Squad Stack

Role: Product Engineer

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: December 4, 2020

Interview Type: Applied through company job portal (all rounds online due to COVID)

Result: Not Specified

Difficulty: Not Specified

Rounds: 5 rounds

Topics Asked: Introductory questions, Coding (Hackerrank - implementation, dynamic programming, Tree), HR, Activity round (System Design - Parking Lot System), Technical Screening (web development, DBMS), Problem Solving (coding), Bar Raiser (System Design - Stack Overflow), Culture Fit.

Experience:

This candidate applied through SquadStack's job portal, and all five rounds were conducted online due to COVID.

Round 1: Introductory questions to understand the candidate and their motivation for applying to SquadStack. The candidate advised answering honestly as this round involves screening.

Round 2 (Coding Questions): Conducted on HackerRank, this round had 5 questions (2 implementation-based, 2 dynamic programming, 1 on Tree). The number of questions could vary, with some candidates getting 3 questions.

Round 3 (HR Round): This round focused on getting to know the candidate and their relevant experiences. HR also explained the role and company culture and assessed fitness for the role. Candidates could ask questions about the company.

Round 4 (Activity Round): A take-home activity was given with 4-6 hours to complete. The task was to design a Parking Lot System. Clean code was expected, and simply completing the activity did not guarantee selection; code quality was evaluated.

Round 5 (On-Premise Round - conducted online): This final round consisted of four sub-rounds:

• Technical Screening: Questions primarily on web development (candidate chose tech stack/language), along with some DBMS questions.
• Problem Solving: A coding round with three relatively easy questions compared to Round 2. Candidates were encouraged to think out loud.
• Bar Raiser: A System Design round where the candidate had to design Stack Overflow. Conceptual questions were asked throughout.
• Culture Fit: This round was often taken by one of the founders, with general questions about the candidate, their life, and reasons for applying to SquadStack.