Slice SDE-2 (Backend) Interview Experience | Selected

• Role: SDE-2 (Backend)

• Result: Selected

• Interview Rounds: AI-Assisted Machine Coding, followed by two technical rounds

I reached out to a recruiter through a cold email and received a call the very next day. My first interview was scheduled for the following day.

Before the technical rounds, I also had an AI-assisted machine coding round, which I cleared. After that, I proceeded to the following interview rounds.

Round 1: Problem Solving / DSA (1.5 Hours)

This round focused on algorithmic problem-solving, optimization, and efficient data structures.

1. Maximum Sum Matrix from Row and Column Maximums

Given an array containing the maximum value of each row and another containing the maximum value of each column, determine the maximum possible sum of a matrix satisfying those constraints.

Example:

rows = [2, 5, 8]
columns = [6, 7, 8]

Maximum-sum matrix:
[[2, 2, 2],
 [5, 5, 5],
 [6, 7, 8]]

Maximum sum = 42

• Time Complexity: O(N + M), excluding sorting.

• Auxiliary Space: O(1).

2. Next Element with a Higher Frequency

Given an integer array, find the closest element to the right whose frequency in the array is greater than the frequency of the current element.

The problem was similar to Next Greater Element, but the comparison was based on element frequencies rather than values. A stack-based approach could be used to efficiently identify the next qualifying element.

The related problem mentioned during the discussion was Next Greater Element, with the frequency-based comparison adding a different condition.

I received positive feedback for this round on the same day, and the second round was scheduled for the following day.

Round 2: DSA + Hiring Manager (1.5 Hours)

Problem: Parking Lot Slot Allocation

The interviewer asked me to design a parking lot system supporting allocateSlot and vacateSlot operations.

The parking lot consisted of z floors, each containing x rows and y columns. The entry point was at coordinates (0, 0, 0).

For simplicity, the distance of a parking slot from the entry point was defined as:

distance = floor + row + column

If multiple slots had the same distance, the selection priority was:

1. Smallest floor number.

2. Smallest column number.

3. Smallest row number.

A priority queue could be used to maintain available slots in the required order, along with a three-dimensional data structure to track slot availability.

The interviewer also asked detailed questions about my previous projects, current responsibilities, team leadership experience, and behavioral scenarios. Although the round was initially scheduled for one hour, it extended to approximately 1.5 hours because of the in-depth discussion.

I received positive feedback the following day.

Final Verdict: Selected

The process involved AI-assisted machine coding, DSA, a parking lot design problem, and an in-depth discussion of previous projects and leadership experience.