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Rejected

SDE at PolicyBazaar

Difficulty
Process took
2-3 Weeks
Rounds
3
Format
Remote
Applied via
Email

How it went

  • When discussing system design, always mention trade-offs and alternatives.
  • Stay calm, ask clarifying questions, and engage naturally with the interviewer.

What they would tell you

  • When discussing system design, always mention trade-offs and alternatives.
  • Stay calm, ask clarifying questions, and engage naturally with the interviewer.

How to prepare

  • Brush up on OOPs fundamentals, DBMS concepts, and basic algorithms. Practice output prediction problems and pseudocode-based questions,I brush up from oneshot youtube videos for core concepts.
  • For System Design Gaurav Sen YouTube Channel Excellent playlist on scalable system design.

Round by round

  1. 1

    Online MCQ Assessment60 min

    The assessment focused on core CS concepts such as OOPs, DBMS, Operating Systems, and basic output prediction. It was a standard MCQ format, testing your grasp of fundamental concepts. Questions:

    • Questions around Object-Oriented Programming and SQL queries
    • Pseudocode-based questions
    • Output-guessing problems
  2. 2

    Technical Interview60 min

    I was given two coding problems and asked to explain my approach clearly before coding. The first problem was to remove duplicates from Sorted Array. I explained the two-pointer approach: one pointer iterates through the array, while the other keeps track of the position to place unique elements. This allows modifying the array in-place and returning the count of unique elements efficiently, with O(n) time complexity. The second problem was the Copy List with Random Pointer. I described the three-step approach:

    • For each original node, create a new copy node and insert it right after the original node.
    • Assign the random pointers of the copied nodes by referencing the original nodes' random pointers.
    • Separate the copied nodes from the original list to form the new deep-copied list. This method avoids extra space for a hashmap and achieves O(n) time complexity.
  3. 3

    Tech+Managerial60 min

    This final round was a blend of technical system design and managerial discussions.

    • I was asked to design a Flight Booking System focusing on modularity, scalability, and extensibility.
    • Additional questions probed handling payment failures, system reliability during peak traffic, and scalability trade-offs.
    • The discussion also covered a deep dive into my past projects, focusing on architecture decisions, design patterns, and performance optimizations.
    • Behavioral questions explored leadership experiences, handling deadlines, and team collaboration.

What came up

MediumRemote1 2 years

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

Sources