SDE 2 | Intuit | Bangalore | Dec 2024

Application and Online Assessment

I was contacted directly by a recruiter on LinkedIn for an SDE 2 position at Intuit. I have 2.5 years of experience, currently working as a Software Engineer at a FAANG-level company. I was given an Online Assessment (OA) with a 2-day deadline.

The OA consisted of:

• 2 DSA Questions: One on linked lists and another on arrays, both of medium difficulty.
• 5 MCQs: Related to core technical concepts.

Two days later, the recruiter informed me that I scored 94% on the OA and invited me to proceed with the phone screen rounds.

Phone Screen Rounds

1st Phone Screen

I was asked to solve a graph-based DSA problem similar to the 'rotten tomatoes' problem (LeetCode 994 - Rotten Oranges). I discussed my approach in detail, implemented the solution, and successfully ran the code during the interview.

2nd Phone Screen

In this round, I was given a medium-level DSA problem, similar to 'finding the maximum rectangle in a histogram' (LeetCode 84 - Largest Rectangle in Histogram). I explained my approach, and after the interviewer agreed, I proceeded to code the solution. The code worked correctly.

After a few days, the recruiter informed me that the feedback from these rounds was positive, and they wanted to proceed with the next stage of interviews. They also shared a code repository that I needed to set up locally for use during the onsite interviews.

Onsite Interview Rounds

1st Round (90 minutes)

This session began with questions about my current project and the tech stack I'm using. The discussion then shifted to tasks involving the provided code repository:

• Implementing a new POST API: The API would save player details into a database. I was asked about the payload structure, error handling, and logging. I successfully implemented and tested the API using Postman.
• Integrating an LLM API: I was given a URI and tasked with creating an API that would take a prompt as input, call the LLM API, and return the response. I implemented this as well and demonstrated it to the panel.

2nd Round (DSA)

This was a DSA-focused round. I was asked a problem similar to 'next permutations of an array' (LeetCode 31 - Next Permutation). I explained my approach, coded the solution, and passed all test cases provided by the interviewer.

3rd Round

The first 30 minutes focused on engineering fundamentals and best practices. Afterward, I was asked to implement pagination on the GET API from the shared code repository. I completed the task and demonstrated the functionality using Postman.

4th Round (Hiring Manager)

This was the hiring manager round, lasting about 30 minutes. The questions focused on my day-to-day responsibilities, team collaboration, and cultural fit within the organization.

Outcome

Two days later, the recruiter informed me that the feedback was not positive. I was told that the primary issues were related to the error codes I used and improper exception handling in the API implementations.

Reflection

This experience highlighted areas for improvement in my error handling and API design practices. While I was able to complete most tasks successfully, the feedback emphasized the importance of attention to detail, particularly when it comes to handling edge cases and ensuring robust implementations. It was a valuable learning experience overall.