143 questions · from 30 interviews
Zomato interview questions
Every question candidates reported from their Zomato interviews, most frequently asked first. Each links to the write-up it came from, so you can see the round and how it went.
Zomato coding and DSA questions
- 01
Robot Warehouse Optimization
Zomato is optimizing its automated warehouse layout. The warehouse consists of N bays arranged in a straight line, represented by a 0-indexed integer array packages, where packages[i] denotes the number of food package units stored at bay i. The robot starts…
From Zomato | OA - On Campus | SDE-1 | 29.5 LPA | Robot Warehouse Optimization
- 02
Graph Theory Proof Problem
A graph problem presented as a story involving transformers. The interviewer required a mathematical proof of why the proposed algorithm is correct, focusing on correctness proof rather than code implementation.
- 03
Design schema for delivery partners and orders
Design a database schema for delivery partners and orders for a food delivery platform.
- 04
Top 5 delivery partners query
Write a database query to find the top 5 delivery partners in a given area based on the highest count of a specific order type.
- 05
Special Keyboard - Max A's
Imagine you have a special keyboard with four keys: 1. Prints 'A' on screen 2. (Ctrl-A) Select screen 3. (Ctrl-C) Copy selection to buffer 4. (Ctrl-V) Print buffer on screen appending it after what has already been printed. Find the maximum number of A's that…
Medium · From Zomato / Eternal | SDE-1 Interview Experience
- 06
Jump Game IV
Given an array of integers, you can jump from index i to i + arr[i] or i - arr[i]. Find the minimum number of jumps to reach the last index. Follow-up: How would you handle the problem if each step also had an associated weight/cost?
Medium · From Zomato / Eternal | SDE-1 Interview Experience
- 07
Maximum sum of upper‑left submatrix after row/column reversals
Given a 2N x 2N matrix of integers, you may reverse any row or column any number of times in any order. Calculate the maximum possible sum of the upper‑left N x N submatrix (from (0,0) to (N‑1,N‑1)).
- 08
Range / Merge-Interval Type Problem
DSA: Variation of range / merge-interval type problem: Started with nLog(n). Optimised using Map to (n).
- 09
Implement Algorithm from Library
DSA: Implement the algorithm used in the library(20m-25m) Wasn't similar to any leetcode question.
- 10
SQL Query for Latest Order State
Given order state transitions with timestamps (States: Created → Confirmed → Reached Merchant → Reached Customer → Delivered), write a query to fetch all order IDs with their latest state in the last 1 hour, excluding orders that are already delivered.
- 11
Maximum Boy-Girl Pairs (Bipartite Matching)
You have a class with m boys and n girls who are attending an upcoming party. You need to determine the maximum number of boy-girl pairs that can be formed for the party. You're given an m x n matrix called a grid where each element is either 0 or 1. If…
Hard · From Zomato | SDE 2 | R1
- 12
Rate Limiter Design
Design a rate limiter that can handle burst traffic. The interviewer asked to implement a simple one and discussed the sliding window approach. They wanted to understand how to prevent bursts of requests while allowing a certain number of requests within a…
Medium · From Eternal (Zomato) | SDE Intern + FTE | Dec 2025 | Off Campus | Cleared
- 13
Longest Valid Parenthesis Subsequence
Find the longest valid parenthesis subsequence (discontinuous) in a given string. The problem requires identifying the longest subsequence of parentheses that are properly nested and closed, even if they are not contiguous.
Hard · From Eternal (Zomato) | SDE Intern + FTE | Dec 2025 | Off Campus | Cleared
- 14
Shortest Path in Graph from Source
Given a graph and a source node, find the shortest path distance from the source to all other nodes.
Medium · From Zomato Interview
- 15
Edge Removal for Maximum Unreachable Nodes
Given a graph and a source node, identify which single edge removal causes the maximum number of nodes to become unreachable from the source.
Hard · From Zomato Interview
- 16
Design a Basic Rate Limiter
Design a basic rate limiter. Implement a function that returns true or false indicating whether an incoming user request should be allowed, subject to the constraint of a maximum of N requests per minute per user.
