Software Engineering (G5) at Rubrik

How it went

What they would tell you

How to prepare

Round by round

1. 1

   Multithreading Interview60 min

   I applied through a referral, and the entire process spanned four rounds The interview started with a warm introduction. The interviewer was friendly, which helped calm my nerves. The problem revolved around task dependencies, where a set of tasks needed to be executed in a specific order. Problem:

   • Task 0 starts first,
   • Once Task 0 is completed, Task 1 gets unlocked,
   • After Task 0 and Task 1 are completed, Task 2 gets unlocked. I implemented a solution using multithreading to handle the dependencies and ensure the tasks were executed in the correct order. The interviewer seemed satisfied with my approach and how I managed concurrency.
2. 2

   Advanced Multithreading60 min

   This round was a bit trickier and resembled the classic Bathroom Problem where multiple groups need access to a shared resource. The interviewer asked for various extensions to the problem to test my handling of concurrency. Problem Variations:

   • How would you handle more than two groups requesting access to the same resource?
   • How would you manage multiple resources/fields?
   • How could you introduce priorities among different groups? I implemented solutions for each of the scenarios, ensuring resource allocation was managed properly and deadlocks were avoided.
3. 3

   DSA60 min

   This round presented me with a challenge where I had to work with an infinite stream of numbers and determine the rank of a number (its position in descending order). It was a tough problem, especially when trying to manage infinite data. Initial Approach:

   • I started with a list and used binary search for insertion and lookup. This worked, but it didn’t efficiently handle space issues caused by the infinite stream. Optimized Approach:

   • I realized a binary search tree (BST) would be more efficient for insertion and search operations (log(N) complexity), reducing space usage significantly. However, I couldn’t finish the solution on time. Unfortunately, I only had 5 minutes left by the time I arrived at the optimized approach, and I couldn’t finish the code. The interviewer acknowledged my thought process, but the lack of a complete solution led to rejection.

What came up