Flipkart | SDE-2 | Interview Experience | Offer
Summary
I successfully interviewed for an SDE-2 position at Flipkart, navigating through machine coding, problem-solving, system design, and hiring manager rounds, ultimately receiving an offer.
Full Experience
Application Process
I applied for an SDE-2 position at Flipkart after seeing a recruiter post about a hiring drive on LinkedIn. After about a week, I received an email confirming that I was shortlisted for the interviews.
Round 1: Machine Coding (90 mins)
For the first round, I was provided with a document containing a machine coding question. My task was to implement a phonebook application on my local machine. There was a set of mandatory requirements that I had to fulfill, and an additional set of bonus requirements that I could attempt if I had time left. Throughout the coding process, I focused on implementing basic OOPs principles, utilizing suitable design patterns, and ensuring the code was modular and extensible.
Round 2: Machine Coding Evaluation (30 mins)
This round took place on the same day as the first. Here, I had to explain the code I had submitted from the machine coding round.
Round 3: PS-DS Round (1 hr)
A week after the second round, I had my Problem Solving and Data Structures round. Since my Last Working Day (LWD) at my previous organization was only a few days away, the next three rounds were scheduled within a tight span of two days. In this round, I was given two questions:
- Given an integer array, print the count of subarrays which had at most K distinct elements.
- Given a number, find the minimum number of operations to reduce the number to zero. An operation is defined as subtracting one of the digits from the number.
I managed to solve both questions fairly quickly, which led to an extension for the second problem where I was asked to print all the operations performed.
Round 4: System Design (1 hr)
This round was primarily focused on high-level system design. I was tasked with providing a design for an UrbanClap-like system. The interviewer expected a comprehensive solution covering database schema design, API design, and the overall high-level architecture.
Round 5: HM Round (1 hr)
My final round was with the Hiring Manager. This session was mostly technical, with the last 15 minutes dedicated to basic behavioral questions. We delved deep into my past projects and discussed my design choices in detail.
Verdict
I received the offer letter a week later and have since accepted the position.
Interview Questions (4)
I was tasked with implementing a phonebook application. The problem statement included a set of mandatory requirements that needed to be fulfilled, along with bonus requirements that could be attempted if time allowed. The implementation needed to adhere to basic Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) principles, incorporate suitable design patterns, and ensure the code was modular and extensible.
Given an integer array, I needed to print the count of subarrays which had at most K distinct elements.
Given a number, I had to find the minimum number of operations to reduce it to zero. An operation is defined as subtracting one of its digits from the number. As an extension, I also had to print all the operations done.
I was asked to provide a high-level design for a system similar to UrbanClap. This included designing the database schema, defining the API interfaces, and outlining the overall high-level architecture.