Tummee interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview
SDE
Tummee
4 rounds | 18 Coding
problems
Selected Interview preparation journey
Journey
My journey has centred on consistency and curiosity. For the past year and a half, I’ve been coding almost every day. I do this not just to solve problems, but to truly understand how things work. I have always enjoyed building projects that have a real impact. Participating and winning hackathons and ideathons taught me teamwork, how to handle pressure, and creative problem-solving. During this time, I also published a research paper and delved into topics like system design and app development outside my coursework. Along with strong academics, I’ve worked on improving my communication and teamwork skills. This has helped me collaborate effectively and perform confidently during interviews.
Application story
The company was hiring on campus, and I began researching it. What intrigued me most was that it was a US-based product startup offering a fully remote position. I filled out the initial application form, which required details about my education, including my graduation CGPA and 10th/12th grades. Another form evaluated my web development skills on a 1–10 scale and asked about my motivation for wanting to join Tummee. After being shortlisted, I took an online test followed by three interview rounds. The entire process was smooth and provided me with a great opportunity to showcase both my technical knowledge and problem-solving abilities.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I was primarily selected because of my good performance in all the rounds. My consistent problem-solving skills were a highlight of the interview. I could answer almost all of the questions in the interview across various domains. I had confidence and good communication skills, and most importantly, my resume showcased my achievements and impactful work during my three years of college. I had strong academic scores in 10th, 12th, and my CSE degree, along with real-world use-case projects that demonstrated my problem-solving abilities. Although I did not have any web development projects or prior expertise in it, I was able to answer most related questions, and my good knowledge of system design and core subjects helped a lot.
Preparation
Duration: 2 months
Topics: Data Structures, Algorithms, System Design, OOPS, App Development, DBMS, OS, Web Development
Tip 1: Make sure to be consistent with DSA. Even if you do 2 questions do it daily.
Tip 2: Have good projects with real world impact.
Tip 3: Focus on communication skills and make sure your resume clearly highlights your achievements and contributions.
Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: 90% in 10th & 12th, 70% in B.Tech., (Salary Package: 8.75 LPA)
Tip 1: Highlight impactful college projects and achievements, keep your resume professional and honest.
Tip 2: Showcase real contributions and experience, and avoid putting false information.
Interview rounds
01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration45 minutes
Interview date30 Jun 2025
Coding problem2
The round was conducted in the afternoon shift and was completely online. The environment was smooth and the platform worked well. There was no live interviewer for this round; it was fully automated via Google Form. In the OA, there were MCQs based on Aptitude, Reasoning, Java , Python and OOPS.
2. Essay Writing
Write about an impactful learning experience in life.
Problem approach
Tip 1: Write 7–10 sentences, clearly expressing your experience.
Tip 2: Avoid grammar mistakes; keep sentences concise.
Tip 3: Have a good structure.
02
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration30 minutes
Interview date5 Jul 2025
Coding problem3
The round was conducted in the afternoon via Google Meet, from home with screen shared. The interviewer was very supportive and friendly, which made the session comfortable. The environment was calm and professional, and there was no pressure during problem-solving. The discussion focused on coding, DBMS concepts, and OOPS fundamentals.
1. Anagram Pairs
Moderate
30m average time
60% success
0/80
Asked in companies
You are given two strings 'str1' and 'str1'.
You have to tell whether these strings form an anagram pair or not.
The strings form an anagram pair if the letters of one string can be rearranged to form another string.
Pre-requisites:
Anagrams are defined as words or names that can be formed by rearranging the letters of another word. Such as "spar" can be formed by rearranging letters of "rasp". Hence, "spar" and "rasp" are anagrams.
Other examples include:
'triangle' and 'integral'
'listen' and 'silent'
Note:
Since it is a binary problem, there is no partial marking. Marks will only be awarded if you get all the test cases correct.
Problem approach
1. First, I sorted both strings and compared them. It worked but was not optimal.
2. The interviewer asked me to optimize.
3. I then used a hash map (frequency count) approach to compare character counts.
This solution had O(n) time complexity and was memory efficient. The interviewer appreciated this optimized approach.
2. DBMS
What are ACID properties? What are transactions? (Learn)
Problem approach
Tip 1: Revise ACID properties and transaction types thoroughly.
Tip 2: Practice SQL queries and basic database problems.
3. OOPS
What are pillars of OOPS? Explain all the pillars with examples. (Learn)
Problem approach
Tip 1: Understand encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and abstraction with simple examples.
Tip 2: Be ready to write small class-based examples if asked.
03
Round
Hard
Video Call
Duration60 minutes.
Interview date8 Jul 2025
Coding problem11
The round was conducted in the afternoon via Google Meet, with screen shared from home. The interviewer was very supportive and friendly, which made the session comfortable. The environment was calm and professional, and there was no pressure during problem-solving.
The discussion was comprehensive and covered:
DSA coding problems (including one challenging problem and few debugging codes and fixing them )
System design questions (designing complete High-Level Design, e.g., YouTube)
Project discussion and resume-based questions
DBMS concepts and OOPS fundamentals
Web development questions, including frontend-backend optimizations and overall flow
How to design new features from scratch
Testing-related questions
Overall, it was an intense but highly constructive round, testing both problem-solving skills and system-level understanding.
1. Minimum Window Subsequence
Hard
27m average time
0/120
Asked in companies
You are given two strings ‘S’ and ‘T’. Your task is to find the minimum (Contiguous) substring ‘W’ of ‘S’, such that ‘T’ is a subsequence of ‘W’
A subsequence is a sequence that can be derived from another sequence by removing zero or more elements, without changing the order.
