Chargebee

Role: SDE-1

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: January 2024 (Online Assessment)

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium-Hard

Rounds: 5 rounds

Topics Asked: DSA, SQL, REST APIs, Redis cache design, API migration project, behavioral questions.

Experience:

The candidate applied for the SDE-1 role via referral in the second week of January 2024 and received an Online Assessment link.

Round 1: Online Technical Round Screening (1 hour)

This round consisted of 2 DSA questions (medium to hard difficulty), 2 SQL questions, and 5 logical questions. The DSA questions included "minimum window substring" (working solution provided) and a problem involving Sieve and bit manipulation (pseudo-code written). Basic SQL queries were asked (creating a table, adding primary/foreign keys, finding the second-highest salary). Discussion also included REST APIs and identifying errors in code snippets.

Round 2: Online Technical Round Screening (1 hour)

This online technical round included two DSA questions. The first was an easy problem (find the missing number from a series X to Y), and the second was a medium-difficulty Binary Search question. The candidate coded solutions for both and discussed their internship work at ShareChat, along with some basic backend questions related to REST APIs.

Round 3: Offline Technical Round-I (1 hour)

This round was conducted offline. Two DSA questions of medium to hard difficulty were presented: "minimum window substring" (solved) and a problem involving Sieve and bit manipulation (pseudo-code provided). Basic SQL queries (creating tables, primary/foreign keys, second-highest salary) and questions on REST APIs, logical/syntax errors in code snippets were also part of this round.

Round 4: Offline Technical Round-II (Engineering Manager)

The interviewer discussed the candidate's internship work, specifically an API migration project. The candidate was then tasked with designing a Redis cache and implementing core functions (GET, SET, DELETE) with a Time-To-Live (TTL) mechanism of 5 minutes.

Round 5: Offline Managerial Round

This round was conducted by the Vice President of Chargebee. The discussion focused on the candidate's strengths, resume review, and technologies worked with. It was primarily a discussion to assess cultural fit and values alignment. The candidate asked company-related questions at the end.