Salesforce SMTS(sde-3) interview experience Feb 2025
Summary
I interviewed for an SMTS (SDE-3) role at Salesforce in Feb 2025, clearing the problem-solving and LLD/HLD rounds but ultimately receiving a 'No Hire' due to an inability to provide a working Merge Sort implementation.
Full Experience
Current Designation :SDE-2
Years of experience : 5.5
Round 1: Elimination Round - Problem Solving
Technical Problem:
https://leetcode.com/problems/longest-substring-without-repeating-characters/description/
https://leetcode.com/problems/serialize-and-deserialize-binary-tree/description/
Wasn't able to provide full working solution for the second problem, but explain my approach
Verdict : hire
Round2(LLD + HLD)
Was asked to create an LLD for Zomato Food delivery app
taking care of core functionalities, follow up question was asked about tracking of order. what table you will create to track order.
Also some high level design question around the same, how the notification will be sent to the user and basically a verbal explanation of how the HLD of zomato food delivery app will work.
how the closest delivery partner assigning will take place (proximity service Alex xu book)
Verdict : hire
Round 3(DS + Database schema design + Cultural)
Was asked to implement merge sort implementaiton(wasn't able to provide the working implmentation)
Was asked to desgin database schema. The problem statement was like this.
You have multiple rule conditions. The user can select multiple rule conditions from the UI and then these rules will be applied.
The user can select rules like (c1&c2)||c3
The ask was how i am gonna store the data in database and fetch the data from it.
The interviewer was expected to store groups of conditions as an entity, but i reccomending the solution in which each condition will be an entity
Overall i felt interview was fine with the schema design
Questions asked in culture
The time when you did a mistake and messed up the task ? what was the reaction of your team lead and what steps you took to avoid such mistakes.
The time when you received a feedback from someone ? what was your reaction ? what steps did you take regarding that feedback.
Verdict : No hire, because i wasn't able to provide merge sort implemnetation
Interview Questions (8)
Design a Low-Level Design (LLD) for a Zomato Food Delivery app, focusing on core functionalities. Follow-up questions included: What tables would you create to track orders?
Design a High-Level Design (HLD) for a Zomato Food Delivery app, including how notifications would be sent to users and how closest delivery partners would be assigned (proximity service, referencing Alex Xu's book).
Implement the Merge Sort algorithm.
Design a database schema for a rule engine where users can select multiple rule conditions (e.g., (c1 & c2) || c3) from a UI, and these rules will be applied. The task was to determine how to store and fetch this data. The interviewer expected storing groups of conditions as an entity, but I recommended a solution where each condition would be an entity.
Describe a time when you made a mistake and messed up a task. What was your team lead's reaction, and what steps did you take to avoid such mistakes in the future?
Describe a time when you received feedback from someone. What was your reaction, and what steps did you take regarding that feedback?