SDE-1 (BE - 1.5 YOE) | Zeta | Hyderabad
Summary
I cold-emailed many recruiters, leading to an interview process with Zeta for an SDE-1 role in Hyderabad with 1.5 years of experience. The interview consisted of PSDS, LLD+HLD, and HR rounds, covering DSA problems, system design, and behavioral questions.
Full Experience
📩 Application Journey
- Cold-emailed 50+ recruiters/LinkedIn connections
- 5% response rate → 1 interview process initiated
- Key Takeaway: Customized connection requests with CV links work better than generic messages
💻 Round 1: PSDS
Asked about past experiences, and two dsa questions on the follow-up after that:
Problem 1: Enhanced Car Pooling with twists
Problem 2: Adaptive Surrounded Regions
🏗 Round 2: LLD+HLD
This round was taken by a Senior Engineering Director, was drilled down upon past experiences, and client handling, with time constraints, various discussions, and then was asked to design a follow-up question:
Design Reward/Voucher System
The discussion was mostly based upon Different dynamic Reward/Voucher Strategy coming up, keeping it as generic as possible, with Rule Engines coming most into effect, suppose different for independence day, diffferent monthwise, different for IPL days, like these, eligibility criteria, for finding subsets among all users
👔 Round 3: HR
Focus Areas
- Cultural alignment with "customer-obsessed" principle
- Conflict resolution: Shared story about balancing tech debt vs feature delivery
- Compensation negotiation: Focused on growth opportunities over base pay
Interview Questions (3)
Enhanced Car Pooling with twists
Problem on car pooling with additional twists, potentially involving more complex constraints or conditions than the standard LeetCode Car Pooling problem.
Adaptive Surrounded Regions
Problem on surrounded regions, potentially with adaptive or dynamic constraints/conditions beyond the standard LeetCode Surrounded Regions problem.
Design Reward/Voucher System
Design a dynamic Reward/Voucher System. The discussion focused on different dynamic strategies, keeping the system generic, and using Rule Engines. Examples included different rewards for Independence Day, month-wise, or during IPL days, along with eligibility criteria for finding subsets among all users.