Track: Intern (9 candidates)
Swiggy Intern Interview Briefing
Overview
The Intern role at Swiggy is designed for students and early-career candidates, with a focus on problem-solving, algorithms, and foundational system design. The process includes an Online Assessment (OA), followed by rounds like machine coding, problem-solving/data structures, and managerial discussions. Candidates are expected to demonstrate a strong grasp of data structures, algorithms, and clean code practices.
Round Breakdown and Questions
1. Online Assessment (OA)
Format: Conducted on platforms like HackerRank, with a duration of 60–120 minutes. The OA typically includes 3–4 coding questions of varying difficulty levels.
Example Questions:
- Anagrams question.
- DSA question based on hashing and arrays.
- Medium React question involving API calls and pagination.
- Multiple-choice questions (10–12) on CSS.
- JavaScript coding question (Easy) based on JavaScript objects.
- Dynamic programming, 0-1 knapsack, and recursion-based problems.
- Array-based problem.
- Tree-based validation question (e.g., validating a binary tree structure with special error conditions).
- Easy JavaScript coding question based on JavaScript objects.
2. Machine Coding Round
Format: 2–3 hour round focused on designing and implementing a functional system with specific requirements. Candidates are evaluated on clean code, design principles, and scalability.
Example Questions:
- Build an OTP input system using React.js.
- Design a multilevel parking lot system with a focus on the singleton design pattern.
- Design a calendar application similar to Google Meet, including scheduling meetings, displaying user calendars, and allowing users to accept or reject meetings.
- Build an autosuggestion input component using React and integrate it with an API.
3. Problem Solving & Data Structures Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on algorithms, data structures, and optimization. Candidates are asked to solve 2–3 problems with varying difficulty levels.
Example Questions:
- Find the first non-repeating character in a string using only one array of size 26.
- BFS + Heaps (medium to hard difficulty).
- Array manipulation.
- Polyfills.
- Regular Expressions.
- Promises, Currying, Throttle, Debounce.
- 2 LeetCode easy-medium questions on arrays and maps.
- JavaScript questions on polyfills and regex.
4. Managerial Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on behavioral questions, leadership, and project management. Candidates are asked about their past experiences, challenges, and problem-solving approaches.
Example Questions:
- Discussion on projects, major challenges, and deployment pipelines.
- Event loops, React, debugging.
- Behavioral questions regarding previous work experience and challenges.
- Discuss testing scenarios for a login screen.
- Explain differences between SQL and NoSQL databases, their advantages, and use cases.
- Discuss scaling (horizontal vs. vertical), monolithic vs. microservices architecture, and load balancers.
- Explain different types of testing, including performance testing and monitoring parameters.
- Discuss experience with AWS and Kafka.
- Explain caching and its applications in Swiggy’s system.
Track: SDE-2 (16 candidates)
Swiggy SDE-2 Interview Briefing
Overview
The SDE-2 role at Swiggy typically involves a multi-round interview process with a strong focus on problem-solving, low-level design (LLD), and system design. Candidates are expected to demonstrate expertise in algorithms, data structures, and scalable system design while also showcasing their ability to handle real-world engineering challenges. The process often includes an Online Assessment (OA), followed by rounds like machine coding, problem-solving/data structures, LLD, and managerial discussions.
Round Breakdown and Questions
1. Online Assessment (OA)
Format: Conducted on platforms like HackerRank or LeetCode, with a duration of 75–90 minutes. The OA typically includes 3–4 medium-to-hard level coding questions covering topics like:
- Dynamic Programming (DP)
- Graphs and Tree-based problems
- String manipulation and optimization
- Heap and Union-Find algorithms
- Job scheduling and optimization problems
Example Questions:
- Flexible Strings: Determine if a string can be converted to all the same characters using given replacement operations.
- Programming Contest: Find the minimum total bias amount by optimally pairing programmers based on their ratings.
- Maximum Swiggy Genie: A variation of Maximum Profit in Job Scheduling, where the goal is to maximize profit given pickup, drop, and tip arrays.
- Heap-based question: Min Heap version of a famous problem.
- LIS variation: Longest Increasing Subsequence variation.
