ClearTax

Role: SDE2

College: B.Tech from a state govt college in India

Interview Date: January 2021

Interview Type: Onsite

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium-Hard

Rounds: 5 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures (Hashing, Tree), Algorithms (Backtracking, Dynamic Programming, Union Find), Low-Level Design (Parking Lot), Code Review, High-Level Design, Problem Solving, Behavioral/HR, Schema Design.

Experience:

This candidate, with 2.6 years of experience, interviewed for an SDE2 role at ClearTax in Bangalore.

Round 1: DSA Round (1 hour)

The first round included one easy question on hashing and one upper-medium level question on graphs, specifically involving the Union Find Algorithm.

Round 2: LLD Round (2 hours)

This round focused on Low-Level Design, where the candidate was asked to design a parking lot.

Round 3: Code Review Round (1 hour)

The interviewer asked questions related to a log parser code. A discussion followed concerning the High-Level Design (HLD) and Low-Level Design (LLD) of that application.

Round 4: Problem Solving (1.5 hours)

This round featured four medium-hard level questions covering Backtracking, Tree data structures, Dynamic Programming (DP), and Hashing. The candidate was required to write code for two of these questions and provide pseudo-code for the other two.

Round 5: HM Round (1 hour)

The final round involved standard behavioral questions. Additionally, the candidate was asked to design a schema for a messaging application, which had a relatively small problem scope.

Overall: ClearTax was noted for giving equal weightage to culture fit and problem-solving skills, with a strong emphasis on their "DO-PUT" culture.