Kotak Mahindra Bank

Role: SDE-1 - Backend (JAVA)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: September 2023

Interview Type: Full-Time (Applied through LinkedIn referral)

Result: Rejected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 1 (BarRaiser)

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms (String Permutation, Sliding Window), Hashmap internals, Lambda Functions in Java, System Design

Experience:

The candidate applied for an SDE-1 Backend (JAVA) role through LinkedIn referrals after seeing internal openings. HR shortlisted the resume and conducted a telephonic screening about the current tech stack, CTC, and basic time/space complexities. The interview was scheduled by the BarRaiser Team, as Kotak Mahindra Bank outsourced their initial interview process.

Technical Round (BarRaiser): The interviewer was a 6-year experienced professional.

• Coding Question: "Given Two Strings, say s1 = "ab" and s2 = "hdeuudba". Now you need to tell me if any Permutation of string s1 occurs in String s2 or not." The candidate initially proposed a brute-force approach (generating all permutations), which was exponential. With hints, the candidate optimized it to an O(N) solution using the Sliding Window technique and coded it.
• Core Java/DSA Questions: Internal workings of a HashMap (collision detection), Lambda Functions in JAVA.
• System Design Questions: Three questions based on System Design, which the candidate found unfamiliar and politely stated they didn't know the answers.

The candidate received a rejection mail on the following Monday.