Medium · From Zomato Interview
- 17
Minimum Swaps to Sort
You are given an unordered array consisting of consecutive integers [1, 2, 3, ..., n] . You are allowed to swap any two elements. Find the minimum number of swaps required to sort the array. Example: 4 1 2 3 1 4 2 3 1 3 2 4 1 2 3 4 Answer: 3
Medium · From Zomato (Eternal) | SDE | Gurugram | August 2025 [Offer]
- 18
Suggest Dish Price
Given a merchant’s previous dish prices, suggest a price for a new dish such that: Greater than 1/3rd dish’s price Less than 2/3rd dish’s price Example: 10 20 30 40 50 60 Suggested Price: Between 20 and 30
Medium · From Zomato (Eternal) | SDE | Gurugram | August 2025 [Offer]
- 19
Minimum Swaps to Sort Non-Zeros
You are given an array of integers, where some elements are zeros and others are non-zero integers. Your task is to find the minimum number of swaps required to sort the non-zero elements in ascending order, while keeping all zeros at the end of the array.…
From Eternal (Zomato) | Fresh Graduate OA 2026 | On-Campus Recruitment
- 20
Minimize Longest Continuous Sequence After Flipping
You are given a string consisting only of the characters 'a' and 'b'. You can flip characters, meaning you can swap 'a' to 'b' and vice versa, at most k times. Your task is to minimize the length of the longest continuous sequence of the same character…
From Eternal (Zomato) | Fresh Graduate OA 2026 | On-Campus Recruitment
- 21
Max Score of Substrings
You are given a string s and a number k. You need to calculate the maximum score of any substring of length k in the string. The score of a substring is calculated as follows: For each character in the substring: Its "character value" raised to the power of…
From Eternal (Zomato) | Fresh Graduate OA 2026 | On-Campus Recruitment
- 22
B+ Tree Concepts and Design Questions
The interviewer went deep into B+ Tree concepts, asking about the complexity of insertion, what happens if the order of the node (k) is increased, and why B+ Trees are preferred over a single sorted array for storing keys.
From Zomato SDE interview experience - 56 LPA (onCampus - FTE)
- 23
Modified Delete Node from BST with Two Children
A modification of the standard problem of deleting a node from a Binary Search Tree (BST) that has two children.
From Zomato SDE interview experience - 56 LPA (onCampus - FTE)
- 24
Minimum Subarray Sum Greater Than or Equal to Target
Array of postive integers is given; where elements can repeat. We are also given a target integer. Return the length of minimum subarray such that sum integers in the subarray us greater or eaual to the target - What happens the array contains negative…
Medium · From Zomato 2025 grad offcampus SDE-1 interview experience
- 25
Missing Number
Given an array nums containing n distinct numbers in the range [0, n] , return the only number in the range that is missing from the array.
Easy · From Eternal Ltd(Zomato) | SDE-1 | Interview Experience
37 more in the Zomato write-ups.
Zomato system design questions
- 01
Notification System Design
Design a notification system with considerations for: - Integration of other teams/services with the notification service. - Prevention of duplicate notifications. - Implementation of cooldowns at both user and team levels. - API design and scalability…
- 02
Design a resilient notification system at Zomato scale
Design a notification system that can handle high volume at Zomato scale with the following requirements: - Avoid duplicate notifications - Crash resilience - Retry guarantees - Fault tolerance
- 03
Design Google Calendar
Design a system similar to Google Calendar. Explain the overall architecture, data flow, event management, scalability considerations, user interactions, and frontend design decisions. Include how you would handle calendar events, recurring events,…
- 04
Design Notification System
Design a notification system for something like food delivery: Multiple channels (Push, SMS, Email etc.) Some notifications go to only one channel Some go to multiple channels Must avoid sending duplicate notifications Discussion around scalability
- 05
Payments System Design
Discuss the end-to-end payment flow orchestration, chargeback handling, dispute lifecycle (won/lost), refunds (full, partial, proration), audit & compliance requirements (India), and HLD of taxation + billing architecture.
- 06
Event-Driven Systems Design with Kafka vs SNS+SQS
Compare Kafka vs SNS + SQS, discussing when to use each and trade-offs around ordering, replayability, and scale.
- 07
Design Zomato Enterprise System for Food Benefits
Design a Zomato Enterprise system for offering food benefits to companies and their employees. Discuss core services and interactions, order lifecycle, payment and order consistency, and restaurant and delivery partner flow.
