Urban Company

Role: SDE-1 (Backend)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: Not Specified (Published Nov 2024)

Interview Type: Off-Campus

Result: Not Specified (Implied Selected)

Difficulty: Not Specified

Rounds: 4 rounds (Online Assessment + 3 Interview Rounds)

Topics Asked: Trees, Dynamic Programming, DFS/BFS, Topological Sort, Low-Level Design, System Design, Project Discussions, Internship Experiences, Scalability, User Experience

Experience:

The process started with an online assessment. This round included two questions: one on Trees, requiring a strong grasp of traversal and manipulation, and another on Dynamic Programming, focusing on a complex problem needing an optimal approach to avoid time limitations. The candidate solved both efficiently.

Round 1: DSA
This round focused on deep problem-solving. Questions included a problem resembling the Island Problem (navigating a 2D grid to identify distinct regions, requiring DFS/BFS) and a Topological Sort problem (involving Directed Acyclic Graphs for handling dependencies and ordering tasks). Both questions were solved within the time limit.

Round 2: Low-Level Design (LLD)
The candidate was asked to design a Hotel Management System from scratch. This involved conceptualizing core components like Rooms, Bookings, and Customers, and thinking through their relationships. Implementation code for functionalities such as checking room availability, creating reservations, and processing payments was required. The interviewer also tested the ability to handle edge cases and build a flexible, scalable system.

Round 3: Hiring Manager Round
This final round focused on project discussions, diving into challenges faced and how they were addressed, particularly concerning scalability and user experience. Internship experiences, including contributions to backend systems, API design, and cross-functional work, were also discussed.