Summary
I interviewed for an SDE-2 position at Quince and went through three rounds: a screening round, a DSA round, and an LLD round. Despite successfully coding the moving strategy for the LLD problem, I was ultimately rejected.
Full Experience
Round 1 - Screening Round by HireHunch. 1 DSA question and a high level discussion of an LLD problem. (Dont remember the problems)
Round 2 - DSA round. 2 DSA questions. 1 Easy and 1 Medium Question. Question 1 - 2D Array based question. Need to find the count of towers on the basis of adjacent towers. Simple iteration was needed.
Question 2 - https://leetcode.com/problems/longest-substring-without-repeating-characters/description/
Round 3 - LLD Round
Design an elevator system. Was given problem statement, around how internal and external requests should be served.
Struggled a bit on how to serve the requests, chose wrong data structure for keeping the list of requests, corrected it on hints. Was then asked to code the moving strategy. Was able to code it according to the constraints of the problem.
Verdict - Rejected.
Interview Questions (3)
A 2D Array based question where I needed to find the count of towers based on their adjacent towers. A simple iteration approach was sufficient.
Design an elevator system. The problem statement focused on how internal and external requests should be served. I struggled a bit on how to serve the requests, initially choosing the wrong data structure for keeping the list of requests, but corrected it with hints. I was then asked to code the moving strategy and was able to do so according to the constraints of the problem.
Summary
I experienced multiple interview rounds for an SDE 2 role at Quince, which included DSA, LLD, and System Design. I was ultimately rejected after fumbling the System Design round, which highlighted the importance of fundamental practice.
Full Experience
Interview Rounds
Round 1: DSA + LLD
- Q1. Asteroid Collision – Leetcode Medium
- Q2. Design Chess
LLD-focused question on OOP design, piece movement, board representation, etc.
Round 2: DSA
- Q1. Search in a Sorted 2D Matrix
- Q2. Top K Frequent Words
Round 3: System Design
- Q1. Design SplitWise
This was my first real System Design round. I fumbled a bit and couldn't present a clear and structured approach. It made me realize the importance of System Design fundamentals and practice.
Interview Questions (5)
The problem 'Asteroid Collision' from LeetCode.
LLD-focused question on OOP design, piece movement, board representation, etc.
The problem 'Search in a Sorted 2D Matrix'.
The problem 'Top K Frequent Words'.
Design the SplitWise application.
Preparation Tips
These are the articles which i have collected from various website and leetcode to prepare for the interview.
DSA
- Trapping rainwater question with running code. Asked to write the prefix approach and two pointer approach as well. *** VVVIMP -> done
- https://www.naukri.com/code360/problems/count-distinct-element-in-every-k-size-window_920336 -> done
- Find a target element in a sorted array -> 2024 -> done
- Modified version of LIS
- Sliding window.
- From the given list of strings, find the first k most occurring strings -> 2024 -> Done
- 589. IP Address Validator -> Done
- leetcode medium - question no - 554 brick-wall
- Detect Cycle in a graph. Remove edge from the graph to make it acyclic -> October 2024
- Three Sum -> 2023
- modified Binary Search -> 2023
- Longest substring without repeating characters -> 2021
- Longest Palindrome substring of a given string -> 2021
- Right View Of A Binary Tree ->https://leetcode.com/problems/binary-tree-right-side-view/
- Max Consecutive Ones III -> https://leetcode.com/problems/max-consecutive-ones-iii/
LLD
- BookMyShow -> Done
- Design Chess -> Done
- Hotel Booking -> Done
- Design Patterns in Java -> Done
- LLD of Google Document -> Partial Need Revision
- Meeting Hall Scheduler -> Done
- Flight booking system
- Coupon management system - FR, NFR, LLD - classes, design patterns and schema, HLD
- Snake and Ladder -> Done
- High Level Design Of Flush Feature In Hibernate
- High Level Design Of Rate Limiter
- Low Level Design Of Online Book Store
- Parking Lot - Done
- Logging -> because mentioned in resume
- Restaurant Management System -> Done
Other
- async event processing questions
- Temporal and Airflow related questions
- MySQL types of indexes grilling
- What is the most challenging and biggest project you have worked on?
Q1. Design Meeting Room Booking System -> June 2025 -> Done
Requirements:
- Multiple meeting rooms in a building
- Add meeting rooms with capacity
- Book a room for a time slot
- Same room can be re-booked after the slot ends
- Choose optimal room based on participant count
- Send notification after scheduling
- Add meeting to calendar of host and participants
- Handle concurrent booking (locking to prevent double booking)
Q2 -> Apr 22, 2025 -> Done
-> The interviewer was very involved, co-operative and helpful in discussion.
-> Deliverables : Completed P1 requirements within interviewer’s satisfaction.
-> Class Diagram was the main focus throughout.
-> Design a conference room booking system.
P1 : Handle case where 2 users want to book same room.
P1 : User will ask for a room for a particular timeslot.
P1 : User can ask to book a specific room as well.
P2 : A meeting can not be for more than 6 hours.
Restaurant Management System -> Done
- Discussion on Entity-Relations
- Discussion on APIs
- Discussion on SOLID and Design Patterns
- Discussion on booking API for multiple bookings
- Discussion on DB locking
- Code for the APIs
Ludo Game design
-> API design
-> Actors and usecases
-> websocket usecases in the design
Hotel Booking
-> Class Diagram + Code for Booking hotel rooms
-> Extreme focus on Concurrency.
Chess HLD
-> focus was on DB schema,
-> DB choice, B+ Tree v/s LSM Tree DBs....
