PayU Worst Interview Experience | SSE | Bangalore | Awaiting
Summary
My interview experience at PayU for an SSE role was quite challenging, marked by disagreements with the interviewer on standard DSA problems and a perceived lack of understanding on their part, leading to an overall negative impression.
Full Experience
I recently interviewed at PayU for an SSE role in Bangalore. I have 2.9 years of experience as an SDE1 at a product-based MNC.
The interview consisted of one problem-solving/data structures round. It started with introductions and a discussion about my projects.
Then, the interviewer presented two DSA questions. For the first question, I initially proposed an O(n^3) solution and then optimized it to O(n). I discussed the approach, and the interviewer asked me to code it on Google Docs. After completing the code, we dry ran it on a few test cases. The interviewer pointed out that my implementation was incorrect because it didn't explicitly maintain i, j, k. I tried to explain that the problem only required a boolean return value, but he disagreed. With 15 minutes left, he moved on to the next question without letting me finish discussing the first one.
For the second question, I solved it optimally using a sliding window approach on the first attempt. The interviewer asked for the time and space complexity. I explained that it was O(n), but he insisted it should be O(n^2) because of the use of two loops. Despite my efforts to clarify that the worst-case scenario involves iterating over the entire array twice, he didn't understand and abruptly ended the interview.
I honestly hope I don't get selected for this role.
Interview Questions (2)
The interviewer presented a problem where I needed to determine if there exists a triplet of indices (i, j, k) such that i < j < k and nums[i] < nums[j] < nums[k]. I initially came up with an O(n^3) solution and then optimized it to O(n). I coded it on Google Docs and dry-ran it. The interviewer disagreed with my O(n) implementation, believing it didn't explicitly maintain i, j, k, even though the problem only required a boolean return.
I was asked to find the maximum number of vowel letters in any substring of a given length. I solved this question optimally using a sliding window approach on the first attempt. When asked about time and space complexity, I stated O(n), but the interviewer insisted it was O(n^2) due to two loops, despite my clarifications.