Kotak Interview SDE 3 Hyderabad (Java profile)
Summary
I interviewed for an SDE 3 role at Kotak in Hyderabad; I cleared the Bar Raiser LLD round but was rejected after the DSA round.
Full Experience
Round 1 - Bar Raiser Round - BattleShip Game LLD Expectation was write full running code in IDE . They also give their own but that's very bad . You can ask Interviewwer to write in local IDE . They are cooperative . You can try that
Round 2 - DSA
[Interview Question] Maximum Sum of Coins (1D and 2D Variations) Hi everyone, I recently had an interview where I was asked a classic dynamic programming problem, which was then extended into a 2D matrix variation. I wanted to share the exact questions here for anyone preparing! Question 1: The Simple Problem (1D) Problem Statement: You are given a 1D array representing a row of coins. Your task is to pick a set of coins to maximize your total sum. The only constraint is: You cannot pick two adjacent (continuous) coins. Example 1: Input: coins = [4, 5, 6, 7, 8] Output: 18 Explanation: You pick 4 (index 0), 6 (index 2), and 8 (index 4). Total Sum = 4 + 6 + 8 = 18.
Question 2: The Follow-Up (2 Rows / 2D) Problem Statement: The interviewer then extended the problem. Now, you are given two rows of coins of the same length, forming a 2xN grid. You still need to maximize the sum of the picked coins, but the adjacency rules are strictly expanded. If you pick a coin, you CANNOT pick any coin that is adjacent to it:
- Horizontally (left or right)
- Vertically (directly above or below)
- Diagonally (top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right)
Got the rejection .
Interview Questions (2)
Maximum Sum of Coins - 1D
Problem Statement: You are given a 1D array representing a row of coins. Your task is to pick a set of coins to maximize your total sum. Constraint: You cannot pick two adjacent (continuous) coins. Example: Input: coins = [4, 5, 6, 7, 8] Output: 18 Explanation: Pick indices 0, 2 and 4 (values 4, 6, 8) for a total of 18.
Maximum Sum of Coins - 2D Grid
Problem Statement: Given two rows of coins of equal length (a 2xN grid), maximize the sum of selected coins. If a coin is selected, you cannot select any coin that is adjacent horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Adjacency includes left/right in the same row, the coin directly above/below, and all four diagonal neighbours.