PayPal Interview Experience (On-Campus)

Round 1(Coding Round)

This round primarily consisted of two code questions. The first is a dynamic programming question, and the second is an implementation question (the question is simple, but the implementation is extensive).

• You have two hours to answer these questions.
• Around 1200 students took the exam, and 53 were chosen for an interview.
• I was able to answer the implementation-based questions and half answer the dp questions, and I was selected for the interview.

Round 2(Coding Interview)

This round was essentially a live coding round, and the interviewer supplied a URL with me where we could both code concurrently.

• In this round, I was asked two code questions.
• I thought the second question was excellent. I initially used a brute force technique, but the interviewer asked me to optimise it. I couldn’t figure out the logic at first, so the interviewer gave me a suggestion “Think in terms of strings.” Then I did some preliminary study and was finally able to decipher the logic.
• I used the Level-order-Traversal technique in my logic, and the interviewer was impressed enough to ask me to code it. I completed it.
• The entire procedure was quite smooth, and the interviewer was also extremely kind and supportive.

Round 3(HR):

The interview started with an introduction and then some normal talk about my college he gave me a question and asked me to explain the logic

• The question was, In a scenario, I was standing in a room with three light switches. Each corresponds to a different light bulb in another room that I cannot see. If all the light switches are off, how do I find out which one turns on which bulb?
• I gave the correct logic for this, and he was satisfied with my logic.
• With just a little informal conversation, the entire interview process went quite smoothly, and all of the interviewers were extremely nice and supportive.