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

SDE - 1

Groupon
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3 rounds | 5 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
Groupon's arrival at our campus for placements sparked excitement due to its reputation and attractive compensation package. It was one company offering a base salary of around 20 LPA. Their PPT was informative and enjoyable, highlighting the company's core values and high salaries. The friendly interviewers provided assistance when needed, and responsive candidates were well-received. The HR round ensured a comfortable environment. Overall, it was a positive experience.
Application story
Groupon's campus placement for final-year students brought excitement. The application process was simple, requiring us to fill out a form provided by our TPO. Test links and interview details were communicated via email, emphasizing the need to check our inbox at least twice daily for updates.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
The exact reason was never told, but I think it was due to a large pool of candidates and my approach to the last system design problem, where the interviewer was not duly satisfied.
Preparation
Duration: 12 Months
Topics: Data Structures, DBMS, OOPS, System Design, Algorithms, Operating Systems
Tip
Tip

Tip 1: Practice at least 300 medium-hard questions.
Tip 2: The concept of DBMS and Operating Systems should be very clear.
Tip 3: Solve at least 1 question in system design to understand how to approach these questions.

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: 7 CPI and above, only B.Tech. - CSE, IT, ECE and M.Tech. - CSED
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1: Mention the latest projects you have completed.
Tip 2: Mention extracurricular activities.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration90 Minutes
Interview date1 Sep 2022
Coding problem2

1. Count Subsequences

Moderate
30m average time
60% success
0/80
Asked in companies
OracleHCL TechnologiesHCL Technologies

You have been given an integer array/list 'ARR' of size 'N'. Your task is to return the total number of those subsequences of the array in which all the elements are equal.

A subsequence of a given array is an array generated by deleting some elements of the given array with the order of elements in the subsequence remaining the same as the order of elements in the array.

Note :
As this value might be large, print it modulo 10^9 + 7
Try solving now

2. Minimize The Maximum

Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
GartnerOracleSAP Labs

You are given an array of N integers and an integer K. For each array element, you are allowed to increase or decrease it by a value k. The task is to minimize the difference between the maximum element and the minimum element after modifications.

Try solving now
02
Round
Easy
Video Call
Duration60 Minutes
Interview date7 Sep 2022
Coding problem2

Timing in the afternoon with my laptop in my room, you must always look at the camera or they will accuse you of cheating. Two interviewers were there; one would ask you questions, while the other would give you hints if you were stuck and observe how you approached the problem.

1. Search In Rotated Sorted Array

Moderate
30m average time
65% success
0/80
Asked in companies
FreshworksExpedia GroupPayPal

Aahad and Harshit always have fun by solving problems. Harshit took a sorted array consisting of distinct integers and rotated it clockwise by an unknown amount. For example, he took a sorted array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and if he rotates it by 2, then the array becomes: [4, 5, 1, 2, 3].

After rotating a sorted array, Aahad needs to answer Q queries asked by Harshit, each of them is described by one integer Q[i]. which Harshit wanted him to search in the array. For each query, if he found it, he had to shout the index of the number, otherwise, he had to shout -1.

For each query, you have to complete the given method where 'key' denotes Q[i]. If the key exists in the array, return the index of the 'key', otherwise, return -1.

Note:

Can you solve each query in O(logN) ?
Try solving now

2. Longest String Chain

Moderate
0/80
Asked in companies
FacebookMathworksGroupon

You are given an array 'arr' of strings, where each string consists of English lowercase letters.


A string chain of 'arr' is defined as:

(1) A sequence of string formed using elements of 'arr'.

(2) Every string in the sequence can be formed by inserting a lowercase English letter into the previous string (except the first string).


Find the length of the longest possible string chain of 'arr'.


Example :
Input: 'arr' = ["x", "xx", "y", "xyx"] 

Output: 3

Explanation:
The longest possible string chain is “x” -> “xx” -> “xyx”.
The length of the given chain is 3, hence the answer is 3.


Try solving now
03
Round
Hard
HR Round
Duration30 Minutes
Interview date7 Sep 2022
Coding problem1

The interviewer was calm and friendly and will ask you about your achievements. He will give very little time to think about the question so that you don't provide false information about an event. This was just after the DSA round in the late afternoon. He arrived late for the interview.

1. Basic HR Questions

Tell me about your greatest achievement in college.
What type of person are you: happy-go-lucky or hardworking?
Why did you choose the particular project you worked on? How did you test your project?
Will you be able to learn new things, even if you are not interested in them?

Problem approach

Tip 1: Be yourself.
Tip 2: Do not fabricate information.
Tip 3: If you don't know certain things, admit it.

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 recursion?

Choose another skill to practice
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