Cashfree visited our campus in August 2022 for the I+P offer in their Bangalore office. The eligibility criteria for writing the online test was an 8 CGPA.
There were 5 rounds.
Round 1 (Online Test – Hackerrank): It was an online test that comprised 3 sections. The first section had 8 MCQs related to computer fundamentals. The second section had 2 SQL queries and the third section had 2 coding questions. The first coding question was based on the prefix sum. The second coding question was: given array arr[], find number of arr[i] > arr[j] > arr[k] where i<j<k.
I solved both coding questions, and SQL queries and presumably did all the MCQs correctly.
15 people were shortlisted for the interview process.
Round 2: (Technical Interview – Hackerrank, 1 Hour): The interviewer greeted me, introduced himself, and asked me to introduce myself. This was a DSA round.
- Question 1: Given n towers with varying heights, find the number of towers visible from each tower. Tower x is visible from tower y if the height of all towers between them is strictly less than x. The optimal solution was based on the application of stack data structure.
- Question 2: Each operation in an array means subtracting 1 from any element in the array. Now, after doing k such operations, find the maximum possible value of the smallest element in the array.
Example: k = 3, arr[] = {3,4,5,6} , ans = 3
The interviewer asked me if I had any questions for him and I asked him for feedback on how I performed during the round.
Tips and Takeaways:
- Communicate clearly what you are thinking to the interviewer as it will help them to understand your thought process and guide you through the question as well
- Understand the question and the sample test cases before you start coding the question
- Clear your queries regarding the question from the interviewer
- Start from a brute force approach and then start optimizing it
- You might feel a bit nervous going into the interview but with time, you will start feeling comfortable.
8 candidates were shortlisted for the next round.
Round 3: (Technical Interview – Hackerrank, 1 Hour): The round started off with DSA questions.
- Question 1: Reverse an integer
- Question 2: Search an element in a sorted and rotated Array
- Question 3: Find the Itinerary from a given list of tickets
I was also asked about the time complexity to insert an element into the set and insert a key-value pair into a map. After this, the interviewer asked me some questions on OS like paging and segmentation.
The interviewer then asked me if I had any questions for him and I ended up asking him about the tech stack that I, as an intern, would be working on.
Tips and Takeaways:
- Even if the question seems very easy, just take another look at the question before you start coding
- Communication is key
6 candidates were shortlisted for the next round.
Round 4: (Managerial Round – Google Meet, 45 mins): The interviewer was an engineering VP and after introductions, he started off with questions about my projects. He asked me about the APIs I used for my projects. Then the discussion moved to my internships wherein he asked me about the work I had done, the database schema I had created, and the challenges I faced during the internship.
After this, he asked me some questions about DBS concepts like normalization, 1NF, 2NF, etc.
Finally, he asked me HR-related questions like Do I play any sports, Do I read books and then he wrapped up the round. He asked me whether I had any questions for him and I asked him about the onboarding process at Cashfree.
Tips and Takeaways:
- As you start clearing one interview after another, it is important to keep your emotions in check.
- Prepare some questions that you would want to ask the interviewer after each round.
- Don’t try to manufacture any HR-related questions or else it will hurt you in the end
Round 5: (HR Discussion Round – Google Meet, 20 – 25 mins): This started off with my introduction followed by a discussion about learnings and setbacks at my previous internships, expectations for my future, and the work culture at Cashfree. The discussion flowed naturally and did my best to answer the questions in a candid manner.
Tip:
- Show your personality, and be confident but don’t be arrogant in your HR interview
Finally, 4 candidates were given the offer and I was one of them.
Final takeaways:
- Placement season is a very tedious time but try to maintain your demeanor during the entire process
- Be calm and confident during the interview rounds
- Sometimes, there might be a gap between the interview rounds. But don’t get yourself too worked out as this might end up hurting your performance in the subsequent interviews
- Don’t fake anything on the resume
- Prepare an introduction beforehand. This comes in handy if you get nervous at the onset of your interviews( PS: this happened with me ).
- Be thorough about your projects and your internship work. These are generally every candidate’s strong suit so try your best to ace these aspects of the interview.