PhonePe

Role: Software Engineer

College: Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT)

Interview Date: August 1st, 2023

Interview Type: On-Campus (FTE + Internship)

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium-Hard

Rounds: 4 rounds

Topics Asked: Binary Search, Trees, Expected Value, Dynamic Programming, Graph, Prefix/Suffix concepts, Web Development (MERN stack, React, MongoDB)

Experience:

PhonePe visited PICT, Pune, on August 1st, 2023, for software engineering roles, offering both Full-Time Employment and internships. The hiring process had 4 rounds, all conducted on the same day, with results also provided the same day.

Round 1 was an Offline Coding Assessment (90 minutes) with four questions. The first question was related to binary search and was of easy-medium difficulty (Codeforces 1300 to 1400 rating). The second question had two sub-tasks and was based on trees and expected value calculations. The third question was based on dynamic programming. The candidate was not aware of the fourth question. The candidate solved the first question completely and the second partially (7/13 test cases). After this round, 15 out of 370 eligible students were shortlisted.

Round 2 was a Technical Interview and consisted of two coding questions. The first question was "Given N, find the total number of ways to climb stairs (1 or 2 steps)," which the candidate solved. The second question involved a graph: "Given a graph, check if it's possible to move from n1 to n2, print -1 if not." This was a medium-level difficulty question, and the candidate solved it. This round lasted 35-40 minutes.

Round 3 was another Technical Interview with the same format as Round 2, consisting of two coding questions. One question was: "There are m breads with costs [b1, b2, b3,..., bm] and n sauces with costs [s1, s2, s3,..., sn], and we are given a budget B. Maximize the number of items." The candidate was able to solve this problem.

Round 4 was the HR round, which also included technical aspects. The HR asked questions about the technical aspects of the candidate's projects, including scenarios, ideation, and technology choices (e.g., why React and MongoDB for a MERN stack project). The entire interview process took about 6 hours.