Drivetrain.ai SDE-2 Interview Experience (1.8 YOE)
Summary
I completed five interview rounds for an SDE-2 position at Drivetrain.ai, solving several DSA problems, and received an offer which I declined due to compensation.
Full Experience
Drivetrain.ai SDE-2 Interview Experience (1.8 YOE)
Round 1 – HR Screening Quick discussion about experience, projects, expectations, and notice period.
Round 2 – Technical
- Sliding Window Maximum (solved both brute force and optimal deque solution)
- Weighted Random Selection
- Find all possible recipes given recipes, ingredients, and supplies (Topological Sort / BFS)
Solved both questions within the 1-hour round.
Round 3 – Technical
- DP problem: minimize difference between sums of two subsets
- Design a data structure supporting push, pop, top, getMax, and getMin, and difference of Max - Min at any point. All Operations are expected to be O(1)
Solved both questions within the 1-hour round.
Round 4 – CTO Round (30 mins) Given a probability-based problem that required a binary search approach. Was able to identify the pattern and solve it in around 15 minutes. The remaining time was spent discussing optimizations and edge cases.
Round 5 – CEO Round General discussion around culture fit, startup expectations, and career goals.
Offer
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SDE-2
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Base: ₹24 LPA
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Fixed Bonus: ₹3 LPA
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Total Compensation - ₹27 LPA Fixed
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Remote
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Current Compensation - ₹22 LPA
Outcome
Received the offer but decided not to proceed as we couldn't reach an agreement on compensation.
Overall, a good interview process with strong focus on DSA, problem-solving, and fundamentals.
Interview Questions (6)
Sliding Window Maximum
Find the maximum value in each sliding window of size k across an array. I solved it using both a brute‑force approach and an optimal deque‑based solution.
Weighted Random Selection
Given a set of items each with an associated weight, select an item randomly such that the probability of picking an item is proportional to its weight.
Find All Possible Recipes (Topological Sort / BFS)
Given a list of recipes, the ingredients required for each recipe, and a list of available supplies, determine which recipes can be prepared. The solution uses topological sorting or BFS to resolve dependencies.
Partition Subset Sum Minimum Difference
Given an array of integers, partition it into two subsets so that the absolute difference between the sums of the subsets is minimized.
Data Structure with Max, Min, and Difference
Design a data structure that supports push, pop, top, getMax, getMin, and retrieving the difference between the current maximum and minimum values, all in O(1) time.
Probability Binary Search Problem
A probability‑based problem where the solution requires identifying a pattern and applying binary search to find the answer efficiently.