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System Analyst — Interview Questions

Common questions with model answers. Use the language switcher (top-right) for Bahasa Indonesia.

Method & process​

Functional vs non-functional requirements?​

  • Functional — what the system does. "The user can pay with LinkAja." / "Admin can approve an Excel upload."
  • Non-functional — how well it does it. "Login API responds within 500ms at p95 under 1k RPS." Categories: performance, security, availability, maintainability, scalability, portability.

A good NFR is measurable — numbers, percentile, and the load condition.

How do you handle a stakeholder who keeps describing solutions instead of problems?​

Use the 5-Whys / problem-framing technique. Ask "why" repeatedly until the underlying need surfaces:

Stakeholder: "Add a button on the dashboard that exports XLSX." SA: "What will users do with the file?" → "Send it to finance every Monday." SA: "Can we send it automatically instead?"

The proposed button might be the right answer — or might be hiding a different, simpler need. The SA's job is to document the problem, not just take dictation on solutions.

Walk me through your SDLC​

I've worked under both agile and release-train (scaled agile). The flow my engineering team uses:

  1. PRD brief from product.
  2. Technical assessment with the engineering manager.
  3. Task breakdown into Jira cards.
  4. Sprint planning to commit scope.
  5. Development.
  6. QA testing.
  7. Demo at end of sprint.
  8. Regression + deployment to production.
  9. Smoke test post-deploy.

How do you make sure requirements are testable?​

Each requirement gets acceptance criteria — Given/When/Then statements that QA and the developer can both point to. If we can't write a test for it, the requirement isn't done.

Integration workflow​

Walk me through onboarding a new partner end-to-end​

This is the workflow I ran for 100+ partners at LinkAja:

  1. NDA — product team briefs me on the new integration. I create a comms channel (WA group / email thread), share API documentation, walk the partner through the flow.
  2. Connection test — collect the partner's host-to-host info via a form, submit to infra, partner confirms connectivity.
  3. Partner development — answer technical questions, prepare the test environment (accounts, balances, sample data).
  4. SIT / UAT — share a test scenario document approved by the system analyst; partner executes; we triage failures.
  5. Production preparation — generate production credentials and share with the partner PIC.
  6. Ready for service — integration complete on our side, partner pending go-live.
  7. Live.

Some partners drop off mid-flow (commercial reasons, scope changes); those go into "on hold" with notes for resumption.

A partner reports POST /transfer returns 500. What's your workflow?​

  1. Reproduce with the partner's exact payload from logs.
  2. Check Grafana/Kibana for our service around the timestamp.
  3. Identify whether it's an integration error (partner payload / credentials / network) or a system error (our service).
  4. If integration: document the fix, walk the partner through it.
  5. If system: raise to the system analyst / backend team with the reproduction, payload, and timestamp.

How do you design test scenarios for SIT?​

I cover at minimum:

  • Happy path for every API.
  • Negative cases — wrong signature, expired credentials, missing fields, malformed payload.
  • Edge cases — large amounts, special characters, idempotency, retries.
  • Failure handling — timeouts, partial responses.

The scenarios are reviewed and approved by the system analyst before they go to the partner.

Behavioral​

Tell me about yourself​

Hi, I'm Afif Makarim. I'm currently a frontend developer at Mobius Digital placed on the Sinarmas Quantum Engine project. Before that I spent 3 years at LinkAja as BAU Integration — working directly with system analysts and product managers, gathering requirements, designing integration flows, supporting SIT/UAT for 120+ partners, and building an internal Telegram-bot testing tool that let partners run tests without VPN access into our network. I started my career as a PHP programmer at AGIT supporting integration projects.

Tell me about a time you solved a complex problem​

During BAU integration we faced a tight deadline — an important stakeholder needed to demo an integration in 3 days, but our standard onboarding flow had its own SLA per step. I was pulled into a full-day meeting to design a simplified-but-working integration path. I documented which steps could safely be done in parallel, which couldn't, and what the residual risks were. We shipped a working demo on time and finished the formal flow afterward.

Strengths & weaknesses​

Strengths

  • Adaptability — career transition from BAU integration to frontend development, which forced me to adapt fast across domains.
  • Fast learning — handled 5 different projects across my placement by self-studying each project's docs and tech.

Weakness

  • In new situations I sometimes lack confidence and lean too hard on manager validation. I work on it by deliberately picking stretch tasks and asking for specific, early feedback.

Why are you switching from frontend back to a system analyst / integration role?​

My 3 years in BAU integration gave me strong instincts for requirement-gathering and partner communication. After 3 more years in frontend, I realize the work I enjoy most is at the boundary — designing the contract between systems and people. A consultant / system analyst role lets me use both halves: the integrator's ear for what stakeholders actually need, and the developer's instinct for what's technically reasonable.

Behavioral (Bahasa Indonesia)​

Perkenalan diri​

Halo, nama saya Afif Makarim. Saat ini saya frontend developer di Mobius Digital, ditempatkan di proyek Sinarmas Quantum Engine. Sebelumnya selama 3 tahun di LinkAja sebagai BAU Integration — bekerja langsung dengan system analyst dan product manager, gather requirement, mendesain integration flow, mengsupport SIT/UAT untuk 120+ partner, dan membangun internal testing tool berbasis Telegram bot yang memungkinkan partner running test tanpa akses VPN ke network internal. Karir dimulai sebagai PHP programmer di AGIT untuk project integration.

Ceritakan workflow kamu sebagai BAU Integration​

Sebagai BAU Integration saya bertanggung jawab mengawal integrasi partner dari NDA sampai live. Karena perusahaan fintech, BAU API banyak terkait cashin, cashout, dan transaksi. Tahapan tasknya: NDA → connection test → partner development → SIT/UAT → production preparation → ready for service → live. Saya berkolaborasi dengan product manager, tim business, dan system analyst di tiap tahap.

Achievement terbesar?​

Sebagai bagian dari tim integrasi: sukses mendeliver 100+ partner & merchant dan meningkatkan monthly active user perusahaan. Sebagai individu: achieve 30 partner integration per tahun dan handle 100% integration issue setelah partner live. Saya juga terlibat di core migration untuk pemindahan credential partner dari core lama ke yang baru tanpa perlu perubahan dari sisi partner.

Particular experience handle konflik / decision making sulit?​

Kalau ada konflik saya berusaha menyelesaikan secepat mungkin: diskusi dengan beberapa pihak untuk mencari solusi bersama. Tidak setuju di forum itu hal biasa secara profesional — selama tidak dibawa keluar pekerjaan. Untuk keputusan sulit, saya gather sudut pandang beberapa pihak dan menimbang risiko sebelum memutuskan.

Ready to test yourself?​

Head over to the Quiz — 10 questions covering SA fundamentals and integration workflow.