Navi Technologies

Role: SDE 1

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: 2022-08-08

Interview Type: Off-Campus

Result: Likely Rejected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 4 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms, Domain Modeling, Design Principles, Unit Testing, Behavioral

Experience:

The candidate applied for an SDE 1 position and received a call from HR to discuss background and expected compensation.

Round 1: Coding Assignment (2 days)

A Geektrust assignment was provided with specific guidelines: coding in Java, working code required, evaluation for proper domain modeling and design (optimization not the primary focus), separation of concerns, extensibility, unit tests, necessary design patterns, and naming conventions.

Input was to be read from a text file and output printed to the console, with the program taking the test file location as a parameter.

Round 2: Face to Face (1 hour) - DSA Round

After a quick introduction, the interviewer directly posed two DSA problems.

• Problem 1: Given two strings, find the difference and tell what character to add or remove to get the target string. The candidate recognized this as a standard Edit Distance problem with insert and delete operations and implemented it quickly.
• Problem 2: Given a list of edges, determine if adding an edge creates a cycle and if the resulting structure forms a forest. The candidate discussed a DFS approach for cycle detection and then provided an optimized solution using Disjoint Set Union (DSU) with path compression and union by rank, which was implemented.

Round 3: Hiring Manager (45 minutes)

The manager explained their work and tenure at Navi. Questions included "Why Navi?" and "What do you expect from Navi?".

A Google Doc was shared, and the candidate was asked to find the maximum area of a histogram. The candidate implemented the solution with one stack and performed a dry run, having encountered the question before.

Towards the end, the candidate asked about qualities a fresher should possess to join Navi, receiving a generic response.

Round 4: Cultural Fit Round

This round was conducted by a department head with 10 years of experience (Ex IIM-A). The interviewer asked about the candidate's background and difficult situations. The candidate felt the interviewer was giving negative vibes and seemed unhappy with the answers. Despite expressing excitement for the opportunity, the interviewer's response was "we will see about it."