Status: New grad, off-campus interview
Position: SDE at Traveloka, India
Location: Bangalore, India
Date: July 20, 2018

Traveloka (est. in 2012) is an Indonesian unicorn company that provides airline ticketing and hotel booking services online with the focus on domestic travel.

Technical Phone Screen (From Jakarta HQ, 1 hour)

• 4-5 Questions on BST, with gradually increasing difficulty level were asked.
• The interviewer was head of the data team and was very polite. He even joked about me teaching him algo-ds when he saw ACM-ICPC on my resume. This made me confident enough to not fumble during the interview.
• The interview went flawless. I got to ask him about his work in Traveloka, and he was patient enough to answer even dumb questions. He even recommended me for a higher position (This I got to know later)

Onsite Round (3 rounds)

First Round:

• KMP and its variations were asked. I was not happy with either the interviewer nor with my performance. The interviewer reached late half an hour and was arrogant.
• I wrote the Brute Force approach and optimized it further, but could not write the code for KMP.
• I asked her about her team in Traveloka, and why she liked working here.
• I was unhappy after this round and thought my chances are very slim now.

Second Round:

• A DFS question with a mix of mathematics was asked. I could not give the best solution possible. But the interviewer was happy with my solution. The best solution involved DP which I couldn't figure out then.
• Another DS question was asked because we had time. The problem had 4 parts and solved 3 parts immediately. The fourth part took some time, but eventually, I did it.
• I asked the interviewer about what is expected from a fresher in Traveloka (A company that is MNC in size, but boasts itself about its startup culture), and how will the onboarding process be.
• He looked satisfied with my performance, but I was still worried whether the previous round was good enough for them to consider me.

I was asked to wait for the managerial round, which kind of meant that they are still considering me.

Managerial Round:

• OOPs design question was asked. I was asked to design a parking lot.
• The manager was very friendly and answered all my question very well.
• I asked him about what Recommendation Team is doing currently and what is there in pipeline for next 2 quarters.
• He looked happy with my performance. So I kind of guessed that I might be selected.

I talked with the HR guy for some time and then left for the day. They offered me a job the next day, and I was asked for an HR round where they discuss my salary and asked me some behavioral questions.

All in all the interview experience was very positive.

Thoughts post joining

• Traveloka is one of the better companies in terms of work where I feel the work is challenging enough to keep me motivated, and I have enough time for myself too.
• Perks - Free snacks, lunch, medical insurance for employee + family, two salary appraisals and bonus in a year if your performance is ok, regular team outings and dinner.
• I also got to visit Jakarta HQ :)

P.S. - I took 5 interviews for interns after 6 months of joining Traveloka. Sure these interview experiences help a lot when you are on the other side of the table.