Flipkart

Role: SDE-3 (iOS)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: Not Specified (Experience posted on 2025-07-07)

Interview Type: Off-Campus (Referral)

Result: Strong Reject

Difficulty: Machine Coding (Good problem), Problem Solving / Data Structures (Medium-to-Easy, but vague feedback on optimization)

Rounds: 3 rounds (Call screening, Machine coding, Problem Solving / Data Structures)

Topics Asked: Machine coding (clean, extensible, testable code, SOLID principles, edge cases), Problem Solving / Data Structures (medium-to-easy algorithm question, optimization)

Experience:

The candidate received a call through a referral, with a typical response time of around 2.5 weeks. The initial call screening by a senior talent acquisition partner felt cold and primarily focused on sending across the machine coding problem.

Round 1: Machine Coding Round. A strict 3-hour window was given to submit the solution. The problem was good, and the candidate completed it well within the time frame, focusing on clean, extensible, testable code, SOLID principles, and covering edge cases (with some AI assistance).

Round 2: Problem Solving / Data Structures Round. The interviewer, with about 10 years of experience, was expected to be supportive but did not offer much help. The question given was medium-to-easy, solved in 15-20 minutes. The interviewer then stated it was a brute-force solution, even though it was just not the most optimal. The candidate optimized it, but the interviewer was not attentive. The feedback was a "Strong Reject" because "You only solved one question in an hour," despite the interviewer not mentioning two questions or providing the expected 2-hour duration as per the careers page.