Zomato SDE -2 interview experience
Summary
I interviewed for an SDE-2 role at Zomato via referral and was rejected after several technical rounds covering system internals (Redis, Kafka), SQL, and Low-Level Design.
Full Experience
Zomato Interview Experience | November 2025 | SDE-2
Application Mode: Referral
(They only accept applications via employee referrals.)
Round 1
Redis
- Why is Redis extremely fast?
- How does Redis handle large scale despite being single-threaded?
Kafka
- How can consumer throughput be increased?
- What happens when consumption lags behind production?
SQL
Given: Order state transitions with timestamps
States: Created → Confirmed → Reached Merchant → Reached Customer → Delivered
Questions:
- Write a query to fetch all order IDs with their latest state in the last 1 hour
- Exclude orders that are already delivered
- How would this query behave at scale?
- What indexes would you add?
Low-Level Design - Snake and Food Game
- Design snake movement logic
- Ensure movement happens in O(1)
- Handle food consumption and snake growth
- Explain data structure choices & trade-offs
- Write pseudocode
Result: Rejected
Interview Questions (7)
Redis Performance
Why is Redis extremely fast?
Redis Scalability (Single-Threaded)
How does Redis handle large scale despite being single-threaded?
Kafka Consumer Throughput Optimization
How can consumer throughput be increased in Kafka?
Kafka Consumer Lag Scenario
What happens in Kafka when consumption lags behind production?
SQL Query for Latest Order State
Given order state transitions with timestamps (States: Created → Confirmed → Reached Merchant → Reached Customer → Delivered), write a query to fetch all order IDs with their latest state in the last 1 hour, excluding orders that are already delivered.
SQL Query Performance and Indexing at Scale
How would the SQL query to fetch order IDs with their latest state behave at scale? What indexes would you add?
Low-Level Design: Snake and Food Game
Design the snake movement logic for a Snake and Food Game. Ensure movement happens in O(1). Handle food consumption and snake growth. Explain data structure choices & trade-offs. Write pseudocode.