ebay SE-3 Interview Experience
- Posted
- 24 Mar 2026
Summary
I received an interview call from eBay for an SE-3 role through a referral. The process involved three face-to-face rounds focusing on Data Structures & Algorithms, System Design, and a Hiring Manager discussion. I am currently awaiting feedback from HR.
How it went
Received an interview call from eBay for an SE-3 role through a referral. The process was a face-to-face, offline pen-and-paper interview consisting of three rounds.
Round 1: DSA (1 hour)
Had to explain the complete logic on the board, perform a dry run, and write the full code.
Find the Largest Island in a Grid
Lowest Common Ancestor
Round 2: Design (1 hour)
Started with a brief discussion about my resume. Then moved on to designing TinyURL (focused mainly on high-level design), which took around 45 minutes. Concluded with a short discussion on the approach for implementing an LRU Cache.
Round 3: Hiring Manager Round
Result: Currently waiting for feedback from HR.
Questions asked (4)
- 01
Find Largest Island in Grid
Data Structures & Algorithms · Medium
Given a 2D grid representing land (1) and water (0), find the area of the largest island. An island is formed by connecting adjacent lands horizontally or vertically. I had to explain the complete logic on the board, perform a dry run, and write the full code.
- 02
Lowest Common Ancestor
Data Structures & Algorithms · Medium
Find the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of two given nodes in a binary tree. I had to explain the complete logic on the board, perform a dry run, and write the full code.
- 03
Design TinyURL
System Design · Hard
Design a system like TinyURL for shortening URLs. The discussion primarily focused on high-level design aspects and took around 45 minutes.
- 04
Implement LRU Cache
Data Structures & Algorithms · Medium
Discuss the approach for implementing an LRU Cache.