- Tree-based question: Requiring Union Find algorithm.
2. Problem Solving & Data Structures Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on algorithms, data structures, and optimization. Candidates are asked to solve 2–3 problems with varying difficulty levels.
Example Questions:
- House Robber problem (LeetCode).
- Arrange numbers in a given list in increasing order using only a stack.
- Find the nearest node value to a target in a BST.
- String manipulation problem involving source/target substring replacements.
- Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters.
- Lowest Common Ancestor in a Binary Tree.
- Gas Station problem (LeetCode medium).
- Two Sum problem with a twist.
- Tweaked Kadane’s algorithm for finding max sum of subarray of even or odd indexes.
- Design a data structure to support Insert/delete/getRandom in O(1).
- Top view of a tree.
3. Low-Level Design (LLD) Round
Format: 1–2 hour round focusing on object-oriented design, scalability, and real-world problem-solving. Candidates are asked to design systems with specific constraints and requirements.
Example Questions:
- Design a Splitwise-like application with different split types. Design entities, services, and discuss extensions.
- Design APIs and LLD for application filters in the Swiggy application.
- Design a scalable online Tic-Tac-Toe game with support for multiple gaming sessions.
- Design an LRU cache to display top
n previously ordered items from hotels when a user opens the service.
- Design a bill-splitting app (similar to Splitwise). Design CRUD APIs, request/response structures, and schema.
- Design a notification service for Swiggy, catering to different user types (delivery personnel, employees, end users).
- Design a test-taking website service with features like user registration/login, test-taking, past score and ranking visibility, and support for multiple question types.
- Design a service for displaying a heatmap of Swiggy agents (focus on geolocation-related concepts).
- Design a Hotel Room Booking System with all necessary classes, methods, and entities.
- Design a parking lot system with concurrency and scalability considerations.
4. System Design Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on scalability, architecture, and real-world system design. Candidates are asked to design large-scale systems with specific requirements.
Example Questions:
- Design a warehouse management system for Swiggy Instamart, including API design, database schema, and high-level architecture.
- Design Google Sheets: Discuss database choices, table relations, request handling, and features like collaborative editing and optimization.
- Design a Customer Segmentation Platform for a large-scale system with 500M users and 5B events.
- Design a review system for Swiggy.
- Design a notification system for Swiggy to send offer notifications.
- Design an SLA monitoring service for handling scalability issues.
5. Managerial Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on behavioral questions, leadership, and project management. Candidates are asked about their past experiences, challenges, and problem-solving approaches.
Example Questions:
- Discussion on projects and reasoning behind choices.
- How to decide a required time estimate for a feature or bug?
- How to move forward with the design process once requirements are laid out?
- Design a chess game and discuss design principles.
- Behavioral questions regarding previous work experience and challenges.
- Discuss a project where you had to handle scalability issues.
- Explain your approach to designing and implementing a scalable system.
- Discuss your experience with AWS, Kafka, or other relevant technologies.
Track: QA / SDET (1 candidate)
Swiggy QA / SDET Interview Briefing
Overview
The QA / SDET role at Swiggy focuses on software quality, testing methodologies, and automation. The interview process includes technical rounds, coding challenges, and system design discussions, with an emphasis on testing strategies, scalability, and real-world problem-solving. Candidates are expected to demonstrate expertise in testing frameworks, automation, and performance monitoring.
Round Breakdown and Questions
1. Technical Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on coding challenges, testing concepts, and theoretical knowledge. Candidates are evaluated on their problem-solving and testing skills.
Example Questions:
- Interleave characters of two strings to form a new string.
- Sort an array of 0s and 1s.
- Write test cases for adding items to cart on Swiggy’s website.
- Discuss API testing and regression testing.
- Explain white box vs. black box testing.
- Check for balanced parentheses in a string.
- Find two numbers in an array that sum up to a target value.
- Explain Object-Oriented Programming concepts.
2. Technical Round (Advanced)
Format: 1-hour round focusing on advanced coding problems and OOP concepts. Candidates are asked to solve classic coding problems and discuss testing-related topics.
Example Questions:
- Implement a stack and a queue.
