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

Software Engineer

PayU
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2 rounds | 3 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 6
Topics: Python, Django, Dynamic Programming, Arrays, Graphs, OS, CN, DBMS, SQL, System Design
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Good at coding (solving, explaining), especially Dynamic Programming questions like knapsack. Focus 70% time on coding
Tip 2 : Apply to jobs through referral not on company site. Very important. 
Tip 3 : Prepare good projects with how to explain in interview.
Tip 4 : Sound very energetic, competitive and some one with eager to learn, so they select you thinking you can be taught things as you have good attitude.
Remember : Good attitude in good coder > Bad attitude in expert coder.

Application process
Where: Referral
Eligibility: 0-1 year experience.
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Max three, projects, which are interesting to talk about, and you have won something for it. 
Tip 2 : Leave lot of white space, keep content small and in one page

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 Minutes
Interview date3 Nov 2021
Coding problem2

Time - afternoon. 
Interviewer jumped straight into interview, formal and comfortable environment. 
1. Interviewer introduction 
2. Interviewee introduction
3. Coding question 1 - difficulty medium, topic - arrays
- explain approach, write code (pseudo code is fine), dry run on given TCS. 
4. Coding question 2 - same as above, only question was different. Slightly more difficult but on arrays only. 
5. Questions on Python & Django - difficulty medium - write code related to queryset on django objects
6. SQL question to code - 10th highest salary.

1. Reverse Only Letters

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

You are given a string, ‘S’. You need to reverse the string where characters that are not an alphabet stay in the same place, and the rest reverse their positions.

Eg: “a-bcd” becomes “d-cba”

Problem approach

Key idea - 2 pointer method
Approach - place one pointer p1 on start, 2nd pointer p2 on end. Move p1 to right and p2 to left unless we find a non special character for both, if found for both, swap the values pointed by p1 and p2.
Steps : 
S1 : Pointer p1 at start and p2 at end index
S2 : while p1! = p2 and arr[p1] is special character, move p1 to right
S3 : while p1! = p2 and arr[p2] is special character, move p2 to left
S4 : Swap values pointed by index p1 and p2.
S5 : Follow above steps until p1 < p2.

Try solving now

2. Alternate Positive and Negative

Easy
15m average time
80% success
0/40
Asked in companies
PayUAmazonDisney + Hotstar

You are given an array ‘arr’ that contains an equal number of positive and negative elements. Rearrange the given array such that positive and negative numbers are arranged alternatively. Also, the respective relative order of positive and negative should be maintained.

For example:

For the given arr[ ] = { -1, 3, 5, 0, -2, -5 } 
arr[ ] = {3, -1, 5, -2, 0, -5 } is valid rearrangement.
arr[ ] = {3, -1, 0, -2, 5, -5 } is invalid rearrangement; order of 0 and 5 is changed. 
arr[ ] = {3, -1, 5, 0, -2, -5 } is invalid rearrangement; positive and negative elements are not alternative.

Note:

Make changes in the same array and no returning or printing is needed.
Consider zero(0) as a positive element for this question.
It is guaranteed that an answer always exists.
Problem approach

Key idea: Find suitable number for current position on right and swap

Approach : if current idx is even find +ve number on right and if idx is odd find -ve number on right and swap with current position 

S1 : Iterate over the array
S2 : If current index is even find next positive number on right
S3 : If current index is odd find the next negative number on right
S4 : Swap with the current position with found number

Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 Minutes
Interview date1 Dec 2021
Coding problem1

1. Intro of interviewer
2. Intro of interviewee
3. Questions on Python - decorators, static method, class methods
4. Principal of coding, best practices
5. Question on DB - What is indexing, how to improve, best use of indexing.
6. Questions on django - what is django ORM, What is sandbox, Django models, Django queries.
7. Previous job, what do you do, stack you work on.

Very friendly environment, very pleasing person, loved it.

1. Basic System Design Questions

What is database indexing?
What is distributed system?
What is hashing?
How is hashing done?
Why time complexity of hashing is O(1)

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Prepare common interview questions of dbms, OS, SQL, CN 
Tip 2 : Prepare how is time complexity calculated
Tip 3 : Know basic terminology of system design

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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