Hashedin By Deloitte Interviews

Online Assessment

The process began with a pool campus drive where approximately 600 students took an online assessment. I brought my own laptop for the OA, which consisted of 4 questions: 2 easy, 1 medium, and 1 hard. I managed to solve all of them, being mindful of hidden test cases and proper complexity by carefully analyzing constraints.

First Round (Technical - DSA & Web)

This round started with a self-introduction and a discussion about my projects. I was then presented with a coding challenge: add two very large numbers represented as strings, without using typecasting to int or long. I explained my logic, but the interviewer asked me to code first. After writing the code, I explained my approach.

The question was then modified to multiply both the numbers, also given as strings. This was also manageable; I broke the second string into parts and reused my addition function. To simplify, I reversed both strings before performing the multiplication from the back. There was a brief discussion where the interviewer initially seemed to misunderstand my approach, but we eventually got on the same page after I dry-ran the code.

Following the coding, I was asked questions about web technologies like JWT (JSON Web Tokens) and its underlying principles, cookies, and OAuth, as well as general questions about my resume. I answered most of these, though I couldn't recall the default encoding format of JWT tokens.

Second Round (Technical - DB Design & DSA)

The panelists in this round seemed impressed by my resume. It started with a database design question for an e-commerce platform. I was given loose sheets to draw out all necessary tables (e.g., customer_details, product_category, pricing, supplier_data), establish relationships (one-to-many, primary_key, foreign_key), and normalize them. The interviewer challenged some of my choices, asking if certain tables were truly required due to overlapping attributes. I defended some tables, arguing that extensive normalization could lead to overly complex and slow queries, which they accepted.

After finalizing the DB design, they presented 5-6 complex SQL queries, such as fetching customer names, emails, and orders from the last 4 days at a specific residential address. Strong SQL skills with complex joins were definitely tested here, and I performed well.

Towards the end, we moved to DSA. I don't recall the exact problem, but it was a variant of the Next Greater Element. The interviewer provided a story and a test case, which immediately made me think of a stack-based approach. Interestingly, the interviewer had a mistake in his test case, which I pointed out after completing my O(N) stack solution. After a brief formal argument, he checked his laptop and confirmed my observation, both panelists smiling and acknowledging my confidence in DSA.

Behavioral Round

This was, in my opinion, the toughest round for a fresher. The questions were tricky and designed to test honesty and ethical responses. Examples included: "We offer around 9 LPA. Tomorrow, if another company offers you more, what would you do?" and "We saw your performance and feedback; how are you still unplaced?". Initially, I tried a more diplomatic approach regarding salary, but then shifted to being completely honest, as they delved into more complex moral questions. I clarified the reason for being unplaced (related to 12th-grade marks). They also inquired about my family, home location, and willingness to relocate, mentioning the possibility of a transfer closer to home after converting to full-time.

Result

After about an hour of waiting, the results were announced. Out of 600 initial applicants and 30 interviewed candidates, 8 of us received offers. I was among the 5 who received an intern + FTE offer. It was a very positive experience, and I consider HashedIn one of the best companies for a fresher.

My interview journey for the SDE I position at Hashedin by Deloitte began with an Online Assessment. It was a 90-minute test comprising three coding questions: one easy and two medium LeetCode-type problems. A unique aspect was the absence of automated test cases; I had to code, generate my own custom test cases, identify edge cases, and then submit my solution.

Technical Interview - Round 1

The next day, I was shortlisted for the first technical interview. It started with a personal introduction, where they inquired about my passions and extracurricular activities. Following this, the interview delved into core computer science subjects like OOPS, C++, and DBMS. I was asked about topics such as diamond inheritance in C++, different types of Joins in SQL, and the concept of a virtual constructor. Additionally, I had to write an SQL query to find the second largest element in a table.

The coding questions in this round were to be solved on paper, though explaining the logic was also acceptable. I was given a problem related to Longest Palindromic Subsequence (LPS), specifically asking me to reverse a string and find its Longest Common Subsequence (LCS), a common approach for LPS. After successfully solving the optimal approach for this, they posed a challenging follow-up: to find the second largest palindromic subsequence. This was quite tricky; I took some time, asked for hints, and eventually managed to solve it, albeit not with the most optimal solution. There was also another DP question on array partition, which I was able to solve.

Technical Interview - Round 2

In the second technical round, the interviewers began with some fundamental coding questions. I was asked about detecting a cycle in a Linked List using the Hare and Tortoise method and how to implement a Stack using Queues. The round then transitioned into System Design. I was tasked with designing a high-level application similar to Flipkart, incorporating specific features they mentioned. I created API call flow diagrams and designed a database schema complete with foreign key references. They then guided me through the process of normalizing the database. I made significant progress but couldn't finalize it exactly as they expected. A SQL query based on the tables I had designed was also part of this discussion.

HR Round

The HR round was the most relaxed part of the process. We discussed projects from my resume, including my motivations for building them, their purpose, and technical details. There were also casual questions, like my preference between CR7 and Messi, inquiries about my family background and personal interests, and situational questions such as “What would you do if you received ₹10 crore today?”. I learned that reaching this stage often signifies selection, as everyone who made it to the HR round was offered a position.

Hey everyone! I recently appeared for the HashedIn by Deloitte placement drive conducted at my college, and I'm thrilled to share that I was SELECTED! I'm writing this post to walk you through my interview rounds and share some tips that might help you in your journey.

### Interview Rounds Overview
Round 1: Online Assessment (90 mins)
This was an online test consisting of three coding questions of varying difficulty levels. While I don't recall the exact problems, I solved all three questions. Consistent practice, especially from platforms like GFG and LeetCode, helped me perform well.

Round 2: Technical Interview 1 (45-50 min)
The interviewer was extremely friendly and supportive. The session began with introductions and a brief discussion about my internship experience. Following this, I was given 3-4 DSA questions to solve, after which the interviewer asked a series of DBMS-related questions, including SQL queries and some resume-specific questions. I solved all four DSA questions, starting with brute force approaches and optimizing them to better solutions. However, I got slightly stuck while optimizing the fourth problem. I was able to answer all the other questions, and the interviewer seemed satisfied with my responses.

Round 3: Technical Interview 2 (1 hr 10min)
This round began with my basic introduction, after which the interviewer asked me to explain one of my projects. I described an e-commerce application I built using Next.js. Since the project utilized a MongoDB database, the interviewer delved into a discussion about SQL vs. NoSQL databases. Following this, I was asked to solve a DSA problem based on the graph data structure. I solved this problem using DFS (Depth First Search). Afterward, I was tasked with designing a database for a restaurant table booking application. With the interviewer's guidance and my preparation in database design, I successfully completed this task.

Round 4: HR/Managerial Interview (20 min)
This was the final round, and it primarily consisted of common HR questions along with a few situation-based questions. I answered all questions confidently.

Finally, the results were declared, and I was thrilled to be among the 7 students offered a position by HashedIn from my campus. I would like to thank my mentors, peers, and seniors who guided me throughout my preparation journey. Their support and advice were invaluable. I am also grateful to the HashedIn by Deloitte team for providing such a wonderful opportunity and conducting the process so smoothly.