- Print frequencies of every element in a given string.
- Discuss testing scenarios for a login screen.
- Explain differences between SQL and NoSQL databases, their advantages, and use cases.
- Discuss scaling (horizontal vs. vertical), monolithic vs. microservices architecture, and load balancers.
- Explain different types of testing, including performance testing and monitoring parameters.
- Discuss experience with AWS and Kafka.
- Explain caching and its applications in Swiggy’s system.
- Discuss previous internship experience and testing methodologies used.
3. Hiring Manager Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on implementation, testing scenarios, system design, and past experience. Candidates are evaluated on their testing strategies, scalability knowledge, and leadership.
Example Questions:
- Implement a stack and a queue.
- Print frequencies of every element in a given string.
- Discuss testing scenarios for a login screen.
- Explain differences between SQL and NoSQL databases, their advantages, and use cases.
- Discuss scaling (horizontal vs. vertical), monolithic vs. microservices architecture, and load balancers.
- Explain different types of testing, including performance testing and monitoring parameters.
- Discuss experience with AWS and Kafka.
- Explain caching and its applications in Swiggy’s system.
- Discuss previous internship experience and testing methodologies used.
Track: SDE-3 / Senior (6 candidates)
Swiggy SDE-3 / Senior Interview Briefing
Overview
The SDE-3 / Senior role at Swiggy targets experienced engineers with a strong focus on system design, scalability, and leadership. The interview process is rigorous and includes machine coding, low-level design (LLD), high-level design (HLD), and managerial rounds. Candidates are expected to demonstrate expertise in scalable system design, algorithms, and behavioral leadership.
Round Breakdown and Questions
1. Technical Round
Format: 1-hour round focused on algorithms, problem-solving, and system design. Candidates are asked to solve hard-level problems and discuss their approach.
Example Questions:
- LeetCode Hard: Word Break II.
- 3Sum (https://leetcode.com/problems/3sum/).
- Fraction to Recurring Decimal (https://leetcode.com/problems/fraction-to-recurring-decimal/).
- Implement a JSON parser to convert a valid JSON string to a JSON object like Jackson in Java.
- After releasing a story if a particular API latency increased, what will you do?
- How to ensure ordering in multiple partitions in Kafka?
- Functional test case-related question.
- Longest subsequence of consecutive integers.
- Medium LC problem based on a linked list.
2. Machine Coding Round
Format: 2-hour round focused on writing fully executable code for system design problems. Candidates are evaluated on scalability, concurrency, and clean code.
Example Questions:
- Design a Parking Lot System.
- Print a restaurant menu in a hierarchical format with multiple levels of nesting.
- Design a Key-Value Store with TTL and eviction logic.
3. Low-Level Design (LLD) Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on object-oriented design and real-world problem-solving. Candidates are asked to design systems with specific constraints and requirements.
Example Questions:
- Design/modify architecture for a data-heavy platform component.
- Discuss current project architecture and modify or redesign it.
- Discuss design patterns and their applications.
4. High-Level Design (HLD) Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on scalability, architecture, and real-world system design. Candidates are asked to design large-scale systems with specific requirements.
Example Questions:
- Design the HLD for Swiggy review system.
- Design a Customer Segmentation Platform for a large-scale system with 500M users and 5B events.
- Design an SLA monitoring service for handling scalability issues.
5. Managerial Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on behavioral questions, leadership, and project management. Candidates are asked about their past experiences, challenges, and problem-solving approaches.
Example Questions:
- Deep discussion on past projects.
- Behavioral questions.
- Design an SLA service.
- Discuss your approach to designing and implementing a scalable system.
- Explain your experience with AWS, Kafka, or other relevant technologies.
Track: Data Science / ML (1 candidate)
Swiggy Data Science / ML Interview Briefing
Overview
The Data Science / ML role at Swiggy is highly specialized, focusing on machine learning models, recommendation systems, and data-driven decision-making. The interview process includes technical discussions, case studies, and behavioral rounds, with an emphasis on business impact and model evaluation. Candidates are expected to demonstrate expertise in machine learning algorithms, statistical analysis, and real-world problem-solving.
