Salesforce | SMTS | Hyderabad | 16th Dec
Summary
I interviewed for the SMTS role at Salesforce in Hyderabad, undergoing a HackerRank round followed by two onsite Data Structures and Algorithms rounds. My experience also included behavioral questions, and despite my performance in the technical rounds, the final verdict was a tentative status, indicating a likely rejection.
Full Experience
Round 1: HackerRank (1 hour)
This round began with two coding challenges. The first was a HackerRank problem titled What Type of Triangle, requiring me to classify triangles based on their side lengths. The second problem was from LeetCode: Search Suggestions System.
Round 2: Onsite | DSA (1 hour)
This round started with a discussion about my projects and Object-Oriented Programming (OOPs) concepts. Following this, I was presented with a LeetCode problem: Rank Transform of an Array. I successfully provided a running O(n) solution that passed all test cases on HackerRank, and I also addressed a follow-up question on space optimization for the given constraints. The final problem was a GFG question titled Count of Distinct Graphs That Can Be Formed With N Vertices. Despite receiving a hint from the interviewer, I couldn't come up with the exact solution for this particular problem.
Round 3: Onsite | DSA (1 hour)
The third round involved another LeetCode problem: Nearest Exit from Entrance in Maze. This round also included one behavioral question, though the specific details were not provided.
Verdict
After the third round, I was informed that my status was 'tentative,' which usually implies a borderline performance leading to a likely rejection. An update is expected within a week. I'm not entirely sure about the expectation, as I felt I performed well in the second round (which I believe should have been a hire) and even better in the third round (a strong hire).
Additional Info
Salesforce provided a 2k Uber voucher for my travel to their Hyderabad office. I was required to bring my own personal laptop for the interview, and breakfast was provided at the office.
Interview Questions (5)
Given the lengths of three sides of a triangle, determine if it is an equilateral, isosceles, or scalene triangle. Also, validate if the given side lengths can form a valid triangle.
Given an array of strings products and a string searchWord, design a system that suggests at most three product names from products after each character of searchWord is typed. Suggested products should have searchWord as a prefix and be lexicographically smallest. Return a list of lists of the suggested products.
Determine the number of distinct (non-isomorphic) simple graphs that can be formed using N labeled vertices. This is a combinatorial problem in graph theory.
You are given an m x n matrix maze (0-indexed) with empty cells (represented as '.') and walls (represented as '+'). You are also given the entrance of the maze, where entrance = [entr_row, entr_col] denotes the row and column of the starting cell. Find the length of the shortest path from the entrance to the nearest exit. An exit is defined as an empty cell that is at the border of the maze. The entrance does not count as an exit. If there is no exit, return -1.