Zepto

Role: Software Development Engineer I (SDE-1 Backend)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: May 30, 2025

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Rejected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 3 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms, Low-Level Design, System Design, Resume-based, Behavioral

Experience:

The candidate applied through Instahyre and was contacted by a recruiter. The process consisted of three eliminatory interview rounds.

Round 1: Problem-Solving (DSA-Based)

Duration: 1 Hour. The interviewer used a Google Doc for coding questions.

• Capacity to Ship Packages Within D Days (a classic binary search question).
• Count Days Without Meetings (similar to the "Merge Overlapping Intervals" problem; after merging, count days not covered).
• In the last 10 minutes, was asked to write code for the Lowest Common Ancestor problem.

The candidate felt confident after this round and cleared it.

Round 2: Low-Level Design (LLD)

Duration: 1 Hour. This was not a machine coding round, focusing on system design thinking. The candidate prepared using frequently asked LLD questions, SOLID principles, and design patterns.

• Design an Air Traffic Controller (ATC) for an airport. Requirements included two types of airplanes (SMALL, BIG), two types of runways (SHORT, LONG), and N gates to manage.

Discussions involved system entities, choice of design patterns, and pseudo-code implementation. The candidate felt good about this round and cleared it.

Round 3: Hiring Manager (HM)

The interviewer asked follow-up questions related to the design and again asked to write code for the Lowest Common Ancestor problem. The round felt "just okay".

Result: The recruiter later confirmed negative feedback from the hiring manager, and the candidate was not moved forward.

Tips: Don't celebrate too early; prepare rigorously for all rounds, including the HM round.