Round Breakdown and Questions
1. Technical Round
Format: 1-hour round focused on machine learning concepts, algorithms, and statistical analysis. Candidates are asked to discuss their past projects and solve technical problems.
Example Questions:
- Markov Chain Probability concepts.
- Gradient Boosting Trees (GBT): Detailed questions about residual calculations in GBT classifiers, hyperparameters, etc.
- AUC-ROC Curve: Understanding and evaluating models using it.
- Questions on L2 Norm and Cosine Similarity.
- In-depth CV review covering models and evaluation metrics mentioned in the resume.
- Case study focused on solving a recommendation system problem for ad matching and optimizing user engagement.
2. Managerial Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on behavioral questions, project management, and leadership. Candidates are asked about their past experiences, challenges, and problem-solving approaches.
Example Questions:
- Discussion on current work and business impact.
- Behavioral questions regarding previous work experience and challenges.
Track: SDE-1 / New Grad (15 candidates)
Swiggy SDE-1 / New Grad Interview Briefing
Overview
The SDE-1 / New Grad role at Swiggy is designed for early-career candidates, with a strong emphasis on problem-solving, algorithms, and foundational system design. The process includes an Online Assessment (OA), followed by rounds like machine coding, problem-solving/data structures, low-level design (LLD), and managerial discussions. Candidates are expected to demonstrate a strong grasp of data structures, algorithms, and clean code practices.
Round Breakdown and Questions
1. Online Assessment (OA)
Format: Conducted on platforms like HackerRank, with a duration of 60–90 minutes. The OA typically includes 3–4 coding questions of varying difficulty levels.
Example Questions:
- Find the row with the maximum number of 1’s in a 2D matrix where rows are sorted.
- Minimize the calculated sum by repeatedly adding two numbers and replacing them with their sum until one element remains.
- Add up two numbers given in the form of a linked list without reversing or using extra space.
- Find all unique triplets with zero-sum in an array.
- Stepping Numbers: Find numbers in a range where adjacent digits differ by 1, optimized using BFS.
- Given a 2D boolean matrix with accessible and non-accessible cells, determine if point B can be reached from point A with specific movement constraints.
- Given a machine that executes tasks with a cooling period for consecutive similar tasks, find the minimum time to execute all tasks.
- Find the number of pairs with a given sum.
- Spring beans, functional dependencies, and how to check if dependencies are valid.
- Check for cycles in a directed graph.
- Database question: Find the count of employees per department with specific ordering requirements.
- Coding question: Convert an array of size 2n (last n characters are zero) to a specified form (e.g.,
[2, 3, 1, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0] to [2, 2, 3, 3, 1, 1, 5, 5]).
- Determine the number of distinct subarrays with at most a given number of odd elements.
- Given a number line from 0 to n and a string of moves, determine the number of subsequences that lead from point x to point y.
- Select weights from a list such that their sum does not exceed a given capacity.
2. Machine Coding Round
Format: 2–3 hour round focused on designing and implementing a functional system with specific requirements. Candidates are evaluated on clean code, design principles, and scalability.
Example Questions:
- Design a Snake and Ladder Game with working code, including mandatory and optional requirements.
- Design a multilevel parking lot system with a focus on the singleton design pattern.
- Design a calendar application similar to Google Meet, including scheduling meetings, displaying user calendars, and allowing users to accept or reject meetings.
- Design a Splitwise application with features like splitting expenses, adding friends, and displaying balances.
- Build an autosuggestion input component using React and integrate it with an API.
- Design a playing arena for two players with given logic (using Java/NodeJS/Go).
3. Problem Solving & Data Structures Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on algorithms, data structures, and optimization. Candidates are asked to solve 2–3 problems with varying difficulty levels.
Example Questions:
- Search in a row-wise and column-wise sorted matrix (O(1) space, O(m+n) time).
- Design a stack that supports getMin in O(1) time and O(1) extra space.
- Check for balanced parentheses in an expression (O(1) space, O(n) time).
- Valid Parenthesis String (O(1) space, O(n) time).
- Total number of possible Binary Search Trees for a given N (using Catalan numbers).
