Round 1: Problem-Solving & Data Structures
Questions: Given a table with employee names, their manager’s name, and their salaries, write a program to retrieve the names of all employees reporting to a given manager.
Follow-up Questions:
- How does this problem compare to Tree vs. Graph representation?
- What is the fundamental difference between a Tree and a Graph?
- What is the time complexity of both approaches, and when should we prefer a Tree vs. a Graph in real-world scenarios?
Candidate's Approach
I solved this problem using BFS (Breadth-First Search) to traverse the hierarchy efficiently.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Round 2: Low-Level Design (LLD)
Questions:
- Design an Elevator System: A unique aspect of this question was that the lift could be operated from outside by selecting a floor number.
Candidate's Approach
The interviewer emphasized choosing the database first before proceeding with the design. The primary focus of this round was on how well I broke down the problem into components and structured my approach.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Round 3: Managerial Round
Questions: No specific questions provided.
Candidate's Approach
This round was primarily a deep dive into my professional experience and past projects. The interviewer asked a lot of questions about my current company and the work I have done there, leading to detailed discussions about the projects I have worked on, both in my current and previous roles.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Round 4: Director Round
Questions:
- "How would you design a Secret Vault from scratch?"
- "What encryption and decryption algorithms are used?"
- "Which is more secure—Asymmetric or Symmetric encryption?"
Coding Problem: I was asked to implement LCA (Lowest Common Ancestor) for an N-ary Tree.
Candidate's Approach
I solved it using a non-optimal approach by maintaining two lists and finding the path from the root to the given nodes. The interviewer noted that my approach was not the most efficient but did not provide any direct feedback at that moment.
Interviewer's Feedback
At the end, he mentioned that I was the only candidate who hadn't implemented an efficient algorithm for the LCA problem. He said he "liked that about me"—but I couldn’t tell whether he was being genuine or sarcastic.