PayPal interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview
SDE - Intern
PayPal
3 rounds | 4 Coding
problems
Selected Interview preparation journey
Preparation
Duration: 3 months
Topics: Data Structures, Algorithms, System Design, Aptitude, OOPS
Tip 1 : Must do Previously asked Interview as well as Online Test Questions.
Tip 2 : Revise C++/Java.
Tip 3 : If you don't know much of C++/Java at least write the codes in C.
Tip 4 : Go through all the previous interview experiences from Codestudio and Leetcode.
Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: Above 7 CGPA
Tip 1 : Have at-least 2 good projects explained in short with all important points covered.
Tip 2 : Every skill must be mentioned.
Tip 3 : Focus on skills, projects and experiences more.
Interview rounds
01
Round
Easy
Online Coding Interview
Duration75 minutes
Interview date28 Oct 2015
Coding problem1
Simple question based on strings was given. MCQs based on basic aptitude and programming questions were asked.
Tips: Time management is important. Remember all the syntaxes
1. Reverse the String
Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
You are given a string 'STR'. The string contains [a-z] [A-Z] [0-9] [special characters]. You have to find the reverse of the string.
For example:
If the given string is: STR = "abcde". You have to print the string "edcba".
follow up:
Try to solve the problem in O(1) space complexity.
Problem approach
This can be done by iterative swapping using two pointers. The first pointer points to the beginning of the string, whereas the second pointer points to the end. Both pointers keep swapping their elements and go towards each other. Essentially, the algorithm simulates the rotation of a string with respect to its midpoint.
Time Complexity : O(n)
02
Round
Easy
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date28 Oct 2015
Coding problem2
It was a good experience.
Tips: If you don't know something just tell them. Don't try to answer something if you don't know anything about it
1. One Away
Moderate
15m average time
90% success
0/80
Asked in companies
You are given two strings, string A and string B. Your task is to determine whether string A can be transformed into string B by performing only one of the following operations at most one (or maybe zero) time.
1. You can delete a character from any position.
2. You can replace a character with any other character.
3. You can insert a character at any position.
Note :
1. The strings are non-empty.
2. The strings only contain lowercase English letters.
Problem approach
The idea is to create a new character array and copy the characters from the original String before the given position
After that, we put the new character at the position and copy the rest of the characters from the original String in the subsequent positions of the new array.
Other option can be to directly use the already defined methods such as insert().
2. Remove Duplicates From String
Moderate
25m average time
0/80
Asked in companies
You are given a string (STR) of length N, consisting of only the lower case English alphabet.
Your task is to remove all the duplicate occurrences of characters in the string.
For Example:
If the given string is:
abcadeecfb
Then after deleting all duplicate occurrences, the string looks like this:
abcdef
Problem approach
Hashing can be used to approach this problem.
Use a hash map and maintain count of the occurrences of all the characters in the string which character as the string and count as the value. At last, traverse the hash map and print all those characters with count > 1.
Time Complexity : O(N) where N is the length of the string
Space Complexity : O(N)
03
Round
Easy
HR Round
Duration30 minutes
Interview date28 Oct 2015
Coding problem1
It was easy. I could answer the first question. Second one I answered really badly
1. Basic HR Questions
Q1. Explain the projects that I've done
Q2. What did you learn about PayPal today?
Q3. Why join PayPal?
Problem approach
Tip 1 : Explain the projects done in the best possible way
Tip 2 : Get to know about the company as much as possible via seniors
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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