Interview experience 1 - MTS role
Candidate Profile: B.Tech CS, 8.5 CGPA, 2 internships, competitive programming
Round 1 - Online Assessment (90 minutes)
Platform: HackerRank
Problem 1: Longest Palindromic Substring
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Find the longest palindrome within a string
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Difficulty: Medium
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My Approach: Expand around center O(n²)
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Time Taken: 25 minutes
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Result: All test cases passed
def longestPalindrome(s):def expand(left, right):while left >= 0 and right < len(s) and s[left] == s[right]:left -= 1right += 1return s[left+1:right]result = ""for i in range(len(s)):odd = expand(i, i)even = expand(i, i+1)result = max(result, odd, even, key=len)return resultProblem 2: Minimum Window Substring
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Find minimum window containing all characters of target
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Difficulty: Hard
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My Approach: Sliding window with hashmap
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Time Taken: 35 minutes
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Result: Passed all test cases
Problem 3: LRU Cache Implementation
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Design LRU cache with O(1) get/put
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Difficulty: Medium
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My Approach: HashMap + Doubly Linked List
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Time Taken: 25 minutes
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Result: Passed all test cases
Tips:
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Practice LeetCode medium-hard problems
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Focus on optimal time complexity
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Handle edge cases carefully
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Adobe OA is DSA-heavy
Round 2 - Technical Interview 1 (60 minutes)
Mode: Video call (Zoom) Interviewer: Senior Software Engineer
Problem 1: Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree
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Convert tree to string and back
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My Approach: BFS with null markers
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Discussion: Multiple approaches, trade-offs
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Time: 25 minutes including discussion
Problem 2: Trapping Rain Water
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Calculate water trapped between buildings
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My Approach: Two-pointer technique
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Explained time and space complexity
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Time: 20 minutes
Follow-up Questions:
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“Can you optimize the space complexity?”
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“What if buildings have varying widths?”
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“How would you handle very large inputs?”
Project Discussion (15 minutes):
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Discussed my internship project (image processing)
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Detailed discussion into algorithms used
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Challenges faced and solutions
Tips:
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Think out loud during coding
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Discuss trade-offs between approaches
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Be ready for follow-up questions
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Know your projects thoroughly
Round 3 - Technical Interview 2 (60 minutes)
Interviewer: Tech Lead
Problem 1: Word Ladder (BFS)
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Find shortest transformation sequence
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My Approach: BFS with visited set
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Discussed optimization strategies
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Time: 30 minutes
System Design Discussion (20 minutes):
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“How would you design a document storage system?”
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Discussed components: storage, indexing, search
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Talked about scalability and caching
CS Fundamentals (10 minutes):
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Explain process vs thread
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What is virtual memory?
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Database indexing and B-trees
Tips:
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Prepare for basic system design
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Revise CS fundamentals
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Show depth in problem-solving
Round 4 - Hiring Manager Round (45 minutes)
Interviewer: Engineering Manager
Questions Asked:
- “Tell me about yourself”
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Brief technical introduction
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Highlighted key achievements
- “Why Adobe?”
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Mentioned Adobe’s creative products
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Interest in working on impactful software
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Adobe’s engineering culture
- “Tell me about a challenging project”
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Discussed image processing project
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Challenges: performance optimization
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Learnings and impact
- “How do you handle disagreements in team?”
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Gave specific example from internship
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Focus on constructive resolution
- “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
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Technical leadership path
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Contributing to product development
Result: Selected! Package: ₹22 LPA (base) + stock + bonus = ~₹28 LPA total Location: Noida
Key Takeaways: Adobe focuses heavily on DSA. Practice LeetCode medium-hard problems. Be ready for follow-up questions. Show problem-solving depth, not just solutions.

