Preparation: I had a job, was not desparate to clear the interview also didn't had enough time to prepare for the interview. I feel I should have taken little more seriously.
- CTCI - practised concepts, around 50 questions from variuos chapters for almost 2 months.
- LC Premium - it was worth taking the premium. all questions were from LC. practised for almost 2 months.
Online Assessment: end of June 2020.
- Coding problem similar to Number of Islands (200)
- Coding problem similar to Partitioning of Labels (763)
I asked for 2 weeks time before onsite interview.
Onsite Virtual: mid of July 2020.
Round 1: Manager- around 6 questions on Leadership Principles. Last question was repeat as he was not satisfied with my answer.
Round 2: Bar Raiser- 2 questions on LP. Coding problem similar to Min Stack (155)- Couldn't solve it optimally. Didn't do well.
Round 3: 2 questions on LP. Coding problem similar to Add Two Numbers (2)- Solved optimally. Had discussions on type of data structure best suited to store large numbers- string or linked list.
Round 4: System Design. 2 questions on LP. Coding problem similar to Tiny URL (535). Designed the system accepted by interviwer.
Round 5: 2 questions on LP. Coding problem similar to Meeting Rooms (253). Debated on logic. Even though mine was right, got confused when interviwer argued that logic is wrong. Worst part is I accepted my solution was wrong. After the interview I found my solution was optimal.
Lessons learnt- practise leadership principle questions with equal weightage as coding. solving coding problem in every interview is very important as that is min criteria. we should be confident in our solution. Don't try to count number of problems you solve, focus on understanding the data structure, logic.
Best of luck!