Expedia | SDE3 | Offer
Summary
I interviewed for an SDE3 position at Expedia and received an offer. However, I ultimately decided to reject the offer in favor of other opportunities with better terms, including WFH options.
Full Experience
My interview process for the SDE3 role at Expedia consisted of four distinct rounds.
Round 1 - DSA1
This round focused on Data Structures and Algorithms. I was given two problems:
- Subarrays with K Different Integers
- Kth Smallest Element in a Sorted Matrix
Round 2 - DSA2
Similar to the first DSA round, this also involved two algorithmic problems:
- Unique Paths
- Gas Station
Round 3 - System Design
The system design round revolved around designing a 'Book My Show' type of service. The interviewer was very understanding and collaborative, which made the discussion comfortable. We delved into fundamental concepts like data scaling, throughput scaling, consistent hashing, and appropriate database choices for various services within the architecture.
Round 4 - Behavioral
This was a standard behavioral interview round. The questions touched upon topics such as conflict resolution, my approach to self-growth, and experiences with challenging projects.
Ultimately, I received an offer from Expedia. However, I decided to reject it as I had other, more suitable offers lined up, some of which included work-from-home options that were more appealing to me.
Interview Questions (6)
Subarrays with K Different Integers
Given an array of positive integers nums and an integer k, return the number of subarrays where the number of distinct integers in the subarray is exactly k.
Kth Smallest Element in a Sorted Matrix
Given an n x n matrix where each row and column is sorted in ascending order, find the k-th smallest element in the matrix.
Unique Paths
A robot is located at the top-left corner of a m x n grid. The robot can only move either down or right at any point in time. The robot is trying to reach the bottom-right corner of the grid. How many possible unique paths are there?
Gas Station
There are n gas stations along a circular route, where the amount of gas at station i is gas[i]. You have a car with an unlimited gas tank and it costs cost[i] of gas to travel from station i to its next station (i+1). Return the starting gas station's index if you can travel around the circuit once in the clockwise direction, otherwise return -1.
Book My Show System Design
The discussion involved designing a system similar to 'Book My Show', covering fundamental aspects such as data scaling, throughput scaling, consistent hashing, and appropriate database choices for different services within the architecture.
Behavioral Questions
Standard behavioral questions were asked, covering topics like conflict resolution, approaches to self-growth, and experiences with challenging projects.