BrowserStack interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview

Software Engineer

BrowserStack
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6 rounds | 7 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 2 Months
Topics: Data Structures, Backend Development, System Design, Realtime communication, Command line tools
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Always search for interview experience for the particular company before interview, helps you find the difficulty and areas you should focus on before interview
Tip 2 : Give referrals from recruiters as first priority, reach out to as many as you can
Tip 3 : Projects with real users or problem is better than copying any project from github, don't add projects just for sake of adding. The person reviewing resume will see that these projects are present in every resume and will not interested in it. Also include a hosted link incase of web based projects
Tip 4 : Read job description carefully. I get messages from people still in college for an opening, and the opening clearly mentiones that 1+ year experience is required.
Tip 5 : Send full context messages for referral. Don't send hi and wait for reply
Tip 6 : Research about the company and tailor your resume accordingly.

Application process
Where: Referral
Eligibility: 6+ month experience
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Tailor your resume based on hiring process. If the company has more DSA rounds, then add coding platform links. If the company has more development rounds, add more projects
Tip 2 : Don't add unnecessary content just for filling the gaps. If you are adding anything to resume, make sure you can easily explain it

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration120 Minutes
Interview date25 Jul 2021
Coding problem3

3 coding questions with 2 hours of total time, programming language of your choice and open book

Hard
0/120
Asked in companies
MakeMyTripMicrosoftAmazon

For a given two-dimensional integer array/list of size (N x M), print it in a spiral form. That is, you need to print in the order followed for every iteration:

a. First row(left to right)
b. Last column(top to bottom)
c. Last row(right to left)
d. First column(bottom to top)

 Mind that every element will be printed only once.

Refer to the Image:

Spiral path of a matrix

Try solving now

2. Round Robin Scheduling

Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
FlipkartMAQ SoftwareBrowserStack

In an operating system, processes are scheduled to execute using many algorithms, of which one is the Round Robin Algorithm. This algorithm ensures democracy in utilizing the CPU time for each of the processes currently in execution.

Assuming that all the processes start executing at the same time, each process gets a fixed time slot (say t seconds) for execution, after which it has to let the next process take the CPU. Let there be 5 processes (p1, p2, p3, p4 and p5) ready for execution. If p1 accesses the CPU at time t0, it should give access to p2 after t0+t seconds and wait. p2 executes from t0+t to t0+2t and so on. Once p5 completes its share of CPU usage, p1 gets its next chance.

Each process can leave this execution loop when its own execution time is over. Therefore, the process with the largest execution time will be the one that would be the last process waiting. Simulate the Round Robin algorithm execution using the set of process burst times and process ids are given.

The processes (runtime) are to be inserted into the queue first and then decremented (by CPU execution time) for each iteration through the queue until their runtime is over.

For Example
Input: 
# Process id's 
proc = [1, 2, 3]
n = 3

# Burst time of all processes 
burst_time = [10, 5, 8] 

# Time quantum 
quantum = 2;

Output:

Processes  Burst time  Waiting time  Turnaround time
1          10          13            23
2          5           10            15
3          8           13            21

Average waiting time = 12
Average turnaround time = 19.6667
Try solving now

3. Highway BillBoards

Moderate
0/80
Asked in companies
Expedia GroupFlipkartBrowserStack

You have to place ‘N’ billboards across a highway of ‘M’ kilometres. All the possible sites to place a billboard is given in the ‘billboards’ array. The revenue earned by placing a billboard is described by the ‘revenue’ array, billboard at ‘billboard[i]’ will earn the revenue equal to ‘revenue[i]’. There is a condition that no two billboards can be placed within ‘X’ kilometres of each other.

For Example :
You are given billboards = [2, 8, 9, 10, 15], revenue = [20, 50, 10, 30, 5], ‘M’ = ‘20’, ‘X’ = 5, here we can place the billboard at positions 2, 8, 15, which will give the profit as 20 + 50 + 5 = 75. Hence the answer is 75.
Try solving now
02
Round
Hard
Video Call
Duration120 Minutes
Interview date7 Aug 2021
Coding problem1

It was a machine coding round. We were given a problem statement, to make a backend server capable of realtime data communication to the client. 
The interviewer was helpful and helps you understand the constraints of the problem. When you are done implementing, the interviewer reviews the code and cross questions the solution.

Like all rounds, this is eliminating round so you will only go forward if you clear it.

1. Machine Coding Question

Make a backend server which is capable of realtime communication. The client will connect to this server and gets data (if any change in data occurs) streamed to it in realtime.

Problem approach

1. First made a bare server which sends static response
2. Added logic to read data and figure out when the given data has changed
3. Used websockets to send data to client whenever data is changed

03
Round
Hard
Video Call
Duration120 Minutes
Interview date7 Aug 2021
Coding problem1

Similar to previous round of machine coding. Like all rounds, this is eliminating round so you will only go forward if you clear it.

1. Machine Coding Question

Implement a backend server, through which users can remotely perform operations like opening, closing of browser running on server using REST api

Problem approach

The server was independent of operating system, so I first searched equivalent way of doing the steps using command line (I was using linux)
Then I searched how to run commands using code
Then I hooked the code into REST api

04
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration45 Minutes
Interview date7 Aug 2021
Coding problem0

This was Engineering Manager round. The discussion mostly revolved around first 2 rounds, projects and work in previous organisation. A bit of patterns on solving problems like map reduce the problem. He also discussed how I can scale my personal projects.
Like all rounds, this is eliminating round so you will only go forward if you clear it.

05
Round
Hard
Video Call
Duration45 Minutes
Interview date12 Aug 2021
Coding problem1

It was director of engineering round, where Director of any department will come and take the interview. Like all rounds, this is eliminating round so you will only go forward if you clear it.

1. System Design Question

Design a system for self hosted data center.

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Focus on distributed system
Tip 2 : Focus on fault tolerance
Tip 3 : Focus on the basics of scalability

06
Round
Easy
HR Round
Duration30 Minutes
Interview date17 Aug 2021
Coding problem1

It was purely non-technical. No technical answers were allowed. This round was for a cultural fitment.

1. Basic HR Questions

Why should we hire you?

What are your hobbies?

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Read company values, and try to answer aligining to the values
Tip 2 : Don't fake, be yourself
Tip 3 : Show interest in joining, ask them questions about the company

Here's your problem of the day

Solving this problem will increase your chance to get selected in this company

Skill covered: Programming

What is the purpose of the < title > tag in HTML?

Choose another skill to practice
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