Olyv India

Role: SDE 2

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: Not Specified (Experience published October 17, 2025)

Interview Type: Full-Time / Off-Campus

Result: Rejected

Difficulty: Hard

Rounds: 3 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms, Low-Level Design (LLD), High-Level Design (HLD), System Design, Behavioral

Experience:

The candidate described a frustrating interview experience for an SDE 2 position in Bangalore, ultimately being rejected due to budget constraints, past job switches, and salary expectations despite strong technical performance.

Round 1: Virtual Technical Round (Data Structures and Algorithms)

This round was conducted virtually and focused on Data Structures and Algorithms.

• Coding Problem: Given an array representing building heights, along with a certain number of bricks (x) and ladders (y), determine the farthest building reachable. Rules: moving to a lower or same height building is free; moving to a higher building requires a ladder or bricks equal to the height difference. The candidate proposed dynamic programming and binary search approaches, then refined to an optimized greedy strategy.

The candidate received excellent feedback for this round.

Round 2: In-person Technical Round (Low-Level Design)

This round was conducted in-person.

• Low-Level Design (LLD): Design an LLD for a 'Book My Show'-like application, specifically focusing on saving seat information and displaying a seat map within the app.
• Project Discussion: Questions about college projects were also asked.

The candidate designed the full database schema, explained necessary joins, and proposed using rectangle objects for seats. The interviewer was helpful, and this round also went well.

Interim Feedback: Before the third round, a finance representative informed the candidate about budget issues for the role, which was disheartening.

Round 3: In-person Technical/Behavioral Round (High-Level Design & Behavioral)

This round was also in-person despite the prior budget discussion.

• Behavioral Questions: Questions about short stints in previous companies and salary expectations were asked.
• High-Level Design (HLD): Design an email service capable of handling various types of emails (e.g., OTPs, promotions) with rate limiting. The candidate needed to implement a service that sends OTP-related emails immediately and promotional emails over time. The solution involved using a queue for promotional emails, Redis for rate limiting, and discussion on handling potential failures.

The interviewer seemed satisfied with the design, but the candidate's past job switches and salary expectations were noted as concerns. The candidate was ultimately not selected.