SDE1 at Blinkit

How it went

What they would tell you

How to prepare

Their background

Round by round

1. 1

   Initial Phone Screen20 min

   The first step was an introductory call from Blinkit’s recruiter. The call lasted about 15 minutes, where the recruiter shared details about the position, team, and work culture. I was asked about my current experience, the kind of work I did at my service-based company, and the technologies I’ve worked with. The recruiter was particularly interested in my backend experience and how I approach problem-solving. After discussing my background, the recruiter moved to technical questions. This was more of an initial screening to test if my skills matched the job requirements. It wasn’t too intense, but I was asked a few questions based on my resume, focusing on basic backend technologies and databases.

2. 2

   Technical Coding (DSA)60 min

   The next step was the technical coding round, which was scheduled a couple of days later. I received two coding problems during this round. Medium-level problem, "Find the Maximum Depth of a Binary Tree". I solved it efficiently, discussing my approach with the interviewer. The second problem was more algorithmic, "Walls and Gates", which required me to apply breadth-first search (BFS) to fill in rooms that were unreachable due to walls. I implemented the solution in Java and ran through my logic with the interviewer. After completing the problems, the interviewer asked me to explain my code thoroughly and discuss the time and space complexities. I was able to explain everything clearly, and the interview ended on a positive note.

   • Find the Maximum Depth of a Binary Tree
   • Walls and Gates
3. 3

   Technical Coding (Advanced DSA)60 min

   A week later, I was invited for a second technical round. This time, the problems were slightly more advanced. The first problem was "Merge Intervals", which required a greedy algorithm to merge overlapping intervals. After solving it, the interviewer asked a few follow-up questions related to optimization and edge cases. The second question was "Find Kth Largest Element in an Array", which was a medium-level DSA problem. The interviewer asked me to implement it in a way that was time-efficient, and after coding the solution, we discussed potential optimizations. After these coding questions, the interviewer also asked about multithreading concepts in Java and whether I was familiar with Java concurrency features like ExecutorService and synchronization.

   • Merge Intervals
   • K-th Largest element in an array
4. 4

   Technical60 min

   In this round, I was asked to design a Real-Time Collaborative Document Editing System (like Google Docs),key Requirements:

   • Multiple users should be able to edit the same document at the same time and see each other's changes in real-time.
   • Each user should be able to see what others are typing, with changes appearing almost instantaneously.
   • The system should support document versioning, allowing users to see past versions of the document and revert to previous versions.
   • Users should be able to comment and leave notes on specific parts of the document.
   • The system should support rich-text editing (fonts, colors, etc.), tables, and images.
   • We need to ensure data consistency across all users in real-time, without conflicts.
5. 5

   Culture Fit / HR Round60 min

   The final round was more behavioral. The hiring manager asked about my motivation for switching jobs and why I was interested in Blinkit. He also asked me to describe a few situations from my current role where I had to make difficult technical decisions. I explained a situation where I had to refactor a large part of our backend to improve performance under high load and shared how I collaborated with my team to execute the changes effectively. We also discussed Blinkit’s core values and how I align with them. The hiring manager seemed impressed by my answers, and the conversation was more about getting to know me and how I would fit into the Blinkit culture. Final Verdict A few days after the final round, I received a call from the recruiter. I was excited to hear that I had been selected for the SDE-1 Backend role at Blinkit! They shared the offer details, which included a base salary of 28 LPA, 5 L retention bonus, and a total CTC of 33 LPA.

What came up