Hi everyone,

Recently interviewed with Flipkart for an SDE-2 role with 4.3 years of experience and successfully received an offer. I’m sharing my experience across all five rounds to help others preparing for similar roles.

• Role: Software Development Engineer 2 (SDE-2)

• Experience: 4.3 years

• Interview Month: September 2026

• Result: Selected

• Total Rounds: 5

Round-by-Round Experience

Round 1: Machine Coding - Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) System

The first round involved designing and implementing a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) system for Flipkart. The expectation was to build a working solution from scratch, using an in-memory data store.

The core requirements included:

1. seed_inventory - Load products into the inventory with their names, quantities, and prices.

2. view_inventory - Display the current inventory and available product quantities.

3. register_user - Register a user with an initial BNPL credit limit.

4. buy(user, items, payment_method, date) - Place orders using either PREPAID or BNPL. BNPL purchases should reduce the available credit limit and be rejected if the user has insufficient credit.

5. clear_dues(user, orderIds, date) - Support partial or complete payment of outstanding dues against specific orders.

6. view_dues(user, date) - Display pending dues for purchases made before the specified date, sorted by purchase date. Orders should be marked as PENDING or DELAYED once the 30-day payment window has been crossed.

7. order_status(user) - Show the user's order history and remaining BNPL credit limit.

Bonus requirements:

• Blacklist users who default on three or more orders and prevent them from making further BNPL purchases.

• Implement add_inventory and remove_inventory operations.

The focus was on building a functional solution while keeping the code structured and extensible.

Round 2: Machine Coding Solution Evaluation

This round focused on discussing and evaluating my solution from the first round, with particular emphasis on concurrency and correctness.

Some of the key discussion areas were:

• Handling two concurrent purchase requests when only one unit of a product remains in stock.

• Maintaining a consistent BNPL credit limit when multiple orders are placed simultaneously.

• Choosing an appropriate locking strategy to prevent race conditions.

• Designing the implementation so that new features could be added without major changes to the existing code.

The discussion went beyond whether the code worked in normal scenarios and explored how it would behave under concurrent requests.

Round 3: Problem Solving and Data Structures (PSDS)

I was asked to solve two problems:

1. Cherry Pickup II - A dynamic programming problem involving two robots collecting cherries while moving through a grid.

2. Maximum Width of Binary Tree - A binary tree problem that requires calculating the maximum width across all levels, accounting for the positions of nodes.

Both problems tested problem-solving ability, algorithmic thinking, and familiarity with common DSA patterns.

Round 4: System Design - Flash Sale System

The system design round focused on designing a flash sale system that would run for approximately 15 minutes and handle massive traffic.

The primary requirement was to prevent both overselling and underselling during periods of extremely high demand.

The discussion centered on designing a system that could handle concurrent purchase requests while maintaining accurate inventory counts and ensuring that the available stock was allocated correctly.

Round 5: Hiring Manager Round

The final round was with the Hiring Manager and focused on my recent project experience.

We discussed:

• The architecture of my recent project.

• My individual responsibilities and contributions.

• Technical challenges I encountered and how I addressed them.

• Important engineering decisions and the trade-offs involved.

The conversation was primarily about understanding my project ownership, technical judgment, and approach to solving real-world engineering problems.

I received the offer letter approximately 17 days after the Hiring Manager interview.

I hope this helps anyone preparing for Flipkart SDE-2 interviews. All the best with your preparation!