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

SDE - 1

Meesho
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1 rounds | 1 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
I did my B.Tech from Thapar University, Patiala. I started my journey at Byju's as a 9-month intern, then joined Amazon as an SDE-1 and worked there for 8 months. I got the opportunity at Meesho through an off-campus application. I had applied on multiple portals and eventually received a call from a recruiter at Meesho for an interview.
Application story
I started my application journey by exploring openings on LinkedIn and the company’s official careers page. After updating my resume and tailoring it to the job description, I applied directly through the company portal. Within a week, I received a call from HR informing me that I was shortlisted for the next stage. The process included 1 interview round conducted virtually. The round was scheduled with proper communication, and the interviewers were punctual and professional throughout. Overall, the process was smooth and gave me good insights into the company culture and expectations.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I was rejected as the round did not went well. I was not able to provide optimized approach in given time.
Preparation
Duration: 6 months
Topics: Arrays, Graphs, DP, Trees, Hashing, Heaps, Tries, CS Fundamentals
Tip
Tip

Tip 1: Practice at least 250 data structure and algorithm questions to build strong problem-solving skills.
Tip 2: Build and deploy at least 2 real-world projects to showcase practical development experience.
Tip 3: Revise core CS subjects like Operating Systems, DBMS, and Computer Networks regularly for interview readiness.

Application process
Where: Linkedin
Eligibility: NA, (Salary package: 18 LPA)
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1: Include 1–2 solid projects that demonstrate your skills and link them to GitHub or live demos.
Tip 2: Avoid adding anything you cannot explain confidently during the interview.
Tip 3: Tailor your resume for each job by including keywords from the job description.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration60 minutes
Interview date12 Jan 2024
Coding problem1

There was 1 coding question.

1. Minimum Number of Platforms

Moderate
30m average time
70% success
0/80
Asked in companies
MeeshoGrabAmazon

Given schedule of trains and their stoppage time at a Railway Station, find minimum number of platforms needed.

Note –

If Train A’s departure time is x and Train B’s arrival time is x, then we can’t accommodate Train B on the same platform as Train A.
Constraints

1 <= N <= 10^5
0 <= a <= 86400
0 < b <= 86400
Number of platforms > 0
Input

First line contains N denoting number of trains.
Next N line contain 2 integers, a and b, denoting the arrival time and stoppage time of train.
Output

Single integer denoting the minimum numbers of platforms needed to accommodate every train.
Example 1

Input

3

10 2

5 10

13 5

Output

2

Explanation

The earliest arriving train at time t = 5 will arrive at platform# 1. Since it will stay there till t = 15, train arriving at time t = 10 will arrive at platform# 2. Since it will depart at time   t = 12, train arriving at time t = 13 will arrive at platform# 2.

Example 2

Input

2

2 4

6 2

Output

2

Explanation

Platform #1 can accommodate train 1.
Platform #2 can accommodate train 2.
Note that the departure of train 1 is same as arrival of train 2, i.e. 6, and thus we need a separate platform to accommodate train 2.

Problem approach

Step 1:
I first calculated the departure time for each train as departure = arrival + stoppage.

This gives the full time window the platform is occupied for each train.

Step 2:
Initially, I thought of using a brute force approach, checking overlaps by comparing each train's time window with every other — but this took O(N²) time, which is not efficient for large N.

Step 3:
To optimize, I separated arrival and departure times into two different arrays, then sorted both arrays independently.

Step 4:
I used a two-pointer approach:

One pointer (i) for arrival times and one (j) for departure times.

As I moved through the timeline:

If the current arrival was before the current departure, it meant a new platform was needed.

If the current arrival was equal to or after the current departure, it meant one platform was freed.

I kept track of the maximum number of platforms used at any time, which gave the final result.

Step 5:
I tested with sample inputs, and the optimized approach handled large inputs (up to 10⁵) efficiently with a time complexity of O(N log N) due to sorting.

Try solving now

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