- Lowest Common Ancestor in a Binary Tree.
- Gas Station problem (LeetCode medium).
- Find unique paths in a 2D matrix with obstacles.
- Travelling Salesman Problem using a greedy method.
- Print all nodes visible from the top view of a binary tree.
- Surrounded Regions (LeetCode).
- Maximum Length of Pair Chain (LeetCode).
4. Low-Level Design (LLD) Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on object-oriented design and real-world problem-solving. Candidates are asked to design systems with specific constraints and requirements.
Example Questions:
- Design APIs and LLD for application filters in the Swiggy application.
- Design a scalable online Tic-Tac-Toe game with support for multiple gaming sessions.
5. Managerial Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on behavioral questions, leadership, and project management. Candidates are asked about their past experiences, challenges, and problem-solving approaches.
Example Questions:
- What two positive things would a professor say about you?
- What two negative things would a professor say about you?
- Steps taken to address your negatives.
- Brief about a project: motivation, problems faced, tech stack used.
- Preference between backend or Android development.
- Differences between ReactJs and vanillaJs.
- Differences between NodeJs and ExpressJs.
- Libraries used for backend, problems faced in ExpressJs, and improvements.
- Why MongoDB was preferred over other databases.
- Discussion on project specifics and technical skills mentioned in the resume.
- Best practices and behavioral questions.
Track: Product / Frontend (2 candidates)
Swiggy Product / Frontend Interview Briefing
Overview
The Product / Frontend role at Swiggy targets candidates with expertise in frontend technologies, user experience, and scalable design. The interview process includes machine coding, technical rounds, and managerial discussions, with a focus on React, JavaScript, and system design. Candidates are expected to demonstrate expertise in frontend frameworks, algorithms, and clean code practices.
Round Breakdown and Questions
1. Machine Coding Round
Format: 1.5-hour round focused on building functional frontend applications with specific requirements. Candidates are evaluated on design, clean code, and user experience.
Example Questions:
- Construct a weather app with a sorted list of cities on the first screen and detailed weather information on the second screen.
- Implement a favorite button on the second screen with a mirrored version on the first screen, ensuring synchronization.
- Build a file explorer with features like file/folder differentiation, nested file structure (using recursion), adding files to folders, and converting a file to a folder on double-click.
- Build an autosuggestion input component using React and integrate it with an API.
2. Technical Round
Format: 1.5-hour round combining Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) with frontend-specific questions. Candidates are asked to solve algorithmic problems and discuss frontend concepts.
Example Questions:
- Explain the differences between Structs and Classes in Swift.
- Classify Arrays, Sets, and Strings as either classes or structs.
- Define optionals and their cases in Swift.
- Implement a method to check if an optional is nil.
- Optimize optional extension code for better performance.
- Discuss Objective-C’s support for optionals and its error handling mechanisms.
- Highlight significant Swift features that contribute to its excellence.
- Examine methods to facilitate data passage between ViewModel and ViewController.
- JavaScript and React basics.
- LeetCode easy problem.
- React component lifecycle and hooks.
- Implement a box with cursor tracking and optimization using useRef.
- Promise completion in a for loop and discuss time complexity and optimization.
3. Managerial Round
Format: 1-hour round focusing on behavioral questions, leadership, and project management. Candidates are asked about their past experiences, challenges, and problem-solving approaches.
Example Questions:
- Describe important contributions and tasks performed in the current role.
- Explain the most challenging task, its solving approach, and learnings.
- Discuss a task involving notification permissions and custom popup logic, including lifecycle methods and user permission scenarios.
- Explain the lifecycle of UINotification, order of methods, and app state changes.
- Define singletons and their drawbacks.
- Explain access specifiers and their differences.
- Solve a coding challenge to rearrange an array of positive and negative elements to place negatives on the left and positives on the right, optimized for linear time complexity.
- Discuss current CTC, reasons for joining Swiggy, and personal motivations.
- Approach to building an application from scratch.
- System design considerations (planning, component design, data flow, design patterns, performance optimization, testing, monitoring).
- Building an auto-suggest input feature (functional and non-functional aspects).