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

SDE - 1

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4 rounds | 10 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
I started my coding journey from the second year of graduation. I asked and consulted seniors on how to start in my career. I started doing DSA. In starting it was not regular but from the seventh semester, I started practicing DSA on regular basis. Meanwhile I also learned Web Development in the last phase of third year. Than, I was ready to apply in different companies
Application story
I got to know about the openings and that the hiring drive of Paypal is going to visit our college for hiring candidates as SDE-1. I prepared myself for the same and after the selection process, I got the offer letter.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I was selected because I provided all the answers correctly and in the given time frame.
Preparation
Duration: 2 months
Topics: Data Structures, Algorithms, DBMS, OS, Computers Networks, Programming Languages like Java, C++, SQL, OOPS
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Do competitive programming
Tip 2 : Have some projects done 
Tip 3 : Revise basics before interview

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: Above 8 CGPA
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Have only 1 page resume
Tip 2 : Mention education, internships, project url's, skills, and achievements

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration120 minutes
Interview date27 Jul 2020
Coding problem1

I was asked two questions in this round, but I only remember one problem.

1. Ninja And Divisible Array

Moderate
15m average time
85% success
0/80
Asked in companies
SAP LabsPayPalAdobe

Ninja has been given an array/list ‘ARR’ of even size ‘N’ and an integer ‘K’. Ninja gives his friend a task to divide the given ‘ARR’ into ‘N’/2 pairs such that the sum of each pair should be divisible by ‘K’.

Can you help Ninja to do this task?

For Example :

If ‘ARR’ = [4 5 6 5 7 3] and ‘K’ = 5
Pairs are(4, 6), (5, 5) ,and (7, 3) and the sum of elements of each pair is divisible by ‘K’ i.e 5.
Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date28 Jul 2020
Coding problem3

1. LRU Cache Implementation

Moderate
25m average time
65% success
0/80
Asked in companies
MicrosoftUberSalesforce

Design and implement a data structure for Least Recently Used (LRU) cache to support the following operations:

1. get(key) - Return the value of the key if the key exists in the cache, otherwise return -1.

2. put(key, value), Insert the value in the cache if the key is not already present or update the value of the given key if the key is already present. When the cache reaches its capacity, it should invalidate the least recently used item before inserting the new item.
You will be given ‘Q’ queries. Each query will belong to one of these two types:
Type 0: for get(key) operation.
Type 1: for put(key, value) operation.
Note :
1. The cache is initialized with a capacity (the maximum number of unique keys it can hold at a time).

2. Access to an item or key is defined as a get or a put operation on the key. The least recently used key is the one with the oldest access time.
Problem approach

1. Least Recently Used Cache(LRU Cache) Implementation(Coding)

This question was asked, giving a scenario.
Scenario: Since I have written App Development on my Resume. He has asked me like this:

Interviewer: Suppose you have built an app that will showcase a list of cards; each card has an 
image. How will you optimize this application by reducing the number of requests to fetch the images? 

Me: I said I will store the images in a local storage(Local Cache).

Interviewer: OK good, if I want only a certain number of images to be stored(For Example: 15).
Here the cache size is 15. I wanted to remove the Least Recently Used Image, when I tried to insert a 16th image. 

Me: I said we can implement LRU Cache.

He wants me to do all the operations in O(1) i.e; constant time.
LRU Cache is a famous interview question found on every platform.

Data Structures to be Used: Doubly Linked List and HashMap.

Try solving now

2. Find Number Of Islands

Moderate
34m average time
60% success
0/80
Asked in companies
WalmartShareChatAmazon

You are given a 2-dimensional array/list having N rows and M columns, which is filled with ones(1) and zeroes(0). 1 signifies land, and 0 signifies water.

A cell is said to be connected to another cell, if one cell lies immediately next to the other cell, in any of the eight directions (two vertical, two horizontal, and four diagonals).

A group of connected cells having value 1 is called an island. Your task is to find the number of such islands present in the matrix.

Try solving now

3. Rearrange string

Hard
50m average time
50% success
0/120
Asked in companies
eBayAdobeMicrosoft

You are given a string “S”. Your task is to rearrange the characters of a string “S”, such that it does not contain any two adjacent characters which are the same.

If it is possible to rearrange the string “S”, then print any possible arrangement. else, print “not possible” without quotes.

For Example:

For a string  “qaacde”, This string has two same adjacent characters.
So, one possible way to rearrange the string is “qacade”. Now, this string does not have two adjacent characters that are the same. 
Problem approach

String-based question(Easier one). Knowledge of strings is required.

Try solving now
03
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date28 Jul 2020
Coding problem4

1. DBMS

Explain Primary Key, Foreign Key and the relationship between them. (Learn)

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Read DBMS
Tip 2 : All types of keys, mainly
Tip 3 : Ask questions to the interviewer if you have any

2. Theory Questions

When do you prefer NoSQL DB over SQL DB? Explain Why? (Learn)

Problem approach

Tip 1: Read about types of DB
Tip 2: With examples and use cases.
Tip 3: Ask questions to the interviewer if you have any

3. OOPS Question

Given a Railway Station. What are all the classes and the relationship between those classes?
Implement them quickly and explain.

Problem approach

Tip 1 : OOPS knowledge
Tip 2 : Implementation in a programming language(C++/Java is preferable)
Tip 3 : Ask questions to the interviewer if you have any

4. Get Path using BFS

Easy
25m average time
70% success
0/40
Asked in companies
PayPalJosh Technology Group

You are given an undirected graph G(V, E), where ‘V’ is the number of vertices and ‘E’ is the number of edges present in the graph and two integers ‘v1’ and ‘v2’ denoting vertices of the graph, find and print the path from ‘v1’ to ‘v2’ (if exists) in reverse order. Print an empty list if there is no path between ‘v1’ and ‘v2’.

Find the path using BFS and print the first path that you encountered.

Note:
Vertices are numbered through 0 to V - 1.
Try solving now
04
Round
Easy
HR Round
Duration40 minutes
Interview date29 Jul 2020
Coding problem2

1.

2. Theory Questions

What is Load Balancing? How would you implement it, and what data structures would you use? (Learn)

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
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