Cashfree Payments Interviews

## Background :
- Experience: 3+ years
- Current Role: Software Engineer 2 @ Unicorn Startup
- Current CTC: ₹18 LPA (Fixed) + 10% Annual Bonus
- Cashfree Payments Offer: ₹30 LPA CTC

## How It Started
Recruiter found my profile on Naukri, mailed me, and scheduled the interviews after my profile got shortlisted.

##
The interviewer asked a coding question related to Merge Intervals.

Problem statement:

- Multiple celebrities have given their available time slots.
You need to find a common time interval when all celebrities can meet.

- Tested skills in:

- Interval merging logic
- Sorting and boundary handling
- Time and space complexity discussion

✅ Completed the solution and discussed optimizations.

## Round 2 – LLD Round

- Task: Design an **Online Parking Lot System**

- Core functionalities:

- Search available parking slots
- Book / Reserve a slot

I covered class design, relationships, and flow diagrams.

The interviewer wanted a more refined approach for the search functionality, and while I justified my design choices, they expected a different perspective.

## Outcome

Got an update 2 days later that they decided not to move forward for this role.

Overall, it was a short and structured process, mainly testing problem-solving and object-oriented design depth.

I had an interview experience with Cashfree Payments for the SDE-2 position. I applied via LinkedIn and my current experience is 4 years. The entire interview process was conducted virtually, consisting of two main rounds.

Round-1: Data Structures & Algorithms
This round focused on DSA and included two medium-level questions. The first question was about finding pairs in a list of song durations that sum up to a multiple of 120. The second question, which I don't recall perfectly, involved a flight dependency list and a list of delayed flights; I had to return all other flights affected by these delays. I solved this using a Breadth-First Search (BFS) approach.

Round-2: Low-Level Design
The second round was a low-level design challenge, where I was asked to design a system similar to Google Calendar. The expectations included designing appropriate classes and utility functions to handle several core functionalities: scheduling meetings for multiple users with specific start/end times, implementing recurring meetings with defined frequencies, setting user reminders, and presenting various calendar views (day, week, month).

After completing both rounds, I received a rejection.

Experience : 2.5 Years

All rounds were elimination rounds.

Round 1 - DSA 60 Minutes

Question - 1 https://leetcode.com/problems/capacity-to-ship-packages-within-d-days/

Question - 2

https://leetcode.com/problems/best-time-to-buy-and-sell-stock/description/

Solved question 1 with brute force to most optimal (Binary Search). Solved question 2 in O(n^2).

Round 2 - LLD 60 Minutes

Design BookMyShow

Counducted on Hackerrrank. Expected to write classes & DB Design. Disussions Focussed on Multithreaing, handling multiple concurrent bookings. Also disussed implementation in Distributed Systems with Redis, Kafka, etc. Expaling the choices of DB & how will the DB design handle various queries.

Round 3 - HM (In person @Cashfree Office) 60 Minutes

Focus was on standard cultural fit questions. Round heavily focussed on the work I do in current company.

Verdict : Rejected

Hi Everyone.

I am a Software Developer with 7 YOE. Recently I had a chance to interview with Cashfree payments. This is my first post in leetcode , do give your suggestions for improvement.

Current Details:- Role & Company :- Senior Associate at Goldman Sachs (~ SDE3 or Lead) YOE :- 7 Years TC :- ~44 LPA

Mode of Application:- Applied Online in multiple platforms. Position in process:- SDE 3 Contacted by :- Recruiting Agency - Company HRs didn't bother until first round clearing.

Round 0 :- 0 Resume Shortlisting.

Round 1 :- Coding and Code review Round Interviewer was an SDE 4 with 9 years of experience. Asked basic easy-medium level questions common to most other companies. Code review was also done where you are expected to undertsand the code logic , acts as a reviewer and give meaningful comments. Was a breeze.

Round 2 :- Machine Coding Round Was asked to discuss and write tic-tac-toe game logic.Work on improvements and general hows and whys to my approach. Was pretty easy - interviewer was someone with 20 years of experience and extremely knowledgeable.

Round 3 :- High Level Design Round Was asked to design a notification service - I know it's a standard question but I had implemented the entire notification service in my previous startup so I never needed preparation for this anyway.

Round 4 :- Director Round Was asked to come to the office . Had to take a break from current office timings to travel to their office. This part was particulary underwhelming owing to multiple reasons. -> Was asked to wait for 2 hours for the director to be available - time is most valuable currency - also commitment is a commitment. -> The director was sleepy when he barged into the discussion room - kept yawning the whole time when I was extremly focussed trying to answer the questions diligently. -> Technical acumen was lacking when I counter questioned on specific implementation details. -> For every answer given , every achievement spoken about , director was adamant that I couldn't have achieved all this myself. Obviously we need mentors , guidance , good rest , fresh mind to work on anything anyways. -> I explained reason for looking out , Director wasn't impressed. Funny part is he himself has switched 8 times in a 20 years career - from what he mentioned.

Sadly after 3 rounds of gruelling interviews , now that I recollect - I was never in contention.

The recruiting agency HR's were extremely supportive and kind in every step - were following up on updates from day 0 till last round , even after last round they followed up .

Hope it helps fellow engineers .