Zomato | SWE1 | Interview Experience
Summary
I interviewed for the SWE1 role at Zomato, discussing system design for payments, event-driven architectures, Zomato Enterprise LLD, and DDoS handling. While I handled happy-path scenarios well, I was told I needed more depth in non-happy-path scenarios and practical production experience, being ~80% close to the role's expectations for my experience level.
Full Experience
Round 1 ~ With Senior Engineering Manager
Education: B.Tech (Core branch), Tier-3 NIT, 2025 batch
YOE: ~2 months (FTE) + Internship experience
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Topics / Questions Asked
1. Payments System Design
- End-to-end payment flow orchestration
- Chargeback handling
- Dispute lifecycle (won/lost)
- Refunds (full, partial, proration)
- Audit & compliance requirements (India)
- HLD of taxation + billing architecture
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2. Event-Driven Systems
- Kafka vs SNS + SQS
- When to use each
- Trade-offs around ordering, replayability, and scale
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3. Low-Level Design
- Design a Zomato Enterprise system for offering food benefits to companies and their employees
- Core services and interactions
- Order lifecycle
- Payment and order consistency
- Restaurant and delivery partner flow
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4. Security / Reliability
- Handling a DDoS attack:
- Rate limiting (frontend & backend)
- Caching
- Queue-based buffering
(The interviewer was not fully convinced by the approaches discussed.)
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Feedback / Verdict
- The feedback was that I handled the happy-path flows and overall system reasoning well, but the discussion needed more depth in non-happy-path scenarios, especially around:
- End-to-end microservice orchestration (failure handling, retries, and cross-service consistency)
- Database modeling for complex, real-world workflows
- The interviewer mentioned that the expectations for this role were closer to someone with more hands-on production experience, particularly in building and operating distributed systems at scale
- I was told I was ~80% close, and that for my current experience level, the architecture choices, identification of bottlenecks, and high-level trade-offs were strong
- However, the role required deeper practical exposure, and for an entry-level position, I would likely have been moved forward to the next round
- I was informed that if a suitable entry-level opening becomes available within the team in the next 3–6 months, HR may reach out directly to schedule Round 2 for same team
Interview Questions (4)
Payments System Design
Discuss the end-to-end payment flow orchestration, chargeback handling, dispute lifecycle (won/lost), refunds (full, partial, proration), audit & compliance requirements (India), and HLD of taxation + billing architecture.
Event-Driven Systems Design with Kafka vs SNS+SQS
Compare Kafka vs SNS + SQS, discussing when to use each and trade-offs around ordering, replayability, and scale.
Design Zomato Enterprise System for Food Benefits
Design a Zomato Enterprise system for offering food benefits to companies and their employees. Discuss core services and interactions, order lifecycle, payment and order consistency, and restaurant and delivery partner flow.
Handling a DDoS Attack
How would you handle a DDoS attack?