- 08
- 09
SQL Query Performance and Indexing at Scale
How would the SQL query to fetch order IDs with their latest state behave at scale? What indexes would you add?
- 10
Low-Level Design: Snake and Food Game
Design the snake movement logic for a Snake and Food Game. Ensure movement happens in O(1). Handle food consumption and snake growth. Explain data structure choices & trade-offs. Write pseudocode.
Medium · From Zomato SDE -2 interview experience
- 11
Design Search Algorithm for Highest Matching Frequency
Design a Search algo which returns the result with highest matching frequency Products - name, tags, description Amul P1 - Amul Chocolate 1kg, Amul’s chocolates are good P2 - Amul, Paras P3 - X
From Zomato | SDE 2 | R1
- 12
Real-Time Support Chat Design
Design a real-time support chat system that handles 1-to-1 chat between customer and agent, then extends to multi-user groups with message visibility and permissions. The discussion covered when SQL and NoSQL (MongoDB) are better suited for chat systems.
Hard · From Eternal (Zomato) | SDE Intern + FTE | Dec 2025 | Off Campus | Cleared
- 13
Design a Real-time Food Order Tracking System
Design a food order tracking system. When a user places an order, they should receive real-time updates on statuses such as: Order confirmed, Restaurant preparing food, Delivery partner picked up, Delivery partner location updates, and Order delivered. The…
Hard · From Zomato Interview
- 14
Banner Scheduling Schema Design
Design schema + approach for showing a banner X times in Y hours for Z such durations . Example: Show banner 2 times in 24 hours, for 3 durations.
From Zomato (Eternal) | SDE | Gurugram | August 2025 [Offer]
- 15
Low-Level Design: Restaurant Menu System
Model restaurant menus with multiple configs like size, crust, toppings (focus on Domino’s case).
From Zomato (Eternal) | SDE | Gurugram | August 2025 [Offer]
- 16
- 17
CAP Theorem for SQL
Is the CAP theorem applicable to SQL databases?
- 18
What happens when you type zomato.com
Explain the process of what happens when you type 'zomato.com' into a web browser and press enter.
- 19
System Design: Contract Management System
As I had prior experience working on a Contract Management System, the discussion dived deep into architectural aspects. Areas Discussed: - Functional & Non-functional Requirements - Traffic & scale estimation - Microservice-based architecture - Inter-service…
Hard · From 🧑💻 Zomato (District) Interview Experience | Selected
- 20
Design an Attendance System
Design an attendance system with the following requirements: Support different user roles (teacher, dean, student) with corresponding views. Teachers opt for courses, students opt for courses, and the system must track student attendance per course, viewable…
- 21
Session ID Hijacking Prevention
Given a login system using session IDs, describe measures to prevent an unauthorized user from gaining access if they obtain a valid session ID. Discuss potential solutions and their limitations, particularly when considering scenarios like multiple users…
- 22
Docker Experience & Internals
Discussed my experience with Docker and its internal implementation.
- 23
Design an Image Upload System
I was asked to design an image upload system. This involved discussions around: Which protocol to use? Writing code for CRUD APIs. Status codes, request payload, response payload, headers, and authentication applications. SQL queries related to the system…
- 24
Music Player Function Time Complexity Optimization
For a music player system design, I was asked to write a single function and optimize its time complexity to O(N). The interviewer specified it as an easy system design question.
Easy · From Zomato Interview Experience Fresher
- 25
Design a Request Load Balancer
Design a system to distribute incoming application requests to multiple servers such that each server receives an almost equal amount of requests. This involves discussing concepts like token bucket and leaky bucket approaches, consistent hashing (including…
Hard · From Zomato SDE - 1 | 2022 grad | 9 months experience | Gurgaon | onsite| accepted
9 more in the Zomato write-ups.
Zomato behavioural and HR questions
- 01
Most Challenging Technical Problem
Describe the most challenging technical problem you have faced, detailing the problem, your approach to solving it, and the outcome or lessons learned.
- 02
Contribution & Team Fit
Discussed what I could bring to the team and how I would contribute.
- 03
Tell me something about yourself
A standard introductory question where I was asked to tell something about myself.
- 04
Why Zomato and Career Expectations
In the cultural fit round, I was asked about my motivation to join Zomato and what my expectations were from the role and company.
