Citymall

Role: SDE - Intern

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: 5 Jan 2022, 7 Jan 2022

Interview Type: Internship

Result: Not Specified

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 2 rounds (after initial assignment)

Topics Asked: Coding (Backend Assignment), projects, resume, backend knowledge, Data Structures and Algorithms (palindrome related problem, linked list intersection)

Experience:

The interview process for the SDE - Intern role at CityMall began with a backend assignment.

Initial Round: Backend Assignment
Candidates who cleared a backend assignment, which involved building a backend for a shopping site, were called for interviews.

Round 1: Technical Interview (60 mins, dated 5 Jan 2022)
This round focused on coding knowledge. Questions were asked on projects, the candidate's resume, and the assignment submitted. A coding problem was also given. An example of a coding problem discussed involved palindromes: "Case 1: If s1 is a blank string, then for any string that is palindrome s2, s1+s2 and s2+s1 are palindrome. Case 2: If s2 is the reversing string of s1, then s1+s2 and s2+s1 are palindrome. Case 3: If s1[0:cut] is palindrome and there exists s2 is the reversing string of s1[cut+1:] , then s2+s1 is palindrome. Case 4: Similar to case3. If s1[cut+1: ] is palindrome and there exists s2 is the reversing string of s1[0:cut] , then s1+s2 is palindrome."

Round 2: Hiring Manager Round (60 mins, dated 7 Jan 2022)
This round was more focused on backend knowledge and questions related to past project tech stacks. It concluded with an easy coding question. Another coding problem mentioned involved finding the intersection point of two linked lists. The approach discussed was: "The operations in the first iteration help counteract the difference in length between the two lists. Therefore, if the two linked lists intersect, the meeting point in the second iteration will be the intersection node. If the two linked lists do not intersect at all, the meeting point in the second iteration will be the tail node of both lists, which is null."

Tips: Candidates were advised to thoroughly review previously asked interview and online test questions, have at least two well-explained projects, and cover every skill mentioned in their resume.