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Phonepe Online Assessment
Overview
PhonePe online assessment (OA) is the first hard filter for most fresher, campus, and off-campus SDE-style drives. This page covers the PhonePe OA format, what happens after you clear it, sample PhonePe OA questions with approaches, an 8-week prep plan, and mistakes that sink otherwise-strong candidates.
Patterns below are from student reports for 2025-2026. Platforms and section names can change by drive. Always confirm the college placement email for your window.
Phonepe hiring flow after the OA
| Stage | What candidates report | What you must show |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Online assessment | Usually 90-120 min with 2-3 medium-hard DSA problems on HackerRank / internal OA | Correctness + reasonable complexity under time |
| 2. Technical interviews | DSA + projects; payments/system thinking shows up in later rounds | Explain approach, edge cases, complexity |
| 3. Later rounds | Hiring manager / culture fit; HR for role and location | Depth beyond the OA pattern |
| 4. HR / offer | Role, location, CTC discussion | Consistency with resume |
Phonepe Online Assessment format
Test structure
| Component | From student reports details |
|---|---|
| Platform | HackerRank or PhonePe internal OA |
| Duration | About 90-120 minutes |
| Question mix | 2-3 DSA coding problems; occasional tech MCQ mix by drive |
| Languages | Java, C++, Python |
| Scoring | Automated test cases; partial credit varies by drive |
| Advance rate | About 10-20% advance in many candidate reports |
What makes Phonepe OA feel distinct
- Strong medium-hard DSA bar similar to other top product fintechs
- Domain flavor: UPI / wallet / merchant settlement style constraints in many practice sets
- Clean edge cases (idempotency, retries, duplicates) matter
- Less aptitude volume than service-company papers
Question types you should expect
Core DSA
- Hashing, sliding window, two pointers
- Graphs, heaps, union-find
- DP and greedy
- Simulation problems that model transactions or queues
Secondary / role-dependent
- Occasional MCQs on OS/DB/OOPs in mixed papers
- Debugging incorrect settlement logic
What usually does not appear in the OA
- Full payments system design (later interviews)
- Long verbal essays
- Bank clerk-style quantitative papers
Sample Phonepe Online Assessment questions
Question 1: idempotent transaction ids
Q: Given a stream of transaction IDs, detect duplicates within a sliding window of size W.
Hash set + queue for window eviction. Evict the oldest ID when the window exceeds W.
Practice related patterns in PhonePe coding questions.
Question 2: minimum transfers to settle balances
Q: Minimize number of transfers to settle balances among parties.
Collect non-zero balances. For small n, backtracking with pruning; explain greedy largest-debtor/creditor matching when n is tiny.
OA often accepts a correct pruned search for n around 12-15.
Question 3: upi retry backoff windows
Q: Sorted timestamps of failed attempts. Count attempts within K seconds of a previous attempt.
Two pointers / sliding window on sorted timestamps. Watch inclusive vs exclusive window edges.
Question 4: merchant payout batching
Q: Batch payouts so each batch sum is at most Limit; minimize number of batches.
Often a greedy sort + packing heuristic or exact DP for small n. Read whether order must be preserved.
Question 5: graph of users and payment edges
Q: Detect whether a set of directed payment obligations contains a cycle.
DFS colors or Kahn topological sort. Cycle means inconsistent settlement order.
Question 6: why o still fails
Q: Your solution is correct on samples but TLE on hidden tests. Why?
Hidden n is large. Prefer O(n log n) or better when constraints allow. Always read constraints before coding.
How to prepare for Phonepe OA (8-week plan)
| Weeks | Focus | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | Arrays, hashing, two pointers, sliding window | 40+ easy/medium solved cleanly |
| 3-4 | Trees, graphs (BFS/DFS), heaps | Can code BFS/DFS without notes |
| 5-6 | DP + greedy patterns (add payments-flavored simulation drills) | 25+ medium DP/greedy with recursion to bottom-up |
| 7 | Timed full mocks matching About 90-120 minutes | Finish 2 of 3 problems fully green, or both if only 2 are asked with passing tests |
| 8 | Weak-topic repair + complexity review | Re-solve every miss within 48 hours |
Daily loop
- One timed medium problem (45-60 min hard cap)
- Write complexity and 3 edge cases before coding
- If stuck past 20 minutes, peek pattern name only, then re-solve tomorrow cold
- Log misses by topic on a simple sheet
Company pages on this site
- PhonePe coding questions
- PhonePe aptitude / mock quiz
- PhonePe interview experience
- PhonePe preparation guide
- Practice PDF: Phonepe Placement Papers PDF (2026)
Common mistakes on Phonepe OA
- Ignoring constraints on transaction-volume style inputs
- Not handling duplicates / retries in stream problems
- Backtracking without pruning on settle-debt style tasks
- Weak Java/C++ STL fluency under time
- Skipping mocks and discovering platform I/O issues on test day
Day-of checklist
- Stable internet, charged laptop, quiet room
- Confirm language template compiles on the platform before starting hard problems
- Skim all problems for 3-4 minutes, order by familiarity
- Submit a correct brute force early if constraints allow, then optimize
- Leave 8-10 minutes for edge-case tests you invent yourself