Flipkart SDE 1 Interview Experience

I recently had the opportunity to participate in the interview process at Flipkart. A recruiter reached out to me after filling a google form, that I was shortlisted for the online assessment round.

Online Assessment (June 16th, 2024)SHL Platform

The online assessment consisted of three DSA (Data Structures and Algorithms) questions, all at a LeetCode Medium-Hard difficulty level. I was only able to solve two questions.

• Question 1: Graph-based problem
• Question 2: Monotonic Stack and Merge Sort (not at all easy for me)
• Question 3: Tree-based problem.

Technical Interviews (June 20th, 2024)

On June 19th, I received an email inviting me to the next round of interviews, which took place the following day. There were three interviews in total:

Round 1: Problem Solving and Data Structures (PSDS) — 60 minutes

The interview began with introductions of both of us. then asked about my favorite data structure, I say LinkedList and then he asked why? The interviewer then provided a Google Doc link with a linked list problem:

Given a linked list and two node values, reverse the linked list from the node where the first value starts to the node where the second value ends(vs)

I clarified the problem requirements and then shared my approach. I coded the solution and tested it with a few examples. The interviewer was satisfied with my O(n) solution and we discussed the time complexity.

Unfortunately, due to the time spent on the first question, I had limited time for the second question. I explained my initial thoughts and suggested a greedy approach. The interviewer acknowledged that I was on the right track.

The interview concluded with the interviewer asking if I had any questions.

Round 2: PSDS Round 2 (60 minutes)

This round felt easier compared to the first. I solved both coding questions with correct approaches and discussed multiple solutions and their time complexities.

• Question 1: DFS/DP-based problem (similar to Frog Jump variations)
• Question 2: Observation/Two Pointers/DP-based problem( means I solve the question with this 3 approaches).

With some time remaining, the interviewer asked theoretical questions about graphs. We then had a good discussion about Flipkart, their team, technologies, and the challenges they face. There were two interviewers present, with one observing the session. I also had a good discussion with the observing interviewer too at the end, as he has been quite a good experience with Flipkart.

Round 3: Hiring Manager (HM) Round (1 hour 20 minutes)

I received a short-notice email at 4:00 PM, scheduling an interview with the Hiring Manager at 4:15 PM. Due to missing the email, I requested a reschedule, which was accommodated for 5:00 PM on the same day.

The interview started with introductions. The Hiring Manager shared a detailed introduction about himself and his experience at Flipkart, technology, team etc. I then provided a brief introduction from my end.

Interviewer shared the Google Doc link:

Design a calculator with basic functionalities (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) that can store the last five operations and allow users to modify any stored operation.

We discussed suitable data structures for this task, considering different ds like double linked lists, vectors, and ultimately settling on a deque. We had an in-depth discussion about the challenges associated with each data structure choice, like vector is not working, then why? what are the challenges with vector we have. Why dequeue and all.

I then coded the solution using object-oriented approach. The interviewer was satisfied with my code and move on to the next.

We then discussed about project that i have work on. I saw my deployed project to explain (he is more happy to see). He seemed interested and requested to see the code. I explained my approach and we had a good conversation of more then 20 min.

Then we move to another project, which was not deployed. I need to create a cluster as it paused due to inactivity, then i resume my MongoDB cluster, setting it up took some time.

We then moved on to HR-based questions, including:

• Achievements and moments of pride
• Instances of failure
• Internship experience (since I had none) why? Clg have marks for internship then how you handle?
• and many more i forget😅.

concluded by asking if I had any questions. Since he had already shared a lot of information in his introduction, I struggled to come up with any. but i asked two question and this way we ended up.

Conclusion:

Well, there are likely fewer chances of me getting selected since I messed up in the last round. Honestly, it was scheduled so quickly. It took time to adjust, and things didn’t go according to plan.

However, I learned a lot from the last round, even though I might not have learned much in the first two. While the last round was a challenging experience, it highlighted areas for improvement, particularly in my soft skills.

Note: result : pending(no updates yet).

TIP: Be prepared before hand even for hr questions(you never know).

And Yaaa, all the interviewers are so humble. Don’t worry if you stuck, they are there to help you, and you can even ask for hints.

Hope it helps :)