Paypal

Role: SDE-1

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: Off-Campus 2021 (based on post referring to 2020 challenge)

Interview Type: Off-Campus, Full-Time

Result: Not Specified

Difficulty: Medium (Implied by LeetCode and GfG questions)

Rounds: 3 rounds (after an online challenge)

Topics Asked: Problem Solving, Data Structures, Algorithms (Binary Search), Projects, Open-source, Internships, Database (MongoDB), Behavioral

Experience:

The candidate initially participated in an online campus challenge in 2020 but didn't clear it. A year later, they received an email from the recruitment team inviting them for an interview.

Round 1: Problem-Solving - Technical Round 1 (60 minutes on MS Teams) - The interviewer was friendly. After a brief introduction, a Google Doc was shared for coding.

• Question 1: A problem similar to "Chocolate Sweetness" (LeetCode). The candidate suggested approaches, and the interviewer guided them towards a binary search approach. The code was written and time complexity discussed.
• Question 2: "Given a number N, find the number of integers from 1 to N that have the odd number of factors." Only the approach and time complexity were discussed, and the interviewer seemed satisfied.

Round 2: Projects + Problem Solving - This round involved discussions on projects, open-source contributions, and internships. The interviewer asked about individual contributions and reasons for using specific technologies like MongoDB.

• Question 1: "Minimum number of distinct elements after removing m items" (GeeksforGeeks). An approach using a map was given, and corner cases were discussed. The candidate reviewed their code and identified mistakes.
• Question 2: "Reverse a linked list in groups of given size" (GeeksforGeeks).

Round 3: Techno-Managerial Round - This round was with a Senior Manager. After an introduction, projects and internships were discussed. Questions were asked about interest in joining PayPal, preferred team, strengths, and weaknesses. The interviewer seemed strict and specifically inquired about the candidate's research internship and why they wanted to work in the corporate world.

Tips: Practice many questions from GeeksforGeeks and LeetCode. Stay calm and confident during the interview.