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

SDE - 1

ZS Associates
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3 rounds | 6 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 3 months
Topics: Recursion and Dynamic programming, SQL queries OOPS, Arrays, OS and DBMS.
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Never ignore SQL queries 
Tip 2 : Always prepare your project before an interview and note down some commonly asked questions related to the tech stacks used in your project
Tip 3 : Speed also plays a vital role so keep your introduction crisp and clear

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

Tip 1:  Do not put unnecessary things or irrelevant things
Tip 2 : Highlight which you feel you have done something extraordinary it can be anything(Projects, grades, or some hackathon )

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration90 minutes
Interview date24 Oct 2021
Coding problem2

The online coding round was conducted on the HackerEarth platform and test window of 3 hours was provided. The test was of easy to the medium difficulty level.

1. Target Sum

Moderate
0/80
Asked in companies
AccentureOLX GroupZS Associates

You are given an array ‘ARR’ of ‘N’ integers and a target number, ‘TARGET’. Your task is to build an expression out of an array by adding one of the symbols '+' and '-' before each integer in an array, and then by concatenating all the integers, you want to achieve a target. You have to return the number of ways the target can be achieved.

For Example :
You are given the array ‘ARR’ = [1, 1, 1, 1, 1], ‘TARGET’ = 3. The number of ways this target can be achieved is:
1. -1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 3
2. +1 - 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 3
3. +1 + 1 - 1 + 1 + 1 = 3
4. +1 + 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 = 3
5. +1 + 1 + 1 + 1 - 1 = 3
These are the 5 ways to make. Hence the answer is 5.
Problem approach

I solved it using two-dimensional dynamic programming and the solution was working fine

Try solving now

2. Puzzle Question

There is a chain of boxes and each box can contain many cards & on each card, some string is written.
Out of the cards inside each box, the first card is a template card on which the name of someplace is written.
We have to tell the total number of invalid cards present.
A card is said to be invalid if any of the cards do not match with the template card
"mc" "cm" valid
"mc" "cmm" invalid

02
Round
Easy
Video Call
Duration45 minuest
Interview date1 Nov 2021
Coding problem2

This round happened approximately one week after the online coding round.
It happened at around 3 pm and the interviewer was very friendly and asked a DSA question and a SQL query

1. Maximum Size Rectangle Sub-matrix With All 1's

Hard
10m average time
80% success
0/120
Asked in companies
RazorpayAmerican ExpressZS Associates

You are given an 'N' * 'M' sized binary-valued matrix 'MAT, where 'N' is the number of rows and 'M' is the number of columns. You need to return the maximum size (area) of the submatrix which consists of all 1’s i.e. the maximum area of a submatrix in which each cell has only the value ‘1’.

subMatrix_image

In the above image, areas in green, red, and violet color are all submatrices of the original 4x4 matrix.

Note:

1. Binary valued matrix has only two values in each cell : 0 and 1.
2. A submatrix is a matrix formed by selecting certain rows and columns from a larger matrix.
3. The area of a matrix with 'h' rows and 'w' columns is equal to 'h' * 'w'. 
Problem approach

I solved this question using stack and it is a variation of the famous question Largest Rectangular Area in a Histogram and interviewer was happy

Try solving now

2. DBMS

A SQL query involving JOIN was asked
There were some discussions on Interface and classes
After that, he asked me to introduce my projects, and some questions were asked

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Practice SQL queries and make a note that you can revise a day before you interview
Tip 2 : OOPS are also very important almost asked in every interview
 

03
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration45 minutes
Interview date2 Jun 2022
Coding problem2

This round on the next day and it happened around 4 pm
This interview was very humble and was from higher management

1. Sort An Array of 0s, 1s and 2s

Easy
10m average time
90% success
0/40
Asked in companies
IBMSamsungDirecti

You have been given an array/list 'arr' consisting of 'n' elements.


Each element in the array is either 0, 1 or 2.


Sort this array/list in increasing order.


Do not make a new array/list. Make changes in the given array/list.


Example :
Input: 'arr' = [2, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 1, 0]

Output: Final 'arr' = [0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2]

Explanation: The array is sorted in increasing order.
Problem approach

I first told him a simple counting approach and after that interviewer told me not to use this counting approach then I applied the Dutch flag algorithm

Try solving now

2. Puzzle Question

8 balls problem puzzle was asked to me.
 

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Do read the commonly asked puzzles
Tip 2 : Don't ignore HR based questions
 

Here's your problem of the day

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

Skill covered: Programming

Which SQL clause is used to specify the conditions in a query?

Choose another skill to practice
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