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

SDE - 2

PayPal
upvote
share-icon
2 rounds | 4 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

expand-icon
Journey
I started coding in my second year, motivated by my seniors. Initially, I began my journey by learning basic programming languages. Later, I participated in contests on online coding platforms and solved questions there.
Application story
I received this opportunity through campus placements. PayPal visited our campus for internships and placements, and I applied by submitting my resume on their portal.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I was able to solve almost all the questions asked of me during the selection process. I have done a lot of coding practice on competitive programming sites and built a deep understanding of programming skills. My good communication skills are also one reason for my selection.
Preparation
Duration: 6 months
Topics: Data Structures, Pointers, OOPS, System Design, Algorithms, Dynamic Programming, DBMS, OS
Tip
Tip

Tip 1: Participate in live contests on different online coding platforms as much as possible.
Tip 2: Practice previous interview questions from online platforms.
Tip 3: Thoroughly revise Computer Science subjects like DBMS and OOPS.

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: Above 7 CGPA
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1: Keep your resume concise and aim to make it one page.
Tip 2: Include all the skills you are confident in on your resume.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Hard
Online Coding Test
Duration90 minutes
Interview date11 Mar 2020
Coding problem2

1. Maximum Subarray Sum

Moderate
25m average time
75% success
0/80
Asked in companies
CultfitPayPalWalmart

Given an array of numbers, find the maximum sum of any contiguous subarray of the array.


For example, given the array [34, -50, 42, 14, -5, 86], the maximum sum would be 137, since we would take elements 42, 14, -5, and 86.


Given the array [-5, -1, -8, -9], the maximum sum would be -1.


Follow up: Do this in O(N) time.

Problem approach

I used the Kadane algorithm to solve this question and wrote clean code that could also handle negative numbers.

Try solving now

2. House Robber

Moderate
26m average time
0/80
Asked in companies
PayPalExpedia GroupGoldman Sachs

A thief wants to loot houses. He knows the amount of money in each house. He cannot loot two consecutive houses. Find the maximum amount of money he can loot.

Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration60 minutes
Interview date17 Mar 2020
Coding problem2

1. Connect N Ropes With Minimum Cost

Easy
20m average time
80% success
0/40
Asked in companies
ArcesiumUberOptum

You have been given 'N' ropes of different lengths, we need to connect these ropes into one rope. The cost to connect two ropes is equal to sum of their lengths. We need to connect the ropes with minimum cost.

The test-data is such that the result will fit into a 32-bit integer.

Problem approach

I solved this question using a priority queue (max heap) by inserting all elements into the priority queue, then taking the maximum two out of them and pushing their sum back into the priority queue.

Try solving now

2. Cycle Detection In Undirected Graph

Moderate
0/80
Asked in companies
AmazonAdobeSamsung

You have been given an undirected graph with 'N' vertices and 'M' edges. The vertices are labelled from 1 to 'N'.

Your task is to find if the graph contains a cycle or not.

A path that starts from a given vertex and ends at the same vertex traversing the edges only once is called a cycle.

Example :

In the below graph, there exists a cycle between vertex 1, 2 and 3. 

Example

Note:

1. There are no parallel edges between two vertices.

2. There are no self-loops(an edge connecting the vertex to itself) in the graph.

3. The graph can be disconnected.

For Example :

Input: N = 3 , Edges =  [[1, 2], [2, 3], [1, 3]].
Output: Yes

Explanation : There are a total of 3 vertices in the graph. There is an edge between vertex 1 and 2, vertex 2 and 3 and vertex 1 and 3. So, there exists a cycle in the graph. 
Try solving now

Here's your problem of the day

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

Skill covered: Programming

How do you remove whitespace from the start of a string?

Choose another skill to practice
Similar interview experiences
company logo
SDE - 2
4 rounds | 6 problems
Interviewed by PayPal
1816 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
company logo
SDE - 2
4 rounds | 6 problems
Interviewed by PayPal
1683 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
company logo
SDE - 2
5 rounds | 6 problems
Interviewed by PayPal
8870 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
company logo
SDE - 2
5 rounds | 9 problems
Interviewed by PayPal
2813 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
Companies with similar interview experiences
company logo
SDE - 2
5 rounds | 12 problems
Interviewed by Walmart
29892 views
8 comments
0 upvotes
company logo
SDE - 2
3 rounds | 5 problems
Interviewed by Amazon
6765 views
1 comments
0 upvotes
company logo
SDE - 2
6 rounds | 8 problems
Interviewed by Amazon
5280 views
0 comments
0 upvotes