Round 2: DSA (Virtual round)

The interviewer was an SDE with 4 YOE. We started with our introductions and then jumped straight to problem-solving-

Problem 1 (LC – Medium): https://leetcode.com/problems/search-a-2d-matrix/description/

• The interviewer was expecting an optimized solution.
• Gave solution using staircase search
• Then, he asked to dry run with an example.
• Asked about time and space complexity.

Problem 2 (LC- Hard): https://leetcode.com/problems/find-median-from-data-stream/description/

• Explained the approach using two heaps- Min and Max heap.
• He asked to explain logic using a sample example.
• I coded the solution and dry-ran the example. But seems like my logic got a little wrong. So, I asked to look again.
• Unfortunately, could not come up with any solution.

The interviewer gave a positive response as he said that he understood my approach but in the interest of time, it was better to conclude.

Then, he asked if I had any questions for him – I asked about the work he does in daily tasks in his current team.

Feedback: I thought he would be satisfied with my performance and may consider me for the next round. But sadly it was a rejection.

Previous Position – Software Engineer II

Location – Bengaluru, India

Years of Experience – 1.5 years of Experience

Cold emailed to HR. Got a positive reply to go ahead!