Dezerv | Lead Engineer | 8+ YOE | Aug 2026 | Rejected
Summary
I interviewed for a Lead Engineer position at Dezerv, completing four rounds (DSA, LLD, HLD, Senior EM) and was ultimately rejected after the Senior EM round.
Full Experience
Company: Dezerv
Role: Lead Engineer
Current Org: Small Startup
College: Tier-1
YOE: 8+
Current Comp: 60L Base + 5L Bonus + 20L ESOPs per year (will not materialize to any value)
Round 1 - DSA
Two questions:
- Count zeros between ones in a given range for multiple queries in a 0/1 array.
Approach: Store the nearest 1's position from the back and front in two separate arrays, and maintain the zero count at each index using a prefix array.
- Course Schedule (LeetCode) - topological sort.
Round 2 - LLD
Design BookMyShow. Focused on API and DB design.
Round 3 - HLD
Design Uber.
Round 4 - Senior EM Round
Detailed discussion on the hardest project I've worked on.
- Discussed some issues we had in our production design.
- Deep dive into cost issues and optimization in the current project.
Verdict: Rejected in this round.
Interview Questions (4)
Count Zeros Between Ones in Range
Given a binary array (containing only 0s and 1s) and multiple queries, each query provides a range [L, R]. For each query, count the number of zeros that lie between the first and last occurrence of 1 within that range.
Course Schedule (Topological Sort)
Given n courses labeled from 0 to n-1 and a list of prerequisite pairs [a, b] meaning you must take course b before a, determine if it is possible to finish all courses.
Design BookMyShow (API & DB)
Design a ticket booking system similar to BookMyShow, focusing on the public APIs and the underlying database schema.
Design Uber
Design a ride‑hailing platform like Uber, covering high‑level components, data flow, and scalability considerations.