Interview Experience 1 - SDE-1
Candidate Profile: B.Tech CS, 8.5 CGPA, 2 internships, competitive programming
Round 1 - Online Assessment (120 minutes)
Platform: Flipkart’s own assessment platform
Problem 1: Number of Islands
- Count connected components in grid
- Difficulty: Medium
- My Approach: BFS
- Time: 20 minutes
Problem 2: Longest Consecutive Sequence
- Find longest consecutive sequence in array
- Difficulty: Medium
- My Approach: HashSet O(n)
- Time: 20 minutes
Problem 3: Word Ladder
- Find shortest transformation sequence
- Difficulty: Hard
- My Approach: BFS with word neighbors
- Time: 35 minutes
Problem 4: Design LRU Cache
- With O(1) operations
- My Approach: HashMap + DLL
- Time: 30 minutes
Result: Cleared OA
Tips:
- Flipkart asks harder problems than average
- Focus on graphs and optimization
- Practice e-commerce related problems
Round 2 - Machine Coding (90 minutes)
Problem: Design a simple shopping cart system
Requirements:
- Add/remove items
- Apply discount codes
- Calculate total with tax
- Handle inventory checks
My Implementation:
- Used Object-Oriented Design
- Proper class hierarchy (Item, Cart, Discount)
- Unit tests for edge cases
- Clean, readable code
Evaluation Criteria:
- Working solution: 40%
- Code quality: 30%
- Design: 20%
- Testing: 10%
Tips:
- Start with basic working solution
- Add features incrementally
- Write clean, modular code
- Handle edge cases
Round 3 - Technical Interview 1 (60 minutes)
Interviewer: SDE-2
Problem 1: Merge Intervals
- Merge overlapping intervals
- My Approach: Sort + linear scan
- Discussion on edge cases
Problem 2: Course Schedule II
- Return order of courses to finish
- My Approach: Topological sort
- Follow-up: Detect if impossible
Project Discussion:
- Discussed e-commerce project
- Database design decisions
- API design patterns
- Performance optimization
Tips:
- Explain approach before coding
- Handle follow-up questions
- Know your projects deeply
Round 4 - Technical Interview 2 (60 minutes)
Interviewer: Senior Engineer
System Design: Design a Flash Sale System
- Handle millions of concurrent users
- Inventory management
- Queue-based ordering
- Prevent overselling
My Approach:
- CDN for static content
- Load balancer + multiple servers
- Redis for inventory count
- Message queue for order processing
- Database sharding
Discussion Points:
- Race condition handling
- Eventual consistency
- User experience during load
DSA Problem:
- Find median in data stream
- My Approach: Two heaps
Tips:
- System design is crucial for Flipkart
- Think about e-commerce scenarios
- Discuss trade-offs clearly
Round 5 - Hiring Manager Round (45 minutes)
Questions:
- “Why Flipkart?”
- “Tell me about your most challenging project”
- “How do you handle conflicting requirements?”
- “Where do you see yourself in 3 years?”
Result: Selected! Package: ₹28 LPA Location: Bengaluru
Key Takeaways: Flipkart values DSA mastery, clean code, and system design thinking. Machine coding round is unique - practice building features quickly.