- 05
Self Introduction
The interviewer asked me to introduce myself and walk them through my background and experience.
Zomato other questions
- 01
Production Debugging Scenario
Given a production database spike graph from a recent incident, answer: - Possible causes of the spike. - Investigation steps you would take. - Changes you would implement to flatten the spike without increasing latency or scaling the system.
- 02
- 03
Redis Scalability (Single-Threaded)
How does Redis handle large scale despite being single-threaded?
- 04
Kafka Consumer Throughput Optimization
How can consumer throughput be increased in Kafka?
- 05
Kafka Consumer Lag Scenario
What happens in Kafka when consumption lags behind production?
- 06
Scaling Pooling Mechanisms
Discuss how scaling pooling mechanisms work in distributed systems.
From Zomato Interview
- 07
- 08
Multithreading vs. Multiprocessing Use Cases
Describe when to use multithreading versus multiprocessing, including their respective advantages and disadvantages.
From Zomato Interview
- 09
Employees Earning More Than Their Manager (SQL)
Given an 'employees' table with columns: empid , name , managerid , salary . Write a SQL query to find employees who earn more than their manager.
Medium · From Zomato Interview
- 10
Managers with at Least 3 Direct Reports (SQL)
Given the 'employees' table with columns: empid , name , managerid , salary . Write a SQL query to find the number of employees reporting to each manager, but only show managers with at least 3 direct reports.
Medium · From Zomato Interview
- 11
- 12
Why didn't you use MongoDB?
Why didn't you use MongoDB for your project?
- 13
When to use Postgres?
When should one choose to use Postgres?
- 14
Postgres ACID Properties
Does Postgres satisfy ACID properties?
- 15
SQL Query: Restaurants Without Cuisines
Schema: - Two tables: restaurant and cuisine - Each restaurant can have zero or more cuisines Task: - Write an SQL query to find all restaurants that do not have any assigned cuisines - Use JOINs only (no subqueries or nested queries)
- 16
Analyze Deadlock Scenario
A real-world multithreading/concurrency scenario was shared. Asked to analyze if it results in a deadlock, with reasoning and possible resolution strategy.
- 17
MongoDB vs. MySQL Tradeoffs
Discuss the reasons for choosing MongoDB over MySQL for an internship project. Explain the general tradeoffs between MongoDB (NoSQL) and MySQL (SQL) databases, including their respective use cases and when to prefer one over the other.
- 18
Query Optimization with Multiple vs. Composite Indexes
Given a table with separate indexes on columns A and B, explain how a query SELECT ALL WHERE A=10 and B=20 would be processed on the backend. Discuss whether it's better to use separate indexes on A and B or a single composite index AB for such a query.…
- 19
Frontend Frameworks & React Internals
Discussed React, server-side rendering, and the internal workings of frontend frameworks.
- 20
React Internals & Custom Hooks
Probing questions about React, including the diffing algorithm, reconciliation process, and the rules around custom hooks.
- 21
JavaScript Concepts & CSS Methodologies
Discussed closures, the differences between let and var, and the advantages of using Tailwind CSS over CSS-in-JS.
- 22
Scaling Internship Work and DynamoDB Internals
During the first round, there was a detailed discussion about how I would scale the work I did during my internship. This included a deep dive into the internal workings of DynamoDB and follow-up questions.
- 23
Approach Zomato-Related Scenarios
The interviewer, after introducing his work, asked me questions related to Zomato's operations. These were 'how would you approach/what is benefit of doing this/why we should do this/how would we take care of this situation' type questions relevant to…
- 24
Basic SQL Queries with Aggregate Functions
I was asked to write two basic SQL queries involving simple clauses and aggregate functions.
Easy · From Zomato Interview Experience Fresher
- 25
SQL Joins on Two Tables with Multiple Conditions
I had to write two SQL queries that involved handling joins between two tables based on two different conditions.
17 more in the Zomato write-ups.
Zomato interview questions FAQ
What questions are asked in Zomato interviews?
Candidates reported 143 distinct questions across 30 Zomato interviews. 62 coding and DSA questions, 34 system design questions, 5 behavioural and HR questions, 42 other questions.
How difficult are Zomato interview questions?
Of the questions candidates rated, 12% were easy, 58% medium and 30% hard.