Summary
I interviewed for the SDE Android Developer position at Ixigo. The interview process primarily focused on Android core concepts, a significant data structures and algorithms challenge, and a logical puzzle.
Full Experience
I recently had my interview experience with Ixigo for the SDE Android Developer role. The interview round was quite comprehensive, testing my knowledge across various domains. It started with several in-depth questions about Android's fundamental components, particularly focusing on Activity lifecycle and launch modes. Following that, I was presented with a challenging Data Structures and Algorithms problem that required an optimized approach for finding subarrays with a specific sum. The interview concluded with a classic logical puzzle that tested my problem-solving skills.
Interview Questions (7)
Explain the complete lifecycle of an Android Activity, including its various states and callback methods.
Describe the sequence of activity lifecycle callback methods that are invoked when Activity A is started from Activity B.
Given an activity stack A/B/A/C (A on top), what will be the state of the stack if Activity A is started again using SingleTop launch mode?
Given an activity stack A/B/A/C (A on top), what will be the state of the stack if Activity A is started again using SingleTask launch mode?
Explain the function of onNewIntent() in Android activities and describe the scenarios in which it is called.
Given an array of integers and a target value, return all contiguous subarrays whose elements sum up to the target value. Optimize the approach to achieve a time complexity less than O(n^2).
Example:
Input: arr = [1,2,1,3,4,1,1,1,1,5], target = 4
Output:
[1,2,1]
[1,3]
[4]
[1,1,1,1]
You have 25 horses and a racetrack with 5 lanes. This means only 5 horses can race at a time. You do not have a stopwatch, so you can only tell the relative speeds of the horses in each race (i.e., which horse came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). What is the minimum number of races required to find the 3 fastest horses?
Summary
I interviewed for an SDE-1 position at Ixigo in GuruGram in November 2021 and was delighted to receive an offer on the same day. The interview process comprised three rounds, covering my technical knowledge in Java, OOPS, data structures, and algorithms, along with aspects of system design and behavioral questions.
Full Experience
My interview journey at Ixigo for the SDE-1 role began without an Online Assessment; I went straight into the interview rounds.
Round 1: Technical Interview (60 Min)
This round started with a basic introduction, followed by questions on Java and Spring IOC. The discussion quickly deepened into how Spring manages IOC properties, which eventually led to a discussion around Kahn's Algorithm and Topological Sort on Directed Graphs. I was also asked specific problems like Cycle Detection in Directed Graphs, and to explain Topological Sort using both BFS (Kahn's Algorithm) and DFS. Additionally, I was presented with the LeetCode problem 'Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree'.Round 2: Technical Interview (60 Min)
This round was with the Reporting Manager and VP of Engineering. We discussed Java and OOPS concepts, followed by an in-depth discussion on Spring. I had to admit I wasn't aware of some of the very in-depth functionalities discussed. A key coding question I faced was to remove all redundant parentheses from an expression, for example, transforming(a+((b)+c)) into (a+(b+c)), while also handling edge cases. I explained a solution using two stacks, which seemed to satisfy the interviewer. Towards the last 10 minutes, the VP joined and asked me some behavioral questions.Round 3: Technical/Behavioral Interview (30 Min)
This final round was with the CTO. It primarily focused on behavioral questions. I was asked to explain the working of my favorite app and its features. I chose Telegram, and the conversation became quite detailed, delving into features I might have included or removed. Finally, I was given some puzzles, which turned out to be basic math questions similar to what we solved in elementary school.Verdict
I received confirmation from the recruiter about my selection on the same day of the interviews.Interview Questions (7)
I was asked to explain how Spring manages its Inversion of Control (IOC) property. The discussion around this topic eventually tied into concepts like Kahn's Algorithm and Topological Sort on Directed Graphs.
I was given a directed graph and asked to detect cycles within it.
I had to implement or explain Topological Sort using a Breadth-First Search approach, specifically Kahn's Algorithm.
There was a conceptual discussion about performing Topological Sort using a Depth-First Search approach.
Given an expression like (a+((b)+c)), I needed to remove all redundant parentheses to return the simplified expression, for example, (a+(b+c)). I also had to handle various edge cases.
I was asked to explain the working of my favorite app and discuss its key features. I chose Telegram, leading to a deep discussion about design choices, features that could be improved, added, or removed.