Summary
I cleared all rounds for the SDE 2 role at Quince, which involved DSA, LLD, Hiring Manager, and VP discussions, covering coding, system design, and behavioral questions.
Full Experience
✅ Result: Cleared all rounds
📅 Round 1: DSA + Conceptual
Discussion:
- Brief introduction
- Questions related to previous projects
✅ Coding Question 1:
🍌 Koko Eating Bananas Link: https://leetcode.com/problems/koko-eating-bananas/description/
- Solved using Binary Search
✅ Coding Question 2:
🏆 Kth Largest Element in an Array
Link: kth-largest-element-in-an-array - gfg question
- Initially proposed O(n log n) solution using sorting
- Then improved to O(n log k) using Priority Queue
- Finally proposed Quick Select (approx. O(n)) approach
🧠 Conceptual Question 3:
Problem:
There is an n x m infinitely large grid containing water.
- At any time, we can convert a water cell into land
- At any time, we may be asked: how many islands are there?
- Land conversions and island queries can happen repeatedly
Approach:
- Initially proposed DFS
- Interviewer pointed out the infinite grid → switched to Disjoint Set (Union-Find)
- Got follow-up questions (couldn’t answer all)
📅 Round 2: LLD Round
Discussion:
- Quick intro and resume-based questions
💻 LLD Question: Design Meeting Room Booking System
Requirements:
- Multiple meeting rooms in a building
- Add meeting rooms with capacity
- Book a room for a time slot
- Same room can be re-booked after the slot ends
- Choose optimal room based on participant count
- Send notification after scheduling
- Add meeting to calendar of host and participants
- Handle concurrent booking (locking to prevent double booking)
📅 Round 3: Hiring Manager Round
Topics:
- Self intro + discussion on catalog system
Company-related Questions:
- What platforms do you support?
- Revenue & order breakdown:
Project Discussion in detail
HR Questions:
- Why do you want to join Quince?
- What are you looking for in this role?
📅 Round 4: VP Round
Topics:
- Self introduction
- What do you know about Quince?
- What problem is Quince solving and how?
- Company’s work culture discussion
HR Questions:
- Why do you want to join Quince?
- What motivates you to join us?
- Have you ever acted differently from what you believed was right?
- Any instance where you chose a short-term gain but missed a long-term issue?
Interview Questions (13)
There is an n x m infinitely large grid containing water.
- At any time, we can convert a water cell into land
- At any time, we may be asked: how many islands are there?
- Land conversions and island queries can happen repeatedly
Requirements:
- Multiple meeting rooms in a building
- Add meeting rooms with capacity
- Book a room for a time slot
- Same room can be re-booked after the slot ends
- Choose optimal room based on participant count
- Send notification after scheduling
- Add meeting to calendar of host and participants
- Handle concurrent booking (locking to prevent double booking)
What platforms do you support?
Revenue & order breakdown:
Why do you want to join Quince?
- What are you looking for in this role?
What do you know about Quince?
What problem is Quince solving and how?
Company’s work culture discussion
Why do you want to join Quince?
- What motivates you to join us?
Have you ever acted differently from what you believed was right?
Any instance where you chose a short-term gain but missed a long-term issue?
Summary
I recently interviewed for a Senior Software Engineer position (SDE-2) at Quince in Bangalore, India, accumulating 3 years of experience. After navigating through three challenging rounds focused on Data Structures & Algorithms, Low-Level Design, and a managerial design problem, I successfully received an offer.
Full Experience
My interview process for the Senior Software Engineer role at Quince in Bengaluru consisted of three rounds. With 3 years of experience, I felt prepared for the challenge ahead.
Round 1 (DSA - 1 hour)
The first round was a dedicated Data Structures & Algorithms session. I was presented with the classic Trapping Rainwater problem. The interviewer asked me to implement both the prefix sum approach and the two-pointer approach. I had to write the code and ensure it ran correctly, demonstrating my understanding of optimal solutions.
Round 2 (Low-Level Design - 1 hour)
Following the DSA round, I moved to a Low-Level Design interview. The primary task was to design a Restaurant Management System. This round involved a deep dive into several aspects: we discussed Entity-Relations, API specifications, and how to apply SOLID principles and various design patterns effectively. A significant part of the discussion revolved around designing a booking API capable of handling multiple concurrent bookings, specifically addressing database locking mechanisms to ensure data integrity. I was also required to code out some of the discussed APIs.
Round 3 (Managerial - 1 hour)
The final round was managerial, but it also involved a substantial design component. I was asked to design a Ludo Game. This entailed outlining the API design, identifying key actors and their use cases within the game, and exploring how websockets could be leveraged for real-time communication and interaction in the design.
I am pleased to say that I received an offer for the SDE-2 position.
Interview Questions (3)
Given n non-negative integers representing an elevation map where the width of each bar is 1, compute how much water it can trap after raining.
I was specifically asked to implement both the prefix sum approach and the two-pointer approach, and then run the written code to verify its correctness and efficiency.
Design a comprehensive Restaurant Management System.
This involved detailed discussions on:
- Defining appropriate Entity-Relations.
- Designing robust APIs for various functionalities.
- Applying SOLID principles and relevant Design Patterns.
- Implementing a booking API to manage multiple concurrent bookings, with a particular focus on database locking strategies to prevent race conditions.
I was also required to write code for some of the identified APIs.
Design a Ludo Game from scratch.
The discussion points included:
- Developing a suitable API design for game interactions.
- Identifying and defining the actors involved and their use cases.
- Exploring and integrating websocket use cases within the game's architecture for real-time communication and gameplay.