Maersk – Software Engineer Interview Experience
Summary
I recently interviewed for a Software Engineer role at Maersk, undergoing multiple rounds focused on DSA, managerial skills, and low-level system design. Despite completing all rounds, I was unfortunately ghosted by HR and did not receive a final update.
Full Experience
Round 1 — HR + Resume Discussion
This was a short introductory round focused on getting to know me. We covered my resume walkthrough, background, current role, and skills. They also touched upon basic role expectations and asked some general HR behavioral questions. It felt like a light round primarily focused on fitment.
Round 2 — DSA (Coin Change – DP)
This was a pure coding round. The problem given was the classic Coin Change problem: counting the number of ways to make a sum using given coins. This is a well-known DP (unbounded knapsack) variant. They expected a bottom-up DP solution, thorough discussion of time and space complexity, and consideration for handling large input constraints. I found the difficulty to be Medium–Hard.
Round 3 — DSA (Coin Change – Min Coins)
Another dynamic programming round followed, but with a slight twist. The problem was to find the minimum number of coins needed to form the sum. This round delved deeper with follow-up questions on optimizing the DP solution, comparing top-down vs. bottom-up approaches, handling corner cases where no solution exists, and strategies for improving time complexity and optimizing memory. It was heavily DP-focused.
Round 4 — Managerial + Low-Level System Thinking
This round was a mix. It started with a deep dive into my projects, covering what I built and my specific responsibilities. Then, I was given a Binary Tree problem: given a complete binary tree with nodes like 1, 2, 3,..., I had to find the height in O(log n) and find a particular element in O(log n). A challenging aspect was being asked to write working code in Go, a language I was not familiar with. This part tested my understanding of complete binary trees, mathematical representation (array index logic), and adaptability to new syntax. The round concluded with managerial questions about skills I learned recently (last 4 months), my knowledge of AI tools & concepts like RAG, GPT, LLMs, how I keep myself updated, and discussions on ownership and problem-solving mindset.
Final Outcome
Unfortunately, after completing all the rounds, HR ghosted me. I did not receive any final update, even after sending follow-ups.
Interview Questions (3)
Given a set of coins and a target sum, count the number of ways to make the sum using the given coins. This is a classic dynamic programming (unbounded knapsack) variant. Interviewers expected a bottom-up DP solution, discussion of time and space complexity, and handling of large input constraints.
Find the minimum number of coins needed to form a given sum. Follow-up questions included optimizing the DP solution, discussing top-down vs. bottom-up approaches, handling corner cases where no solution exists, improving time complexity, and optimizing memory usage.
Given a complete binary tree with nodes represented sequentially (1, 2, 3,...), the task was to find its height in O(log n) and find a particular element in O(log n). I was also required to write working code in Go, a language I was unfamiliar with. This tested my understanding of complete binary trees, their mathematical representation (using array index logic), and my ability to adapt to new syntax.