Media.net visited our campus placements with 3 Rounds of interviews.
Round – 1: Interview bit platform contest with 3 questions: 90 min
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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.
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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.