Education: MCA (Top NIT), 2024 Batch
Experience: 1 year 7 months
Current Role: SDE, Product Based
Timeline:
1. Online Assessment (OA): 28 February 2026
2. Round 1 (Onsite – 13 March 2026)
- Data Structures & Algorithms
- Leadership Principles
3. Round 2 (Onsite – 16 March 2026)
- Coding (Logical & Maintainable Code)
- Leadership Principles
- Project Discussion
4. Round 3 (Onsite – 16 March 2026)
- GenAI Fluency
- Problem Solving
- Leadership Principles
- Current Work Discussion
5. Round 4 (Virtual – 06 April 2026)
- Bar Raiser Round
- 3–4 Leadership Principles with deep dives and extensive follow-ups
The Rounds:
Online Assesment - Medium/Hard (DP + Heap)
1. DSA Questions
- 2 coding problems (Medium–Hard + Hard)
- Topics:
- Heap-based optimization
- Dynamic Programming
2. Workstyle / Leadership Assessment (~15 min)
- Scenario-based questions
- Focus areas:
- Decision-making
- Prioritization
- Ownership
3. Workstyle Assessment (~60 min)
- Behavioral + personality-based
- Repeated themes in different forms
- Key: Consistency mattered more than “perfect” answers
Round 1 (In-Person) – Medium (Trees + DP)
The interview began with a brief introduction. The interviewer (SDE 2, ~6–7 years of experience) mentioned that the round would consist of two DSA problems.
The first problem was a variation of the Tree Path Sum type. It required performing a tree traversal (DFS) while maintaining certain conditions to compute the required result. Although similar to standard Path Sum problems, it involved additional constraints that required careful handling. I was expected to write a complete working solution on the whiteboard, including edge cases.
The second problem was based on the classic House Robber problem. After implementing the standard solution, I was asked a follow-up: House Robber II, which introduces a circular constraint. This required modifying the approach to handle two cases (including/excluding the first element) and ensuring correctness for edge cases.
Overall, the round evaluated:
- Strong fundamentals in trees and dynamic programming
- Ability to adapt known problems to variations
- Writing clean, correct code without execution support
- Handling edge cases and explaining the thought process clearly
Round 2 (In-Person) – Medium-Hard (Graph & DP)
The interview started with a project discussion. I explained one of my projects in detail, covering the problem statement, design, and my contributions. The interviewer asked follow-up questions to understand my decisions and approach (~15 minutes).
This was followed by two DSA problems, where I was expected to write production-ready code on the whiteboard.
- The first problem was similar to Number of Islands, involving graph traversal (DFS/BFS) to identify connected components in a grid.
- The second problem involved computing the maximum reachable index / number of jumps, requiring a dynamic programming approach with optimized transitions.
Overall, the round focused on:
- Graphs and dynamic programming
- Writing clean, complete, and correct code
- Explaining real-world project decisions
Round 3 (In-Person) – Hiring Manager Round (Hard)
The interview began with an in-depth discussion of one of my projects. I explained the end-to-end flow, including:
- Problem statement and motivation
- System design and architecture
- My specific contributions
- Technologies and design decisions
- Challenges and impact
The discussion went deep into implementation details and ownership (~30 minutes).
After that, I was asked a LeetCode Hard problem based on binary search and sorting, similar to Median of Two Sorted Arrays. I initially struggled but eventually arrived at a working solution. The interviewer discussed an alternative approach and challenged edge cases. I validated my approach through multiple dry runs, and it worked correctly.
Next, I was given a GenAI-based scenario:
A critical production issue at YouTube needed to be resolved within one hour, with the option to use AI tools.
We had a detailed discussion (~20 minutes) around:
- Prioritization and debugging strategy
- Use of monitoring/logs
- How to effectively leverage AI without over-relying on it
- Decision-making under pressure
Overall, this round evaluated:
- Deep technical understanding
- Problem-solving under pressure
- System thinking and practical decision-making
Round 4 – Bar Raiser (Leadership Round)
This round was fully focused on Leadership Principles.
The interviewer asked behavioral questions and went very deep into each response with multiple follow-ups. The focus was on:
- My exact contributions
- Decision-making process
- Trade-offs considered
- Measurable impact
I structured my answers around:
- Context and challenges
- Actions taken
- Outcomes and learnings
The interviewer consistently drilled into details to check for ownership, consistency, and depth.
Verdict: Selected ✅
Notes / Tips:
- Strong focus on DSA fundamentals (Trees, Graphs, DP)
- Be prepared for variations of standard problems
- Expect deep dives into projects and ownership
- Prepare Leadership Principles thoroughly (with real examples)
- Be ready to discuss GenAI usage in real-world scenarios
