RejectedSoftware Engineer at PhonePe
- Difficulty
- Process took
- 2-3 Weeks
- Rounds
- 3
- Format
- Remote
- Applied via
- Job Portal
How it went
- If the outcome isn’t positive, take detailed notes on what you would have done differently—not just technically, but in terms of communication and time management.
- Every interview, even those that don’t go your way, offers a lesson to refine your preparation and mindset. Stay persistent and keep iterating on your approach!
What they would tell you
- If the outcome isn’t positive, take detailed notes on what you would have done differently—not just technically, but in terms of communication and time management.
- Every interview, even those that don’t go your way, offers a lesson to refine your preparation and mindset. Stay persistent and keep iterating on your approach!
How to prepare
- Practice machine coding with real-life workflows like ticketing, order processing, and state-driven systems. Focus on how you’ll explain your design after.
Their background
I'm a backend-focused software engineer with close to 4.5 years in the fintech and product ecosystem. Over the years, I've worked on several core systems, ranging from payment integrations to customer support platforms. I enjoy designing clean, maintainable code and thrive on challenges that push me to balance scalability and real-world business needs. My comfort zone is Java and Spring Boot, but I also love delving into system design and optimizing database operations.
Round by round
- 1
Machine Coding60 min
The first round was a machine coding challenge, where I was given the task to develop a Customer Issue Resolution System from scratch. I needed to build the core functionalities for logging, tracking, and resolving customer issues, ensuring different ticket states and conflict scenarios were handled gracefully.
- 2
DSA90 min
In this round, I was given two problems. The first one was about maximizing the total damage with spell casting. I had to come up with a strategy, either using something like a sliding window or dynamic programming, to balance between the choices and constraints and maximize the spell damage. The second problem was about removing the most stones in the same row or column, which involved using graph theory and union-find to group stones and maximize the number removed through connected components. I explained my approaches for both problems.
- 3
System Design60 min
The final round was about designing the architecture for an Instagram-like news feed. I talked through storage solutions for posts, user feed generation, efficient caching strategies, and approaches for real-time updates.
What came up
A candidate-reported account, lightly edited. Interview processes change by team and date.