PhonePe SDE-2 (~54 LPA) — stopped at the DSA round

## Background
An SDE-2 opening with a package of roughly 54 LPA, structured across four rounds. I applied via referral.

## Round-by-round

### Round 1 — Machine coding
90 minutes centred on **low-level design**: design an e-commerce application similar in spirit to a large online shopping platform, writing actual executable code while applying relevant design patterns. Followed by a 30-minute evaluation and discussion of what I'd built.

### Round 2 — DSA
60 minutes, two problems. The first was a genuinely tough **graph** problem at competitive-programming difficulty, which I struggled with. The second was a **dynamic programming** problem.

### Round 3 — High-level design (not reached)
I'd prepared for it but didn't progress far enough.

### Round 4 — Managerial (not reached)
Part of the overall process, but I didn't reach this stage either.

## Verdict
**Not selected** — did not progress past the DSA round.