Smartcoin

Role: SDE 2

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: October 17, 2025

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Rejected (due to budget constraints and concerns regarding past job switches and salary expectations)

Difficulty: Not Specified (Technical rounds performed strongly)

Rounds: Multiple rounds (Virtual DSA, In-person LLD/Projects, In-person System Design)

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms, Low-Level Design, System Design, College Projects, Behavioral (job switches, salary expectations)

Experience:

This candidate had an interview experience with Olyv|Smartcoin for an SDE 2 role in Bangalore. The experience was described as frustrating, with a final rejection attributed to internal budget issues and concerns about the candidate's job history 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: A problem involving building heights. The rules were: if the next building was lower or the same height, movement was free; if higher, a ladder or bricks equal to the height difference were required.

The candidate initially proposed dynamic programming and binary search approaches, then refined the solution to an optimized greedy strategy, receiving excellent feedback.

Round 2: In-person Technical Round (Low-Level Design and Projects)
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.
• College Projects: Questions about the candidate's college projects were also asked.

The interviewer was helpful, even suggesting useful hacks.

Round 3: In-person Technical Round (System Design)
This round also required an in-person visit.

• System Design: Design an email service where OTP-related emails needed immediate dispatch, while promotional emails were sent over time.

The candidate's solution involved using a queue for promotional emails, Redis for rate limiting, and discussions on handling potential failures. The interviewer seemed satisfied with the design.

Result: Despite strong technical performance, the candidate was not selected due to apparent budget constraints, concerns over past job switches, and salary expectations.