A substring is a contiguous part of a string.
For example:
For the given string “CodingNinjas”: “Ninja” is a substring while “dinas” is a subsequence.
If there is no such Window in ‘S’ that covers all characters in ‘T’, return an empty string "". If there are multiple such minimum length windows, return the one with the smallest starting index.
Problem approach
First, I tried a brute-force solution, checking all substrings – code worked after few fixes but this was too slow.
The interviewer asked for optimisation.
I implemented the sliding window technique with a hash map to count characters.
Achieved O(m + n) time complexity.
2. DBMS
- What are transactions, and how do you handle concurrency control? (Learn)
- What are indexes, and how do they improve query performance? (Learn)
- Difference between primary key, unique key, and foreign key. (Learn)
- Explain joins (inner, left, right, full) with examples. (Learn)
- What is normalization, and why is it important? (Learn)
Problem approach
Tip 1: Revise ACID properties, transaction types, and concurrency control.
Tip 2: Practice SQL queries: joins, nested queries, constraints, and indexing.
Tip 3: Understand deadlocks, semaphores, and virtual memory.
3. OOPS
- Difference between interface and abstract class. (Learn)
- Explain method overloading vs method overriding. (Learn)
- What are design patterns, and explain Singleton or Factory pattern. (Learn)
- Why do we use object oriented programming? (Learn)
- How would you design a class hierarchy for a real-world system (e.g., vehicles, e-commerce products)?
- Explain composition vs inheritance with examples.
Problem approach
Tip 1: Use real-world analogies to explain pillars and patterns.
Tip 2: Be ready with simple class-based code examples.
4. Web Development
- Explain the frontend-backend architecture and flow of data. (Learn)
- What are HTTP status codes, and when are they used? (Learn)
- How do you optimize API performance for a web app?
- Explain responsive design and techniques. (Learn)
- Inline HTML, lazy loading use cases.
- How to speedup loading time of website?
- How to reduce load on backend?
- How to reduce load on database calls?
- Session vs local storage and use case scenarios. (Learn)
Problem approach
Tip 1: Revise HTML, CSS, JavaScript fundamentals.
Tip 2: Prepare examples of optimizations (caching, lazy loading).
Tip 3: Understand AJAX/REST APIs and request-response cycles.
5. Feature Development
- If I had to design a feature of bookmark from scratch within a given period how would i do it step by step?
- What would be the frontend part and backend part?
- What would be the database changes and connections made?
- How would I test and deploy it?
Problem approach
Tip 1: Have experience of architecture of any system.
Tip 2: Give optimised solutions by end.
6. Testing
Explain Beta Testing, A/B testing. (Learn)
Problem approach
Tip: Just cover the basics of testing.
7. Project & Resume-Based Questions
Problem approach
Tip 1: Make sure to know your resume in depth.
Tip 2: Answer your project related questions in depth.
8. Debugging
- Was given a code and asked if it will run?
- What's the issue and how to fix the code? Then code and run this.
Problem approach
Tip: Just practice pointers based tricky questions.
9. System Design and Database Design
- What is Sharding? (Learn)
- What is CDN? (Learn)
- Types of storage options in different cases. (Learn)
- What is caching and need of this? (Learn)
Was Asked to design the complete High Level Design of YouTube from requirements, to choice between Consistency and Availability, Why choose eventual consistency, The type of storage used for database for video and metadata and interconnection between them, How to connect one database to another to serve user requests, How to optimise the database design, How to decrease the size and load of database, How to compress the size videos without losing quality, How to optimise the design? Why use CDN and Caching? I explained all the things on video call and didn't had to draw the design on any platform.
Problem approach
Tip 1: Cover system design fundamentals in depth.
Tip 2: Practice other systems design concepts.
10. Task Queues
- What are task queues?
- Types of task queues?
- Where can we use task queues in Youtube?
Problem approach
Tip: Go through the official documentation of Task Queue.
11. Database Transactions and Locking
How does IRCTC avoid two people booking the same train seat at the same time?
Problem approach
Tip: Cover DBMS topics in depth and real world usage.
04
Round
Easy
HR Round
Duration20 minutes
Interview date9 Jul 2025
Coding problem2
The round was conducted in the afternoon around 12 PM. It was a technical plus HR round, focusing on:
System design and High-Level Design (HLD) question.
Importance of coding and DSA in real-world applications.
Academic and extracurricular journey, including achievements and scores.
Research work and publications.
Product feedback and improvements for platforms or websites.
The interviewer was supportive and attentive, giving space to explain answers in depth.
1. HR Questions
- Explain your academic journey: 10th, 12th scores, and current CGPA.
- Discuss extracurricular activities and achievements.
- Give feedback on previous interviews.
- Give feedback or improvements for the company website or product.
- Why do you practice DSA if it is not used directly in real life? Is it useful?
- Explain your research paper in depth, including methodology.
- Do you read books?
- What is the biggest failure of your life, and what did you learn from it?
- Am i interested in the role and tech stack of the company?
Problem approach
Tip 1: Be honest and structured: Explain academics, projects, and extracurricular activities concisely.
Tip 2: Maintain calm, confident, and positive tone throughout the discussion.
2. HLD
Design HLD of Instagram Lite from scratch.
Problem approach
Tip: For HLD, approach it stepwise: identify entities, flows, APIs, and optimizations.
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Skill covered: Programming
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