Zomato SDE-1 on-campus — an Air Force internship that stood out

Background

An on-campus hiring drive. Eligibility required a CGPA of 7+ and was open to all branches.

Round-by-round

Online assessment

90 minutes, three problems, all at hard/competitive-programming level — two dynamic programming based, and a third combining binary search with DFS.

Technical round 1

Centred on high-level design around the projects I'd built. I'd also done an internship with the Indian Air Force, which turned out to be a genuine conversation-starter and stood out as something different from the usual resume. There was also a DSA problem — a variation on the classic coin-change type.

Technical round 2

Core CS fundamentals — Operating Systems, DBMS and SQL.

HR round

Cultural fit and communication skills in a more conversational format.

Verdict

Selected.