Round 1 (DSA)
Questions:
- Given a string of 0s and 1s, you can remove any non-palindromic subsequence in one operation. Return the minimum number of operations required to make the string empty.
- Given the daily prices of a stock, maximize your profit by making as many buy-and-sell transactions as you want. There is a fixed fee for each sell transaction.
Candidate's Approach
No approach provided.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Round 2 (HLD)
Questions: Design a notification system, handling critical/non-critical notifications separately.
Candidate's Approach
No approach provided.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Round 3 (Hiring Manager)
Questions:
- Groupon has tie-ups with external vendors, but they cannot make real-time calls to check product availability. How would you design a system to handle this?
- The interviewer hinted at how platforms like BookMyShow handle ticket bookings. He also suggested that external vendors could expose a few APIs. I discussed periodic inventory synchronization and eventual consistency mechanisms. Looking back, I believe a soft booking system would have been a better approach, where stock is temporarily held before finalizing purchases to prevent overselling. Since I was interviewing after almost five years, I couldn’t immediately think in that direction.
- How do you handle conflicts within/across teams?
- How do you keep yourself updated with the latest tech?
Candidate's Approach
No approach provided.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.