error handling:

  1. Custom Exception Subscriber:
class ApiExceptionSubscriber implements EventSubscriberInterface
{
    public function onKernelException(ExceptionEvent $event): void
    {
        $exception = $event->getThrowable();
        $response = new JsonResponse([
            'error' => [
                'message' => $exception->getMessage(),
                'code' => $exception->getCode()
            ]
        ]);
        $event->setResponse($response);
    }
}
  1. Custom API Exceptions:
class ClubNotFoundException extends \Exception implements ApiException
{
    public function __construct(int $clubId)
    {
        parent::__construct("Club with ID {$clubId} not found", 404);
    }
}
  1. Validation error handling:
#[Route('/api/clubs', methods: ['POST'])]
public function createClub(ClubRequest $request): JsonResponse
{
    $violations = $this->validator->validate($request);
    if (count($violations) > 0) {
        throw new ValidationException($violations);
    }
}

This ensures consistent error handling across the application while providing meaningful feedback to API consumers.

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