My resume was shortlisted and then first problem solving round was scheduled:
Round 1: DSA (1hr)
Following two questions were asked.
https://leetcode.com/problems/longest-increasing-subsequence/description/
https://leetcode.com/discuss/general-discussion/1349122/friends-pairing-problem
There was a google doc shared, and I was expected to explain the approach and write code on that sheet. Came up with the solution for both in the required timeframe.
Next day, the recruiter reached out and then asked for conducting rest of the rounds over the weekend.
Round 2: System Design (1 hr)
Initial 20 mins went to introductions and discussion around the kind of work I had done in my previous organizations. Then I was asked the following question:
The public transport system for the city of Bangalore - Bangalore metro authority (BMA) wants to design a payment system for its service.
The metro system is divided into Lines named with different colours. There will be multiple stations on each line. The fare is calculated based on the Lines you are travelling. There can be more Lines and more stations coming in future.
Requirements:
- What will be the approach of calculating fare
- Type of database - read/writes
- Table schema design
- APIs Needed
- How will be system be made Scalable?
All the discussion happened mostly in verbal form, and I wrote the schemas/APIs on an IDE.
Round 3: HM (40 mins)
Intial 10 mins were for introduction. Then the interviewer asked for providing a high level overview of one of the project, with flow diagram and contract discussions. In the last 10 mins, I asked various questions about the type of work, team distribution, work style, etc.
Round 4: HR (20 mins)
This was just a catchup call, as I was already told after the HM round that my feedback is overall positive. Basic discussions on why joining Zepto, what are the expectations, type of culture and similar kind of question.
Verdict: Selected
