Interview Experience – FloQast

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🧪 Round 1: Online Assessment (OA)

The Online Assessment consisted of 3 Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) problems.

• I was able to fully solve 2 problems.
• For the third problem, I passed 7 out of 14 test cases.
• Based on my performance, I was shortlisted for the next round.

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🧠 Round 2: Technical Interview

The interview started with a deep dive into my internship project.

🔍 Project Discussion:

• Explained my role, contributions, and implementation details
• Justified design and technical decisions
• Discussed challenges faced and how I resolved them. The interviewer then focused heavily on my DSA and Competitive Programming background, as highlighted in my resume.

💡 DSA Problem:

I was given the problem: Minimum Removals for Target Sum

Instead of directly solving, the interviewer emphasized:

• Reframing the problem correctly
• Explaining thought process clearly

After exploring multiple approaches, I reframed the problem as:

👉 Find the longest subarray whose sum is (total sum – target). Then, minimum removals = total elements – length of this subarray.

⚙️ Approaches Discussed:

1. Recursive Approach: Time Complexity: O(2ⁿ) Space Complexity: O(n)
2. Prefix + Suffix Arrays: Time Complexity: O(n) Space Complexity: O(n)
3. Sliding Window (Optimal): Time Complexity: O(n) Space Complexity: O(1)

🎯 Key Focus Areas:

• Clear problem understanding and reframing.
• Ability to iterate over multiple approaches.
• Explaining time-space trade-offs.
• Writing clean, working code.
• Thinking out loud and taking interviewer feedback constructively

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🧩 Round 3: Managerial Interview

This round focused on both project understanding and problem-solving mindset.

📌 Discussion:

• Detailed explanation of my projects
• Questions around design choices and real-world applicability

🧠 Open-Ended Problem:

I was asked to design a solution for:

👉 Scheduling a common elective slot for students across 3 departments such that maximum students can attend without conflicts.

🧭 Approach:

• Started by asking clarifying questions.
• Identified:
  • Constraints (time slots, number of students, department schedules)
  • Optimization goal (maximize participation)
• Proposed a structured and optimized scheduling approach.

🎯 What Was Evaluated:

• Ability to handle ambiguity
• Asking the right questions before solving
• Structured thinking and communication
• Real-world optimization mindset

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🧑‍💼 Round 4: HR Interview

This was a behavioral and cultural fit round.

Topics Covered:

• My background and journey
• Hobbies and interests
• Future career goals
• General discussion to assess cultural alignment

The round was conversational and comfortable.

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✅ Final Verdict: Selected 🎉

• A total of 5 students were selected.

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💡 Key Takeaways:

• Strong focus on problem understanding over just coding
• Importance of reframing problems correctly
• Clear communication and thinking out loud is crucial
• Interviewers value depth over speed