Hola CodeCheffers! It’s July, and you know what that means? It’s interview season! As an engineer and programmer myself, I understand the anxiety that kicks in when you know an interview is around the corner. So we thought, why not help you to crack your dream job? So here is the first blog in the series.
One of our top educators was an engineer in one of the sought after companies, Flipkart. So let’s take a look at the Flipkart interview process for SDE 1 role. As part of my research, I talked to a few current and previous Flipkart employees and understood a thing or two. So let us dig a bit deeper and understand how you should prepare for Flipkart.
How Many Rounds Do You Have To Clear?
The whole process for the SDE 1 role in Flipkart consists of 4 rounds – a coding round, two technical interview rounds, and a managerial round. Each round will be used to assess your knowledge and skills. So let us dig a bit deeper and understand how you should prepare for Flipkart.
Online Coding Round
Duration: 90 Minutes
The coding round is the first and most basic round, where your coding skills are put to the test. You will be given three questions, which you would have to solve and submit within the given time limit. The questions are of varying difficulty and from different topics. The most basic concept that you need to know is Data Structures. Having a solid understanding of Data Structures will help you clear the majority of the rounds. A few of the other topics you need to learn or brush up on are Dynamic Programming, Graph algorithms, Trees, Strings, Recursions and Trees. These topics are only a handful in the vast world of algorithms and concepts, but yet very crucial.
Technical Interview
Duration: 45 Minutes
Two rounds of technical interviews are conducted, each lasting approximately 45 minutes. You will have a face to face whiteboard coding round hosted on a platform (AMCAT Aspiring Minds was the one mentioned by the people I spoke with). During the live session with the interviewer, you will have to solve 2-3 questions in each round. Now let us take a look at a few of the questions to get a better idea.
Previously Asked Questions
- The question is “N/3 repeated numbers in an array with O(1) space difficulty”. The basic rationale behind the question is to find the element that appears more than N/3 times in the array in linear time and constant space. A question can be solved using different approaches. In this case, we can make use of Moore’s Voting algorithm. Have a look at this question to have a better understanding.
- Another question is the “Snake and Ladder Problem”. The primary motive in this question is to find out the least amount of dice throws to reach the end from the source or a custom start point. The user has complete control over the outcome of the dice. This problem can be solved using DFS (Depth First Search), BFS (Breadth-First Search) or Dijkstra’s Algorithm. Check out our classes to learn more about this. We’ve covered these topics in great detail.
- Another question is to find the middle of the Linked List. This question is solved either by the one-pass or the two-pass method. In the one-pass method, both a slow pointer and a fast pointer are used. The slow pointer moves 1 step per iteration. The fast pointer moves two steps per iteration. In the two-pass method, we use the first pass to find out the number of elements in the Linked List, and the value of the middle element is obtained in the second pass. This question would help you understand the problem better.
| Attributes | Round 1 | Round 2 |
| Level of Difficulty | Easy-Medium | Medium-Hard |
| Expected | Pseudocode | Working Code |
Hiring Manager Round
In this round, your resume plays a huge role in deciding the kind of questions that the interviewer may ask. A Senior Manager or Hiring Manager will interview you in this round. This round mostly consists of informal discussions and a general fitment process. The interviewer will ask you about your previous projects, internships, experiences, and tech interests in this round. Make sure that you have a sound knowledge of the projects that you have worked on.
We spoke to Sai Harsha Balasubramaniam, currently an SDE at Flipkart, about preparation for this round, and this is what he shared,
“Prepare an elevator pitch for your top three projects. This ensures that you explain your projects in a crisp manner to your interviewer. Do prior research on your interviewer’s team within the organization and ask insightful questions about the team/company to your interviewer.”
Some usual questions asked during this round are the following:
- What was one event that pushed you towards a career in tech?
- In many scenarios, the user does not really appreciate the efforts of a frontend developer. But why do you still think that the UI/UX of an application is important?
- If you were to choose one role from Frontend Developer, Backend Developer, DevOps, Data Scientist and Data Engineer, which one would you pick and why?
- How did you make effective use of the Agile model for one of your projects?
What Else To Expect?
It is expected that you know about the Agile Model and its implementation in the industry. An interest in understanding your personality, character, and hobbies is shown in this round. The interviewer will ask a few behavioural questions such as what your strategy would be for a particular problem? How did you overcome that? and so on.
Well, now that you have an idea about how the interview will be, it’s preparation time! Check out this video to learn more about these topics and ace all the interviews! If you are a beginner and want to learn Competitive Programming now, then this will definitely help you.
This is Ganga signing off for the time being.
Thanks for sharing this useful article!