Aug-Dec 2023 (7th Semester – Placement Season)
The placement season in our IIT kickstarted right from the beginning of the semester. Zomato Limited was open to all the B.Tech branches during the campus placements. Before beginning the Online Assessment, they requested the details of all the students’ past internships, projects, and CP scores.
Initial shortlisting was done based on the resume and the above-asked details. From around 500 candidates, 164 were shortlisted for the online test.
The process was:
- Resume Shortlisting
- Online Assessment
- Offline Interviews (3 Rounds)
Online Assessment:
The test was for 90 minutes and had three coding questions. I vaguely remember the questions. There was one easy, one medium, and one hard question. The easy question was related to Data Stream and Parsing, the medium question was related to binary search, and the hard one was on Dijkstra Algorithm. I solved the easy question completely and the remaining two with half the test cases each. Out of 164 candidates, 18 were shortlisted for final interview rounds.
Interview Round 1 (30 mins)
- Zomato was given a Day 1 slot for interviews. The interview panels were ready by early 6:00 AM.
- Initially, I was asked to brief myself, and following that, I was asked a small ice-breaker question. It was a simple and one-word answer. The question was related to bit manipulation (https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-element-appears-array-every-element-appears-twice/amp/).
- Next, the interviewer pulled up a detail from my introduction, my interest in cryptography and cybersecurity. So, I was asked basic questions about password hashing, and he gave me a hashed string with specific rules and asked me to decode the hash based on the rules. It was, again, simple. I immediately explained the most optimal approach and was asked to code it. The code was to be written on paper, and I completed it within 2-3 minutes.
- The interviewer next asked about one of my projects, and I had to explain the entire project in detail. We even went beyond the current scope of my project.
- Next, the interviewer asked me to choose any topic in the tech field of my choice and develop an interest in him. The interviewer’s aim here was to test my communication and the depth of my understanding. I chose cryptography as my topic and went on for almost 15 minutes, explaining that I also used concepts from computer networks. He was pretty impressed.
- Finally, I was asked whether I follow any blogs or websites for the latest updates in the tech industry. I said no; he was shocked and asked whether I follow math-related blogs, and the answer was yes; I’m a student majoring in Mathematics (MnC Branch).
Interview Round 2 (Almost 1 hr 30 mins)
- I was immediately notified that I proceeded with Round 2. Out of 18, only three were selected for round 2.
- This round had two interviewers. The interviewer from round 1 was also present. Just before starting the round, I was pretty confident about myself, and the interviewers’ expressions said that they were optimistic about me.
- Here in this round, I was asked about my internship experience and my project. I interned as an SDE Intern during 3rd-year of summer break at Amazon India. As I successfully delivered my project, I had a strong understanding of the concepts used and the design architecture.
- I was asked to explain every aspect of the architecture, the metrics, and the impact of my project on the organization. The interviewers also invited me to come up with my architecture, different from the one I used at Amazon; I successfully developed a new design.
- Finally, I was given a simple puzzle, which I solved after one hint (https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/puzzle-mislabeled-jars/amp/).
Interview Round 3 (HR Round – 15 mins)
- This round was just a formality. Immediately after I came out of round 2, in less than a minute, I was told that I was hired.
- During this round, I wasn’t asked any questions. Instead, the HR and another senior developer gave me insights into the working culture of Zomato.
- All three students who went to round 2 got hired.
That sums up the interview experience at Zomato in our IIT. It was 500 -> 164 -> 18 -> 3 -> 3.
Preparation Tips
- It’s a standard thumb rule to be well-versed in Data Structures & Algorithms.
- Apart from DSA, be thorough with OS, DBMS, Computer Networks, Compilers, and System Design. The primary focus can be given to OS and System Design.
- Be crystal clear with your projects. If the interviewer likes your project, they can deeply investigate it.
- Not just projects; any point mentioned in your resume should be crafted carefully.
- Finally, stay calm, don’t feel nervous. This helps. During the process, I kept telling myself it doesn’t matter even if we don’t get Zomato; many other companies are lined up.
- Take a deep breath before going into the interview lobby.
Cheers. All the best!