Media.net Interview Experience for SDE – 1

Media.net visited our campus placements with 3 Rounds of interviews.

Round – 1: Interview bit platform contest with 3 questions: 90 min

• Came directly from the Interview bit
  Stringoholics
• Tree question
  Given a binary tree with n nodes and each node with values uniquely from 0 to n – 1. The value of each node is evaluated as the count of all nodes in its subtree with a node value less than the current node value.

Hint: Use a Binary Indexed tree with DFS

• Knapsack question but it was complicated with space constraints required O(n^2) space but was difficult to figure out.

Result: I solved Q2 and partially Q3. Many students solved 2 questions but a plagiarism checker was used and only 8 students were shortlisted. I was fortunate to be one among them.

Round – 2: Google Meet Interview with Software developer – 2 yrs experience: 60 min

The interview consisted of 1 coding question and a few CS core questions.

• What is the difference between a Binary tree and a Sorted array ( Standard question of media.net )
• Mostly some other OS and DBMS-specific questions were asked not very difficult. You can answer all if you follow GFG CS Core videos.
• SQL question of finding the second largest salary and followed by n largest salary. I did the second largest but did not solve the largest salary. But the interviewer was fine with it.
• Coding question:

Find the maximum non-decreasing Array length

Though the interviewer asked the question differently the question was the same as the Hard question given on the previous Week’s Leetcode Biweekly Contest – 118. But I was sure he did not refer to the question from Leetcode as he expected O(n^2) complexity but O(n) or O( n log n ) is possible. I did not know the best solution but managed to give a correct O( n^2 ) approach during the Interview.

Result: 3 Students were shortlisted for Round 2 but after 2 days I got a call for Round 2 too.

Round 3: Google Meet Interview with Software developer – 6 yrs experience: 60 min

The interview was of the same pattern as Round 2. I did not have any time to prepare as I got a call 15 min before the interview while I was writing an Online test for another company.

• The same standard question on DSA, OS and DBMS
• Questions on Semaphores, Shared and Exclusive locks were asked. I forgot the name Semaphore but answered the properties.
• Clustered and clustered Index in DBMS was asked. ( Just the basic property and why we use them )
• Heap time complexity was asked. He also asked what would be the time complexity to form a heap with a given sorted array. I did not answer it.
• Coding question:
  Given a string S of opening and closing parenthesis. You can form two strings A and B where each character of S belongs to either A or B in the same order. How many such possibilities are there was the question?

Example: S = ()()(()) A = () B = ()(()) , A = ()()(()) B = etc.,
We have to say how many possibilities are there.
I would try to write a separate article for it later. I solved the question from O(n^3) and improvised to O(n^2). In both rounds, I was asked to code in Google Docs.

Result: I was confident that I would get a call for the next round as the Interview went well according to me. Also, I had other interviews with Zomato, and Mathworks the next day, so was not prepared for anything particularly.

Round 4: Google Meet Interview with Manager – 10 yrs experience: 60 min

I had given 4 rounds of Zomato Interviews and was fortunate to clear it, I will write about the same soon. While this was happening I got a call for Round 4.

• These were system design kind of questions.
• [{URL, latitude, longitude, score (1-10)}] A dynamic data structure design was expected

Input – top left lat-long, bottom right lat-long

Output – top ten rated articles

I tried to give a map of map questions with latitude and longitude approximated containers based on how the data is. The interviewer seemed not so happy with it but appreciated the approach.

• You have an API. There are two functions: onNewReq(), getTotalCallsIn5Mins(), and design it. I improvised until I had a circular array of size 300 and an index pointer. I felt the interviewer expected more.
• Questions on Computer networks were asked here. I was asked the standard Media.net question, what happens when you type www.google.com

Result: In the end, the interviewer said I was good at solving DSA, and CS Core subjects but lacked projects using Data structures in large-scale applications. He also hinted by saying I would do better elsewhere but not in Media.net right now.

Verdict: I was not called for the HR round. The day was a roller coaster experience for me and I was completely exhausted with all the interviews. I was happy with Zomato but not with how the Media.net Interview went. I was happy with the journey from not getting a good Internship opportunity during my 3rd year but working my way through positively in this recession.

Note: They did ask resume before the contest and also considered your CP profile ratings etc., I gave my Leetcode ratings, Codechef and Codeforces ratings.

Solve Leetcode or GFG consistently and give as many weekly contests as possible.