ClearTax

Role: SDE-2

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: April 18, 2022

Interview Type: Off-Campus

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Rounds: 2 rounds

Topics Asked: System Design, Coding (Data Structures, Algorithms), Resume discussion, APIs, Rate Limiting, Async Programming.

Experience:

This individual interviewed for an SDE-2 position at ClearTax in April 2022.

Round 1: Coding Round

A coding problem titled "Smallest Range From K Sorted List" was presented. The approach involved storing one element from each of the K sorted arrays, continuously popping the minimum element, and pushing its next element into consideration. This process helped in finding the next possible range, which was then compared with the minimum and maximum ranges found so far. The process continued until any one of the arrays was exhausted.

Round 2: System Design Round

This round began with a discussion of the candidate's resume. Following this, a system design question was posed: "Build a support application portal that can scale for millions of support requests in a short span of time." A follow-up question delved into how to scale an API that posts data to a third-party application to avoid downtime and decrease API latency.

Tips: The candidate provided key tips for system design rounds: clarify the problem statement thoroughly, ask cross-questions on requirements, outline functional and non-functional requirements beforehand, and be well-versed in system design concepts related to APIs, rate limiting, and asynchronous programming.