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PayPal Interview Experience | SDE3 | Chennai
PayPal - Senior Software Engineer Frontend Interview Experience
PayPal Senior Software Engineer (Python) Interview Experience
PayPal Staff engineer Full Stack Interview Experience
Summary
I successfully cleared all technical rounds covering Data Structures & Algorithms, Low-Level Design, System Design, and a Specialization round for a Staff Engineer Full Stack role at PayPal. However, I did not pass the final Leadership & Behavioral round, which required more structured answers and specific examples.
Full Experience
✅ Round 1: DSA (Graphs)
- Problem: Find the nearest exit in a maze grid
- Approach: BFS traversal from entry point, handled edge detection and visited cells
- Status: Cleared
✅ Round 2: Low-Level Design (Notepad App)
- Implemented cursor operations: up, down, left, right, page up, page down
- Used doubly linked list for lines and pointers for cursor movement
- Focused on correctness and time complexity
- Status: Cleared
✅ Round 3: System Design (Distributed LRU Cache)
- Designed LRU with HashMap + Doubly Linked List
- Added distributed layer using consistent hashing
- Discussed replication, eviction, and cache invalidation strategies
- Status: Cleared
✅ Round 4: Specialization Round (Shopping Cart Design)
- Features: add/view/delete items from cart
- Handled edge cases like out-of-stock items, cart overflow, and empty cart checkout
- Covered object-oriented design and basic validations
- Status: Cleared
❌ Round 5: Leadership & Behavioral
Questions around:
- Analyzing client feature requests
- Calculating ROI
- Innovation and responsibilities in current role
- End-to-end feature planning
- Giving/receiving constructive feedback
Missed out due to lack of structured answers and specific examples
Takeaway:
Strong performance in DSA, LLD, and System Design
Prepare leadership rounds with structured frameworks (e.g., STAR) and real stories
Status: Cleared all technical rounds, didn’t make it past the final leadership round. Learned a lot!
Interview Questions (9)
Given a maze grid, find the nearest exit.
Design a Notepad application, specifically implementing cursor operations such as up, down, left, right, page up, and page down. Focus on correctness and time complexity.
Design a Distributed LRU Cache, including discussions on replication, eviction, and cache invalidation strategies.
Design a shopping cart with features to add, view, and delete items. Handle edge cases like out-of-stock items, cart overflow, and empty cart checkout. Focus on object-oriented design and basic validations.
Questions around analyzing client feature requests.
Questions around calculating Return on Investment (ROI).
Questions around innovation and responsibilities in current role.
Questions around end-to-end feature planning.
Questions around giving/receiving constructive feedback.
Preparation Tips
To improve, I should prepare leadership rounds with structured frameworks (e.g., STAR) and real stories.