← Interview experiences
Rejected

SDE-3 at Cashfree

Difficulty
Process took
2-3 Weeks
Rounds
4
Format
Hybrid
Applied via
Other

How it went

  • Don’t treat the final round lightly, especially if it's with leadership. Prepare just as thoroughly.
  • If you're called onsite, your time matters too. Expect professionalism, and don't hesitate to ask for clarity if things feel off.
  • Be prepared to defend your work confidently, you know what you've built, own it.

What they would tell you

  • Don’t treat the final round lightly, especially if it's with leadership. Prepare just as thoroughly.
  • If you're called onsite, your time matters too. Expect professionalism, and don't hesitate to ask for clarity if things feel off.
  • Be prepared to defend your work confidently, you know what you've built, own it.

How to prepare

  • Be ready for code review rounds, practice giving clean, constructive feedback, not just writing code.
  • If you have built real systems, leverage your experience in system design rounds. Share what worked, what didn’t, and how you handled scale or failures.

Round by round

  1. 1

    Coding Round 160 min

    This round involved two parts. The first was a DSA coding session focused on easy to medium problems typical across companies, nothing obscure or unexpected. Once the solution was implemented, I was asked to switch roles and act as a code reviewer. I had to walk through another developer’s code, identify issues, suggest improvements, and comment on best practices. The goal here was to check if I could think clearly, communicate effectively, and reason about someone else’s logic.

  2. 2

    Machine Coding60 min

    I was asked to implement a Tic-Tac-Toe game engine, with working logic for win condition detection, board management, and player turns. The interviewer evaluated

    • Code structure and modularity
    • Ability to extend and improve the solution
    • Edge case handling and correctness We also discussed follow-up questions like how I would handle larger boards, AI integration, and concurrency in multiplayer scenarios. The round went very well, the interviewer was highly experienced and kept the conversation constructive throughout.
  3. 3

    High-Level Design60 min

    I was asked to design a Notification Service. Since I had built a similar system in a previous startup from scratch, this round played to my strengths. We covered:

    • Use cases: email, SMS, push
    • Architecture: queue-based fan-out model
    • Retry mechanisms, rate limiting, priority-based delivery
    • Extensibility for new channels I was able to confidently walk through the design, suggest improvements, and also discuss trade-offs in system evolution.
  4. 4

    Director Discussion60 min

    Unfortunately, this round was the most underwhelming part of the process. Despite taking time off from my current role and commuting to their office, I was made to wait nearly 2 hours before the discussion began. When it did, the director appeared disengaged, visibly tired, and not in the right frame of mind. Key frustrations from this round:

    • The interviewer repeatedly questioned the credibility of my past achievements, implying I couldn’t have contributed independently.
    • Follow-up questions felt dismissive and lacked depth, I had to repeat or re-explain simple architecture decisions. By the end of the conversation, I got the sense that I was never in serious contention despite clearing the first three rounds.

What came up

MediumHybrid5+ years

A candidate-reported account, lightly edited. Interview processes change by team and date.

Sources