ClearTax

Role: SDE2

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: September 9, 2024

Interview Type: Online Interview / Assessment

Result: Rejected

Difficulty: Hard

Rounds: 1 round

Topics Asked: Machine Coding, Low-Level Design (LLD), Object-Oriented Design.

Experience:

This experience details a machine coding round for an SDE2 role at ClearTax.

Round: Machine Coding Round (1 hour 30 minutes)

The problem presented was to design a "Restaurant Management System: ClearFood".

Overview: Restaurants can serve in multiple areas (identified by Pincode). At a time, users can order from one restaurant, and the quantity of food can be more than one. Users should be able to rate any restaurant, with or without comments, and the restaurant's rating is the average of all customer ratings.

Functional Requirements:

• register_restaurant(restaurant_name, list of serviceable pin-codes, food_item_name, food_item_price, initial_quantity): To register a restaurant.
• update_quantity(restaurant_name, quantity_to_Add): Restaurant owners should be able to increase the quantity of a food item.
• rate_restaurant(restaurant_name, rating, comment): Users should be able to rate (1-5) any restaurant with or without a comment.
• show_restaurant(rating/price): Users should be able to get a list of all serviceable restaurants, food item name, and price in descending order, based on rating, possibly based on price.
• place_order(restaurant_name, quantity): A restaurant is serviceable when it delivers to the user's pincode and has a non-zero quantity of the food item. Place an order from any restaurant with any allowed quantity.
• order_history(username): For a given user, fetch order history.

Additional Notes: An in-memory database could be used, no UI was required, and a driver class was to simulate operations.

Expectations: Working Executable Code, Feature Coverage, Design Principles.

The round consisted of problem understanding, actual implementation on a local editor, and subsequent discussion. The interviewer was primarily interested in the model design, with method implementations dependent on the remaining time. The candidate felt that the expectations between a general machine coding round and a Low-Level Design (LLD) round were not clearly communicated. When this concern was voiced, the interviewer reportedly became infuriated and later provided a "no hire" feedback. The interviewer also drew comparisons between the candidate's solution and existing features in platforms like Zomato, while the candidate had focused on the given problem statement.

Tip: The candidate advised future interviewees to clarify expectations beforehand, especially regarding the priority of model/schema design versus actual working code, given the limited time.