Expedia Interview Experience | On Campus | September 2022 [SELECTED]
Summary
I successfully navigated Expedia's SDE-1 interview process on campus, which included psychometric tests, an online assessment, and two technical interviews focused on DSA and behavioral aspects. I received an offer after clearing all rounds.
Full Experience
Expedia visited our campus for an SDE-1 role, attracting approximately 500 applicants. The hiring process was multi-staged, beginning with a resume-based shortlisting. It was crucial to apply on both the college portal and Expedia’s careers page, a step where many students were eliminated. This round narrowed the candidates to about 120 students.
Next, I participated in the Psychometric Test, Expedia's version of a Workstyle assessment, lasting 45 minutes. This round involved scenario-based questions, and I focused on aligning my responses with Expedia's Worklife principles. This was an elimination round, after which 83 students, including myself, proceeded. I also received a feedback report.
The third round was an Online Assessment conducted on the HackerRank platform. It comprised 6 MCQ questions on core subjects like OS and OOPs, along with 2 DSA-based questions. I found the DSA problems to be in the Easy-Medium range on LeetCode. Following this round, only 12 students were selected for the offline technical interviews.
The final stage involved two Technical and HR Interviews, both conducted offline and focusing on DSA and behavioral questions.
In Interview Round 1, an SDE-2 interviewed me. After introductions, we had a casual chat about his work, and I provided an overview of my projects without delving into excessive technical details. He then questioned me on the time complexities of various sorting algorithms (Insertion sort, Heap sort, Quick sort, Merge sort) and key Data Structures such as Heap, Map, BST, LL, and BT. Subsequently, we moved on to DSA problems:
- Length of the longest substring without repeating characters
- Minimum Sum Path in a Triangle
- Add two numbers in a linked list
Interview Round 2 was taken by a senior SDE at Expedia. Following introductions, he inquired about my projects, the difficulties I encountered during them, and my responsibilities. Later, he presented me with some DSA problems:
- Merge two sorted Linked List
- Coin Change Problem
After both interviews concluded, the results were declared within 20-30 minutes, and I was selected for the SDE-1 role.
Interview Questions (5)
Given a string s, find the length of the longest substring without repeating characters.
Given a triangle, find the minimum path sum from top to bottom.
Add two numbers represented by linked lists.
Merge two sorted linked lists into one new sorted list.
Given a set of coin denominations and a target amount, find the minimum number of coins required to make up that amount.
Preparation Tips
My preparation primarily focused on Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) and OOPs concepts, which I studied thoroughly. I learned that most questions would stem from these areas, and the interviewer would appreciate my thought process more than just the final answer. During DSA problem-solving, I made sure to think out loud, as this helped the interviewer understand my decision-making skills and kept them engaged. I also made sure to remain calm and confident throughout the entire process.