Zomato Interview Experience (On-Campus)

This was an on-campus opportunity provided by our college for internships.

Introduction and Project Discussion:

The interview began with a brief introduction where I was asked to tell something about myself. This interaction lasted for about 2 minutes. Following that, there was a discussion about one of my projects, which took around 3-4 minutes.

DSA Problems:

I was given two DSA problems to solve. The first problem involved deleting a node in a binary search tree (BST) using a recursive approach. The second problem was about reversing a linked list in groups of size k. I had to provide the proper approach and write the code for both problems. This segment took approximately 40 minutes, and the problems were standard with some variations.

SQL Queries:

I had to write SQL queries for five different scenarios. The queries ranged from basic and easy ones involving simple clauses and aggregate functions to more intermediate ones that required handling joins between two tables on different conditions. One of the queries involved joins with three tables, increasing the difficulty level slightly. This section took around 8-9 minutes and was at a Leetcode level of difficulty.

System Design – Music Player:

I was asked to optimize the time complexity of a single function in a music player system design problem. The task was to achieve a time complexity of O(N). This part of the interview lasted approximately 9-10 minutes and was considered an easy question.

Theory Questions – DBMS Joins and OOP Concepts:

I was asked about the different types of DBMS joins and their specific details to test my understanding of the topic. This segment took around 6-7 minutes. Later, I was questioned about the four famous pillars of object-oriented programming (OOP) and had to provide explanations and real-life examples. The interviewer then dove deeper into the concept of polymorphism, asking about types and specific details with examples such as overriding and overloading. This section, along with the previous one, took approximately 8-9 minutes. Additionally, I was asked about dynamic binding and the use of the “virtual” keyword, where I had to provide pseudo-code for the implementation of runtime polymorphism. This part lasted around 5-6 minutes.

No questions were asked about operating systems during the interview.

Overall Experience:

The entire round lasted approximately 1 hour and 22 minutes. The interviewer asked a wide range of questions from different computer science fundamentals because the DSA questions were considered standard and easy. It was important to solve the problems quickly to allow more time for additional questions. Following the interview, HR announced the results, and I was fortunate to be selected for this opportunity with Zomato.