Mathco

MathCo Interview Process Overview of Rounds Round Stage Round 1 Online Assessment (OA) Round 2 Speech X assessment Round 3 Interview (two parts, detailed below) Round 3: Interview Part 1 (20 minutes) Introduction Introduced myself, specifically mentioning: ○ My college hackathon wins ○ Qualification in the EY hackathon ○ The programming language I prefer for DSA Project Discussion This was the longest section of the round, and the interviewer seemed to like my project ideas. Note: The resume on the portal differed from the one I took to the interview, with a project mismatch between the two. Because of this, he asked about 3 of my projects. Lexica He asked for a brief. I explained it as a reading companion project. Tech stack: TypeScript, React, MongoDB, Datamuse API PDF processing: He asked how I processed PDFs, and I explained the whole process. Crackit (the project I was not prepared for, but I still managed to give a brief) Crackit is an AI-powered interview platform. The browser extension fetches interview experiences from a web page (GeeksforGeeks), and the AI then simulates the whole interview process. Tech stack: TypeScript, React, Gemini API Extension: He asked about the browser extension we built in this project. Scraping: He asked why I didn't use a scraper. ○ I answered that the extension's content script already runs on the GFG page, and all interview experiences sit inside the same HTML container. So we read them directly from the DOM using a selector, with no need for a separate server-side scraper. Percepta An assistive navigation system for visually impaired people. Tech stack: FastAPI, YOLOv8, MiDaS, EasyOCR, Qwen VLM FastAPI: He asked several questions about it. ○ He asked whether I could code it right now. I said no, I don't think so, but I understand the whole backend architecture: how it works, how API endpoints work, and the dos and don'ts of backend development. Backend Discussion There was a brief discussion about the backend. Question: How would you implement an API? What if one async/await function blocks another, where the second can't run until it gets output from the first? ○ I said that if the second call depends on the first's output, we await the first and then pass its result to the second, since await pauses only that function and doesn't block the event loop. System Design (HLD) He went into high-level design topics: ○ Rate limiting ○ Reverse proxies ○ Parallel processing ○ Latency Technical Questions APIs: How they function and how they work. I was able to answer this. Middleware: I explained it thoroughly. Database indexing: I wasn't confident and first said I didn't know, but he still asked for a brief explanation, so I gave one. SQL He asked whether I wanted a Python or SQL question, and I chose SQL. ○ Q1 (Joins): Given two tables, what would the result of a left join be? ○ Q2: How do you get only distinct results? Guesstimate (closing question) Estimate the revenue from UPI transactions in Prayagraj. I was able to answer this. Part 2 Phase 1: Question Set (20 minutes) DSA (3 questions) Check whether a string can be palindrome. Given an array, calculate the half-sum average of every number; if it is less than zero, reset. A simple array question (can't recall the details). Analysis (1 question) Coffee shop case: analyse how footfall and sales change if the price is reduced from 200 to 140, and if it is raised from 200 to 240. Guesstimate (1 question) Estimate the number of cab bookings made offline vs. through apps in Bangalore. Phase 2: Discussion (30-40 minutes) Solution walkthrough I explained my written solutions: the whole process, my thought process, and how I arrived at the numbers. Projects He went back into my projects, and I again explained all three: Percepta, Lexica, Crackit. Hackathons He asked if I like participating in hackathons. I said yes, and he asked me to walk through my whole hackathon experience. Project timelines: He asked when I made Lexica and Crackit. ○ Lexica was built during a 7-week hackathon where we had to present our own idea. ○ Crackit was built in a 36-hour hackathon with no sleep. He liked this a lot and said it was good. AI usage: He noted that, since Crackit was a 36-hour project, I must have used AI a lot. I said yes. He said I had "vibe coded" it, but since I still know the architecture, that's good. AI Fundamentals A brief round of questions on: ○ Embeddings ○ Self-attention ○ Inference ○ Vector databases I was able to answer all of them. SQL He asked me to draw a Venn diagram of all the joins. I was able to do that. VLMs He asked about the Qwen VLM and its architecture. I explained it thoroughly. Follow-up: Why did I use YOLO, EasyOCR, and a VLM together instead of using only a VLM? ○ I pointed out the latency and rate-limiting issues. HR / Behavioural Why MathCo? I gave my reasons and referred to the points he mentioned during the PPT rounds. Why move this far from Prayagraj (Bangalore is very distant)? ○ I said I'd get more exposure to the software engineering domain, which would help my career growth.