Tessell - SDE1 - 24 LPA Base - INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE - REJ

Round 1: DSA (Duration: 60 mins)
This was a DSA round focused mainly on Dynamic Programming and Bit Manipulation. There were 2 coding problems:

Problem 1 (DP):
Given an array of integers, find the number of ways to partition it into two subsets such that the difference between their sums is a given value diff.
Concepts used: Subset sum DP, memoization.

Problem 2 (Bit Manipulation):
Given an integer array, find the unique number that appears once while all others appear three times.
Concepts used: Bitwise operations, bit counting.

Both problems were medium to hard level. I was able to solve the DP problem completely and partially solve the bit manipulation one.

Round 2: System Design – Design Netflix-like Streaming Platform
This was a 60-minute video call with a senior engineer. The task was to design a high-level architecture for a video streaming platform (like Netflix).

Topics discussed:

• How users stream video efficiently at scale
• Handling content delivery across regions (CDN, edge caching)
• Database design for users, shows, history
• Upload and transcoding pipeline for new content
• Scaling: microservices, load balancing, and fault tolerance
• Handling spikes in traffic and user recommendations

I covered most areas decently. The interviewer was collaborative and guided me in areas where I lacked depth.

Round 3: Managerial + Technical Round
This round focused on past projects, ownership, and dealing with real-world tech challenges. Some behavioral + technical questions included:

• Explain a difficult bug you resolved under pressure.
• Describe a system you designed end-to-end.
• How do you prioritize tasks when deadlines conflict?
• What trade-offs did you face in your previous system architecture?
• How do you handle disagreements in a tech team?

Although I answered sincerely and explained my reasoning, I think I struggled to justify some architectural decisions and didn’t showcase leadership/ownership strongly. The interviewer seemed unconvinced about my decision-making clarity.

Round 4: Final Status
Unfortunately, I got a rejection after Round 3. Feedback mentioned I did well in DSA and System Design, but they were looking for someone with stronger decision-making and communication in cross-functional scenarios.